Refurbishing multi-family building to passive house standard

The ECD Architects website provides an excellent example of an ambitious renovation in the UK.  Importantly, the residents wanted this standard of renovation.

Wilmcote House, Portsmouth England

This is the first retrofit of a British residential tower block to ‘Passivhaus’ standards of near-zero carbon emissions.  Owned by Portsmouth City Council, the 100-dwelling, 1960s Wilmcote House is being refurb’d now at a cost of c. £13 million. A residents poll in autumn 2013 overwhelmingly backed Passivhaus refurbishment, in preference to the cost & inconvenience of decanting & demolition.

ECD Architects proposals for the retrofit of Wilmcote House achieved planning approval in June 2013 and are currently out to tender with an expected on site date in early 2014.

Wilmcote House was originally constructed as a concrete prefabricated structure in 1968 using a large panel ‘Bison REEMA’ variant system. It consists of three 11-storey linked residential blocks which provide much needed affordable housing for Portsmouth City Council. With no place to relocate the residents within these 107 units, the City commissioned ECD for the building’s regeneration to be achieved with the residents in occupation.

The project has attracted ECO funding and been designed to meet the stringent EnerPHit standard, the retrofit equivalent to Passivhaus. Achievement of this standard will reduce annual heating and hot water costs by 90%, saving around £750 per dwelling per annum in energy bills.

The proposed use of external wall insulation offers the project several advantages in addition to the resulting energy efficiency improvements:

• The work is done externally so there is very little disruption and results in no loss of living space
• The system will protect the building fabric and will improve the appearance of the building through a range of external finishes
• Condensation risk is managed to the outside of homes and if continuous, there is minimal thermal bridging
• It needs little maintenance and internally no redecoration is needed

The outcome of this project will be a state-of-the-art retrofit and regeneration project with use of the EnerPHit standard bringing it to the forefront of achievement in the area of high-rise residential refurbishment and regeneration.

Download a brochure on the project here.