WT4026/36 Blog

Passive Design Finalizing Floor plan This week we received feedback on our initial ideas for our floor plans that we had created. Darren had pointed out that we all really needed to think outside the box a bit more, this is a concept house and we really need to show off all we have learned throughout the model and the weeks that passed. My floor plan I had came up with now seemed a bit boring and traditional after receiving this feedback. The porch i had added to my floor plan was a passive house principle but was not executed correctly, there should be a wall separating the porch from the main hall in the house to allow people to transition into the home, keeping the hot air in. The house did not seem to use its space efficiently, I had halls for the sake of having them, windows where I would not need them, and the overall area of the house meant there was more surfaces for heat to escape. With all these points from my feedback in mind I realised I was going to have to completely reim...

Passive Design Initial Direction The whole idea of designing a full housing estate became very overwhelming for me and I really had no idea where I should start, I thought the best thing to do would get some of my initial ideas on paper so I had some clue what direction to start looking at in terms of passive housing. I knew I wanted my houses to have a South facing living area to provide a bright, airy, communal space in which its occupants could relax and unwind during the day. I then decided that my target occupants would be mature university students or students doing a post-grad. It is a site that has easy access to the college and all of its facilities which is something most mature students cannot find unless they want to be living with young undergraduates, which can more often then not be less then ideal living conditions. My initial ideas for a floor plan was more like a home, rather then accommodation, which is where I think I went wrong. Even though I want the houses to be ...

Passive Design Active vs. Passive House Design In order to fully embrace Passive house design it is important to first understand active design, verses passive design. Active design refers to houses that are reliant on fossil fuels to create heat, electricity and produce artificial light, which is simply not sustainable for the planet and for us. Passive house design exploits the natural resources we have such as sunlight and solar energy to heat our house. Active design was based off the idea that there is a limitless supply of these fossil fuels such as oil and gas, so it is okay to continue burning and using them, however now a days we know better and know these resources are in fact not limitless but finite and harmful to our planet and environment. The burning of these fuels or energy supplies emit harmful green house gases into our atmosphere (see paragraph and diagram on greenhouse gases), however if we put more emphasis on insulating our houses well and storing the heat we gain...