Expertise in Passivhaus Design
What is Passivhaus?
Passivhaus (or Passive House) is a highly effective energy and comfort standard for new buildings. Passive house buildings use lots of insulation, fresh air, natural daylight and the sun to create high performing buildings that support wellbeing, all year round. It’s an exciting alternative to regular heating. Instead of standard, inefficient boilers and radiators, a building is fitted with high levels of insulation and a simple, low energy ventilation system.
Our Approach to Passivhaus
At the start of a project, we carefully analyse your site, taking full advantage of existing features, such as the position of the sun and direction of the wind throughout the day. Our approach means that a passive house design can create amazing buildings, that do not need to cost any more than standard construction.
Our team of sustainable architects believe all new homes should be low energy, low carbon, cheap to run and built using local, sustainable materials. Passive house design is good for the planet, your health, and will save you on energy bills.
Why Choose Us?
We’re an RIBA Chartered Practice
Footprint Architects is an RIBA Chartered Practice, this means we are dedicated to the highest standards of architectural professionalism and ethics. All of our architects hold the relevant architectural qualifications and are registered with the Architects Registration Board ARB.
Specialist Knowledge of Passive House Design
Having designed multiple homes to passive house standards and a community education space that is Passivhaus certified our team have considerable experience of delivering passive house homes.
We are members of the Passivhaus Trust
We have a team of experienced passive house designers and being part of UK’s Passivhaus Trust ensures our team are constantly kept up to date with the latest sustainable technologies to create the highest standards of passive house design in the UK.
Our Passivhaus Projects
A modern, eco-friendly community training facility for the next generation of lifeguards
An award winning affordable self-build, eco-friendly home focusing on passive house design principles
Benefits of Passive Houses
- A large reduction in energy and carbon usage
- Extremely low energy bills
- Airtight, draught free homes – around 20 times more airtight than the standard!
- A cleaner, healthier environment with improved air quality
Our simple approach to designing your dream eco home
1. Fabric First
Footprint Architects adopt a fabric-first approach to all new homes that we design. Enhancing the thermal envelope and airtightness is a simple but highly effective way to reduce energy consumption.
- High levels of insulation in the walls, floors and roof to keep the heat in
- Maximising airtightness to reduce cold draughts
- Positioning windows to maximise heating from the sun in the winter
- Using thermal mass to keep homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter
- Orienting homes to maximise shading
This low-tech approach ensures that the buildings we create are easy to use, have low running costs, are simple to maintain, and are healthy environments to live in.
2. Sustainable Materials
At Footprint Architects we like to select sustainable, locally sourced building materials that look beautiful and have low embodied carbon. We prefer to select products that are easy to maintain, last a life time and can be recycled in the future. In recent projects we have:
- Used low carbon concrete that replaces 80% of the cement with waste by-products from other industries
- Re-used 52 tonnes of hardwood to create sustainable cladding in our Durley Chine Environmental Hub Project
- Used 100% recycled plastics that are 100% recyclable to create imaginative interiors
3. Renewable Energy
Installing sources of renewable energy to your home, such as solar PV panels, solar thermal hot water or air source heat pumps are a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and save on bills. At Footprint Architects we advocate the inclusion of renewable energy sources to all new modern eco homes that we design.
4. Re-use
The idea is simple, demolish as little as possible and re-use the existing structure to reduce carbon emissions. Retrofitting typically involves a significant improvement in the thermal performance of the existing building fabric to create a warm and comfortable home.
At Footprint Architects we use our expertise to carefully and sensitively design relevant energy efficiency improvements to existing properties, making them fit for modern living whilst reducing energy consumption.
Can you upgrade an existing home to Passivhaus standards?
Yes, you can retrofit older properties so that they function along the same passive house principles, although it’s not usually possible to reach the same levels of insulation as a new build, significant energy saving of between 75 and 90% are possible.
The Passivhaus Institute does have a separate certification that recognises appropriate retrofitting, this is known as EnerPhit ‘Quality-Approved Energy Retrofit with Passive House Components.’
Get Your Project Off The Ground
Get in touch today to kick-start your project. Let us know a few details and we’ll be in touch to discuss bringing your vision to life.
