Eco Arch House

Eco Arch House

This case study is based on an eco house that featured on Channel 4 Grand Designs in 2009. It is called the Crossway project, in Kent, designed by architect Richard Hawke for his own family. It was the first zero carbon house in the UK and it achieved Passive House standard in July 2010.

 

The house faces the south, maximising the passive solar gain and the unique medieval design of the dome shaped roof, known as timbrel vaulting, is constructed from locally sourced clay tiles and hosts a living roof. The four ply clay tile arched roof, allows the porous clay to naturally regulate the humidity and the thermal mass regulates the temperature internally where the clay tile is exposed.

The photos of the house clearly demonstrate the distinctive design elements that make this house aesthectically pleasing and the technical specification outlines the elements that made it achieve a Passive House standard. Such elements as a Steico timber frame with a 300 mm Warmcell infill for the external wall other than the vaulted dome, the floor slab has 50% GGBS concrete with a 250 mm EPS insulation underneath it, triple glazed timber/aluminium composite windows with a u-Value of 0.71 W/ (m²K), bespoke doors with a 50 mm vacuum insulated timber frame with a u-Value of 0.70 W/ (m²K), no conventional heating system and ventilation that provides 2.7 full air changes per hour.

All of the elements above proved a challenge for Passive House certifier from the Scottish Passive House Centre to calculate the energy consumption in this house. The actual measured energy consumption matched the predicted energy consumption from the Passive House Planning Package.

A house of such uniqueness created interest after appearing on Grand Designs, in national newspapers in the UK, such as the daily mail news paper article and the guardian newspaper article.