PassivHaus with Living Space Architects – Week 2

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Week Two has focused on solar gains and internal gains.

Solar gains (using the sun to warm up) look at window placement, design, size, and shading. Getting these aspects right will help balance your solar gains (warming up the building) against your heat loss through the windows – windows do not insulate as well as walls.

There are lots of things to consider here – do we want solar shading, where should the shading be, do we want openable windows, do we want blinds, where do we want our windows? Openable windows are desirable, but security, external noise or even just stopping the pets from escaping could stop you! Blinds are helpful in reducing glare and increasing privacy, but internal blinds will not stop the glass itself from heating up, and maybe we want to maximise our views out.

Internal gains refer to everything else inside the building (apart from the heating system) that can warm the building up. This will include how many people are in the building, what type, and the number of appliances in use. The internal gains will change dramatically based on how the building is being used – is it a home, a school, or an office building?

We make assumptions about occupancy and build these into our calculations with a generous buffer to ensure that the comfort of the occupants is maximised while reducing reliance on space heating.

Lessons Learnt

The lesson from this week has been the need to talk to our clients really early to understand how they want to live and work in their homes and PassivHaus projects. Everybody lives in slightly different ways; some people sleep with the window open, some people need complete silence; some have vegetable plots and want extra freezers to store their produce; some families work from home with extensive office setups; some people bought their home for the view, and don’t want to spoil these with blinds and curtains.

So tell us how you want to live, because every detail is important to us and will help ensure your PassivHaus will reflect you.

PassivHaus with Living Space Architects – Week 1

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Week One has been an introduction into the key rules of PassivHaus and a closer look at thermal efficiency, heat loss and thermal bridges. There has been lots of maths involved, but also some really helpful rules of thumb, general guidance, and dispelling some myths!

Thermal Envelope: the SHAPE of the building is important and can be described with a simple Form Heat Loss Factor graph – the more exposed sides, the worse a building performs (but don’t worry – this can be overcome with some consideration of the next rules…)

Glazing: orientation is not everything, consider position, size and shading.

Insulation: how much do you need, what type do you need, and has it been installed well?

Airtight: get rid of those pesky drafts!

Ventilation: using mechanical ventilation to provide fresh air to your home, while also removing pollutants and pollen.

Myth #1: You CAN open your windows in a PassivHaus home – but you don’t need to for fresh air, or to cool down.

Fact: A PassivHaus cannot exceed 15kWh/m2 in space heating in a year. If electricity costs 27p/kWh (2023), how much electricity costs would you save for your home?

PassivHaus with Living Space Architects

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Autumn is bringing change to Living Space Architects.

Our project architect Ellen Sinclair Harris has commenced her PassivHaus Designer training with CoAction to become a certified PassivHaus designer. This means that Living Space Architects will be able to provide our clients with industry leading advice, design, and technical ability to build better, more sustainable and energy efficient homes.

Over the next 6 weeks, Ellen is going to share key aspects of PassivHaus design, enabling everyone to better understand what energy efficient homes look like.

RIBA Journal’s Time to Reflect Competition

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Kirsty’s creative writing bringing to light stories of her female friends and colleagues reflecting on their careers in architecture made her one of the winners of the @ribajournal Time to Reflect competition.

The competition invited the winners to a week’s stay at Shangri-La The Shard, London. During her stay, she had time to reflect on her career and meet up with old friends and like-minded individuals with the hope to share their stories. 

To read Kirsty’s entry click
here


Kirsty’s illustrations produced during her stay

“My time to reflect in the Shard was a very special experience. It was the perfect place to meet others to hear about their experiences as mid-career architects – being up in the clouds gave us the perspective to think about our journeys and future plans. I am enormously grateful to the staff for their warm welcome and for looking after us so well” 

Kirsty Curnow-Bayley
Kirsty’s illustration produced during her stay

Building Regulation Updates

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From 15th June 2022, new Building Regulations come into force in England which will help the built environment meet the net zero targets set by Government for 2050.

The changes are limited to Approved Document F (Ventilation) and L (Conservation of Fuel and Power), and also the creation of two new documents;

  • Approved Document O (Overheating)
  • Approved Document S (Infrastructure for the charging of electric vehicles).

The new regulations will have a transition period. If a building notice or full plan application has been submitted to a local authority prior to 15th June 2022, and the building work commences before the same date in 2023, the new regulations will not apply.

All applications beyond 15th June 2022 will be required to achieve the new standards.

Part F:

Requires the ventilation in existing buildings to be maintained or improved when energy efficiency work is carried out, and guidance is provided with all installations of mechanical extract ventilation.

Part L:

Improves the U value requirements for walls, windows, roof lights and doors to improve the thermal efficiency of domestic buildings and requires the SAP method of compliance for extensions to existing properties.

Part O:

Aims to reduce overheating in new residential buildings by minimising solar gain and removing excess heat from new developments. This will be achieved by considering cross-ventilation, orientation and the amount of glazing.

Large overhanging roofs to help prevent overheating

We have undertaken CPD to understand the technical changes of the Building Regulations and what it means for our practice and our clients.

 Southwest Home & Garden Show

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On the 9th and 10th of April, we will be at the Southwest Home & Garden Show

The event will be held next weekend at Westpoint Arena, Exeter and we have 10 free tickets to give away.

