Your chance to vote for the EcoHaus of the future

Choose your favourite waterside home designed to Passivhaus standards in the Sunday Times British Homes Awards

Architectural excellence, environmentally smart and offering a healthy environment for occupants – these were just some of the key criteria for submissions in this year’s Sunday Times British Homes Awards. The brief for the EcoHaus category was to design an aspirational waterside home to Passivhaus standards that will form a blueprint for the eco-house of the future.

As well as meeting Passivhaus principles, designs were required to demonstrate best practice in smart home technologies, incorporating intelligent infrastructure, energy-efficient products and docking ports for electric vehicles with capability for two-way interaction between vehicle batteries and home energy systems. All methods of construction were permitted with the prerequisite that designs should include the specification of products already certified to Passivhaus standard.

Eight designs have been shortlisted and construction professionals now have the opportunity to select their favourite visionary future home design from the following contenders:

The Boardwalk House by NPS Leeds

COR3 Living by Shelton Hawkins Architects

Naust[Haus] by Artform Architects

PassivPOD by Koru Architects and JMD

The Sun Drop by Fluid Design Group

The Tree House by Jon Broome Architects

Wasserhaus by BrightSpace Architects

Wrap-Around Haus by Stride Treglown Architects

The winning design will be built on one of Habitat First Group’s UK sites at Lower Mill Estate, Somerford Keynes or Silverlake in Dorset.

All submissions to the competition were required to include:

An assessment of the quality of health and wellbeing for people living in the house, embracing issues such as maximising daylight and integration of the natural environment

A consumption calculation based on the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) to illustrate how the house will use energy efficiently and comply with the Passivhaus standard

Details of the home's insulation and air tightness strategy, with consideration given to ease of construction and a ventilation strategy for summer and winter operation

Evidence that summer comfort requirements of the Passivhaus standard will be achieved, including details of a shading and night cooling strategy

A consumption calculation or diagram to illustrate how the house will efficiently use other resources such as water, food and waste

An indication of construction cost (with a projected build cost set between £200,000 and £350,000)

A demonstration of how the dwelling would work as a volume development of multiple units

A guide for occupants on how to operate the house

To find out more information on the shortlisted entries and to cast your vote, visit:www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/bha. Voting closes at midnight on 31 July 2014. Voters also have the chance to win a tailor-made sofa from Homebase worth £1,000.

The Sunday Times British Homes Awards 2014 is sponsored by Homebase in partnership with Kingspan Insulation, the Passivhaus Trust, Habitat First Group and the AJ.

Image: Naust[Haus] by Artform Architects, one of the contenders in the EcoHaus category for the Sunday Times British Homes Awards

Source:

http://www.building4change.com/article.jsp?id=2425#.U71EHvldWKI