Project details

Location
Totnes, Devon

Winton Passivhaus (Low Energy Building), Devon

Winton Passivehouse is a simple and contemporary family home built in an elevated south west facing position in Totnes. Designed and built to a modest budget, the brief was for a very low energy building solution, with flexible open plan spaces maximising views and natural light.

Accessed off a private drive and surrounded by estate housing, the site constraints gave rise to a very challenging planning process. The design solution carefully avoids overlooking concerns, but achieves far reaching views and uses natural light voids to make the most of morning and evening light.

The PHPP energy model was careful to avoid overheating concerns with a first floor overhang and a recessed terrace shading the large south facing glazing areas, which give floor-to-ceiling views across the hillside, town and Dartmoor beyond.

A simple and functionally elegant aesthetic is the resulting form, which has been clad in cedar shingles over lime based render ground floor, suggestive of traditional tile hung overhangs well known within the historic fabric of old Totnes.

The building fabric combines the best of natural low embodied energy materials with ‘high tec’, precision design / construction with the following principles / results:

  • Timber frame super insulated with Superglass (80% recycled glass bottles).
  • Timber Frame alu clad composite Triple Glazing.
  • Airtightness target less than 0.6 ACH.
  • Heating demand result of less than 14 kWh/msq.
  • Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR)
  • Passivehaus Certification (in progress)