• Outboard design: rooms facing outdoors with toilets adjacent to the corridor.
Increased programme: Delivering a Passivhaus building can take longer.Quality control on site is extremely important, strategies for airtightness require careful sequencing and interim testing and workmanship skills need to be of the highest quality..
Skill shortage and understanding.There is a lack of large-scale builders who can deliver Passivhaus buildings.These projects can be seen as bespoke and are more expensive.. Bryden Wood’ response to Passivhaus’ challenges.
Bryden Wood is an industry leader in the adoption of Platforms-based Design for Manufacture and Assembly (P-DfMA) and has always shown a keen interest in the adoption of the newest and more advanced sustainability certification schemes, such as Passivhaus.. Our experience indicates that the standardisation process of P-DfMA, can be a suitable approach to counterbalance Passivhaus’ challenges described above, as follows:.Reduced design cost and complexity:.
The standardisation process reduces the number of construction elements which in turn dramatically reduces the number of elements and potential thermal bridges, making the design simpler and more cost-effective.
The repeated use of the same details significantly reduces the design cost and complexity, and facilitates the achievement of Passivhaus’ thermally bridge free design ethos..This is most easily achieved by reusing existing building stock.
Existing buildings have the potential to be refurbished by retaining existing building elements and improving them to suit future uses..If we have to build new buildings, we must consider how many of the materials can be from reused products, components or buildings.
For example, where there are buildings being demolished on site or locally, materials can be sourced from these buildings, refurbished, and then used in the new building.Alternatively, a national circular economy should be developed to enable the sharing of good quality reused products..