Prêt-à-Loger

Abstract

At the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 (SDE2014) competition (Versailles, France), the team from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) took a stance by not constructing a new-built house but demonstrating the energy renovation of a typical Dutch terraced house. Around a quarter of Dutch housing consists of terraced houses built between 1946 and 1975, which have a poor energy performance, endure moist and mould problems and to modern-day standards offer too little living space. Nonetheless, inhabitants cherish these homes; almost everyone in the Netherlands once spent a part of their life in them. The TU Delft team chose a real house as the reference for their retrofit design, the home to one of the students’ grandfather and father, currently vacant. All actual features, unfavourable as they are, were taken as the basis: few existing houses are optimally designed for energy neutrality. The team worked on a gentle plan that enables inhabitant to stay in the house during intervention. Hence the name Prêt-à-Loger, ready to live in. Basis of the Prêt-à-Loger concept is a new skin around the house: thermal insulation in the façade and roof, a greenhouse structure to the south-east, and phase change materials in the crawlspace. The smart and bioclimatic design ensures the use of local circumstances, optimised by an intelligent application of modern technology. The eye-catching feature, the greenhouse, integrates several elements of the house’s climate design. Its greatest importance however lies in the added value to the dwellers: in spring and autumn it can be used as living space, in winter it is a winter garden buffer, and in summer it can be fully opened, becoming the terrace to the garden. The garden was redesigned with the help of NL Greenlabel, a foundation that promotes sustainable gardening. At SDE2014 Prêt-à-Loger was awarded five prizes, among which the Sustainability award, based on the holistic perspective on people, planet and prosperity in the everyday life of common people. This is also reflected by the many public visits to the project. The house was rebuilt on the TU Delft campus, serving demonstration, educational and research purposes.