Friday 9 November 2018

First Passivhaus homes open in Bournemouth

Bournemouth Borough Council with Seascape Construction have completed their first wave of Passivhaus homes for Council tenants.




 The three, two-bedroom dwellings at Cunningham Crescent opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the beginning of November.




Detailed by Gale & Snowden Architects, the houses build on the Practice's evolutionary approach to Passivhaus, aimed at reducing costs, enhancing collaboration with the contractor, and optimising building performance for future climate scenarios.  

Utilising a monolithic clay block construction with high performance render externally and plaster internally means an entirely mineral wall build-up which is hygroscopic, helping to regulate internal humidity.  Designed around the large format block coursing, construction time is greatly reduced, drying out period is minimised, and come the end of the building’s life, the construction can be simply crushed up without the need for separation and disposal of composite elements.




Designed and built to the Passivhaus standard means that the homes will naturally have a very consistent and comfortable temperature and indoor air quality. Heating bills will be approximately 10% of those in a ‘standard’ property, thus helping lift tenants out of any potential fuel poverty issues. 

Bournemouth Echo ran a story about the houses here.

Gale & Snowden would like to extend their congratulations to Bournemouth Borough Council, Seascape and the entire team for delivery of such a successful project.

To find out more about Gale & Snowden's work, please visit our website.