If you would like one please email Studio@livingspacearchitects.com with the following:

We have a limited quantity of tickets although you can book a ticket below:

Book A Ticket

New Build Interview – Exeter Living

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Building your own new build home?

We asked Stuart Bayley for his top tips…

What ‘homework’ should a person have already done before they approach an architecture firm like yours?

It is helpful to have created a scrapbook or Pinterest board of houses and projects that you like – including their materials.

What is a really important thing to think about before proceeding?

Consider the orientation of the house to the sunshine and views – ideally, combine the two together so the house can open up to the landscape whilst still benefitting from an ideal solar orientation for natural/passive design.

What are the main pitfalls? 
Rising material prices and construction costs are increasing the contingency that builders are having to apply to their tender / fixed prices – making the overall projects more expensive.


When it comes to design how much do you do and how much does the customer do? How does that relationship work?  
We like to create a few alternative layouts at an early stage for our clients which can then lead to a strong element of client-guided development and working together in developing a suitable design. Many of our clients are families and couples – rather than developers – so they engage us to help them create their unique dream house.


Any new trends we should be paying attention to? 
the increasing need to incorporate renewable technologies to heat our houses in the future and the need to create our own PV for electrical supply – often in conjunction with a large storage battery for the home.


Is there an increased demand at the moment for new builds/ extensions? How has Covid affected your company? 
land with planning permission and that is suitable for new houses in short supply – so consider barn conversions or replacement dwellings as a fall-back position for a new contemporary home.

The brief was to create an eco-friendly family home. The client’s vision was rather unusual though they wanted an upsidedown house. Stuart Bayley, co-director at living space architects, tells us how they did it…

As anyone who loves their property programs will know connecting with nature is currently a big thing for those designing and producing a new home, especially in these parts. few pull off the development which immerses itself so unequivocally in the surrounding landscape as this family home though.

Located in Dunsford, just outside of Exeter nestled into lush greenness the smooth curved roof is the first thing you notice it sets the tone for the property and conveys that this is a place of calm; a gentle space where there is something of a free flow between the inside and outside.

“The roof was originally concived to replicate the form of local dutch barns which sit around the lower edges of Dartmoor,” says Stuart Bayley, co-director at Living Space Architects, the local architecture firm who designed the house.”

“Our client is a big surfer and loved the idea of a natural wave form

The green roof sits on a highly insulated roof with a rubber membrane waterproof finish so the green roof is a significant visual improvement. The natural environment benefit for birds and insects form a green roof is significant and enjoyable.”

The house split level is a quirky design; all the bedrooms are on the ground floor, the living spaces on the first floor (hence being called an ‘upside-down’ house); and amazingly, all rooms in this property have access to the outside garden.

“As you enter the house, the light and staircase draw you up to the first floor living accommodation.” adds, Stuart.

“The open plan first floor configuration creates the sense of open space with no internal walls to disrupt the light across the space from all four sides of the building.”

Stuart tells us that his favorite space are the windows of the ground floor bedrooms as these are designed to avoid any potential overlooking off the neighboring land and house.

“They create a unique character to both the inside of the rooms as they draw your eye to a different view, whilst the north-facing elevation glazing is reduced to keep down the heat loss and an intriguing rear elevation is created.”

What are the other eco-friendly credentials of the property?

“The house is a timber framed, highly insulated and air-tight building which helps to reduce the overall heating requirements. the heating its self is provided by the air-sorce heat-pump which is an increasingly popular method of heating our homes.”

Read the full latest edition of Exeter living here.

Our Latest Eco-Homes

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Planning Win: New House In Exminster

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We have received planning permission for this exciting new house design just outside Exeter.  A replacement dwelling, the home will be constructed using ICF insulated blocks to a high level of insulation and airtightness.  
The heating will be supplied via an air-source heat pump and use mechanical ventilation and heat recovery meaning it will reach near Passive energy standards.  The broken form was designed to respond to views, light, and the prevailing winds, with large overhands offering shade and reducing glare. 

On-Site: Modern English Farmhouse, 

This is a contemporary single-storey new house with local stone and timber external details. The house has a low profile and will sit comfortably within the site and agricultural surroundings. 

On-Site: New Family Farm House, Dunkeswell

The design of the proposed dwelling is a two-storey farmhouse with local flint stone details and a timber oak frame kitchen and sunroom. 

Planning Win: Listed House Extension in Exeter

We have received planning permission for a replacement extension to a Grade II listed detached townhouse, situated on a private road in St Leonards. The replacement extension features crittal doors and a section of glass flooring to allow natural lighting into the basement.

Our RIBA Work Stage Videos

We are in the process of creating videos to explain our Architectural Design stages from start to finish. Here are the first two:

Stage 1 – we complete a measured survey of the project and or site. The laser scanner produces a 360º image and laser scan data for each room, we then align the scans from each room with the last. When we are back in the office we use the point cloud data to draw a 3D model in Revit bim software, based on the existing plans elevation and site.

Stage 2 we illustrate the basic concept of the designs. We do this by creating a series of sketch designs or design options for you, looking at how to make the most of your site, existing building, or interior. This stage is essential to help you make the most of your brief and budget. In the second half of stage 2, we draw up the sketch designs in Revit and provide 3D views to our clients. 

This phase also includes developing the designs based on client feedback.

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Featured in Self Build And Design

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We are pleased to see our ‘Origami’ Project featured in the September 2021 edition of Self Build & Design!