Innovative solutions in passive house details

Abstract

For the realization of the first passive house demonstration projects in Belgium, passive houses were requested by convinced clients, designed by architects with experience in low energy building, and built by contractors with a feeling for working in building teams. These first passive house examples were not limited to one specific building system, but already showed a diversity in technical solutions. Due to networking initiatives and financial stimuli, the demand for passive houses has grown exponentially in Belgium, like in other European countries. Nowadays, clients base their decisions on available grants and tax reductions, any architect is consulted for building a passive house and many contractors still lack experience and practical information. The Presti 5 research project ‘Details in the passive house standard’ acknowledged this lack of practical information. Its goal is to multiply the realization of good construction solutions to assure the quality of construction of further passive houses. This is done by defining and spreading practical design outcomes for the Belgian building situation, providing both design and construction information. In collaboration with the building industry and knowledge institutes, building details are designed and established for both massive and wood construction of passive houses, linking the innovative construction techniques of a passive house to the Belgian building tradition. Working groups were formed that discussed these details on a regular basis. Thus, in the scope of less than one year more than 10 fundamental building details have been finalized, in agreement with building industry and knowledge institutes. This paper gives an overview of the existing innovative solutions in Belgian passive house construction, discusses experiences and the potential of the related research process, and discusses examples of construction details in passive house standard, with specific concern for the thermal quality and air tightness. The building details will shortly be spread to all Flemish architects in order to multiply the local knowledge on passive house construction. It is recognized that with the current state of the building market, good building details are essential for the broad introduction of passive houses. Finally further research ideas are discussed.