Box Hill Passivhaus, Scarborough.

Embedded into the steep topography of Box Hill, this home enjoys panoramic views across Scarborough town centre. The setting is characterised by a line of distinct homes each defined by their era. The house is defined by its steep slope appearing from the street as a 3 storey townhouse, but only as a bungalow from the rear garden.

This innovative eco-home will showcase how to design and self-build a contemporary family home which achieves a Passivhaus standard, negating any heating or electricity costs, maximising solar gain to photovoltaic panels as well as bringing sunlight deep into the home through a central solar atrium enabling natural stack ventilation through the building.

The principal and ambitious driving ethos behind this design is to design and construct a zero carbon partially earth sheltered dwelling. It is proposed to construct a hermetically sealed dwelling constructed in such a way so as to ensure an air permeability well below 1m3/h.m², well in excess of the currently required Building Regulations air permeability of 4m³/hr.m², to maximise airtightness and thereby minimise heat loss from the dwelling.

This will be achieved through the use of portland-cement-free Insulating Concrete formwork (ICF) to construct the external envelope walling, the lower parts of the southern elevation and a significant proportion of both eastern and western elevations, given a design intent to cut and partially bury the dwelling into the southern rising land away from the Box Hill street elevation. The use of insulating concrete formwork (ICF) will enable a “thermal bridge-free” form of construction, a major driving aim of a successful “Passivhaus-standard” dwelling.

January 21, 2021

Samuel Kendall Associates

Residential

Bondmor Building Services LTD.