The latest addition to our detailed case studies is this fantastic house in South Staffordshire.

The house replaced an existing cottage on the site, which had been repeatedly, unsympathetically extended, and suffered from damp, and poor insulation. The client asked us to use Passivhaus principals to create a modern, high-performance replacement dwelling.

The local authority required a limit on the mass of the first floor accommodation, which presented some potential conflict with the aim for Passivhaus standards. Passivhaus performance is much easier to achieve with a regular and compact form, so having a larger ground floor than first floor increased the number of potential junctions for thermal bridging, presenting technical challenges for the energy performance. In the end, we were able to balance the elements of both the planning system, and thermal performance, to create a contemporary home.

This project has a number of interesting low energy features including thin bed clay block, triple glazed windows, and an energy earth bank combined with a ground source heat pump. Click here to learn more about these and more on the full case study page.

Photograph courtesy of Norrsken Ltd.