ARCHITECTS Hazle Mc Cormack Young have been nominated for their second accolade at this year’s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) awards.
The Tunbridge Wells firm has seen its Mayfield PassivHaus dwelling entered into the residential category. This follows on from its nomination in the tourism and leisure sector for work on One Warwick Park hotel.
PassivHaus – which is German for passive house – is a form of building design standard that has focusses on ‘dramatically’ increasing energy efficiency and by extension reducing its carbon footprint.
A voluntary standard, it has become increasingly popular in the last two decades, with around 30,000 such buildings being completed worldwide since the turn of the century.
The 450 square metre six bedroom house in Mayfield is heated in peak demand times with less than 4.5KW of heat input, or the equivalent of a pair of electric fan heaters, boasting high energy efficiency.
James Galpin, a partner at the firm said the PassivHaus design uses ‘extremely high levels of insulation’, combined with ‘intelligently designed facades’ to harness the warmth of the winter sun and prevent overheating in the summer. It also employs a ventilation system which brings fresh air into the house, heating it with the extracted air on its way out of the building.
The results are buildings that need very little heat input beyond the use of the sun and the warmth created by the bodies of the people living in them, he said, adding: “Despite its proven success, there are still only a hundred or so PassivHaus projects built in the UK.
“Delivering the standard, requires a great deal of detailed coordination between all team members, so we are delighted that the efforts of the team have been recognised for our latest PassivHaus in Mayfield.”
The South East regional award ceremony takes place on May 17 at the Hilton at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton.
