[interview] the project story
Image Credit : Photos by Tim Soar
Project Overview
The Eco Lodge is a remarkable contemporary three bedroom house, located on a quiet Edwardian Street in Chiswick. The house is bright, light and spacious. The amount of light the unique design brings into the house along with high levels of insulation incorporated into the design mean that no heating input is required. It is one of only 11 Passivhaus certified buildings in London. It’s a striking, bespoke design, made up of clean lines and a mix of warm, natural colours, textures and finishes.
The RDA team successfully overcame a number of serious planning issues, over a number of years, to deliver a truly exceptional scheme with which the clients are extremely happy. It was also recently commended for ‘Best One-Off Home or Extension between 2500 and 5000 sq ft’ at the Sunday Times British Homes Awards 2015. The project proves that unlike the majority of ecological buildings which are often unattractive, unique contemporary design can be achieved without compromising on the buildings performance. With the right approach and attention to detail, one can design and build a beautiful, three bedroomed Passivhaus on a tight budget in the heart of London.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
RDA oversaw the project from inception to completion. This included working to achieve planning consent, developing a brief, design, project management and project handover.
Richard Dudzicki, RDA’s Director and visionary founder, with over 20 years’ experience working on sustainable and ecological buildings, was involved with the project from start to finish. Having previously built a Certified Passivhaus, his experience was invaluable in ensuring the high quality of the end result. The RDA project team also included RDA's experienced architects, Jan Kwiatkowski, a Chartered Architect and Associate at RDA who currently leads the team focusing on sustainable building design. Jan has particular expertise in obtaining planning permission for difficult projects. Jan oversaw the project, liasing with building control and the planning department and also supervising contractual aspects of the project. Peter Kiesel is a Chartered Architect who managed the project during the construction stage, ensuring that the project stayed on schedule and on budget and dealing with structural issues.
RDA assembled a number of specialist contractors in order to successfully deliver a building which achieved the client’s objectives and met the rigorous Passivhaus standard. Allied builders were used for the projects groundworks and concrete construction; Belgravia Construction Ltd were used to complete the rest of the house, including work to ensure the house was sufficiently airtight; and the structural engineers Michael Hadi Associates were significant in the underground works and concrete structure, working closely with RDA to design thermal bridges to minimise heat loss. RDA also worked closely with Green Building Store, a company specialising in sustainable building techniques, to ensure the house met the Passivhaus standard.
Project Brief
The client, a retired music producer, and his wife wanted a smaller sustainable, modern house now that their children had left home – something environmentally conscious and economical that would last a lifetime, and not compromise on comfort. They wanted a contemporary, bright living environment to improve their quality of life.
From this brief, RDA introduced the client to the idea of a Passivhaus, a building style more commonly found in continental Europe that minimises energy usage by making a building airtight, insulating well and minimising thermal bridges whilst still providing the occupants with a good indoor air quality and high levels of comfort. The client was very keen on this idea, and we worked closely with him throughout, ultimately achieving a very successful outcome: a light, spacious, warm home which is easy to live in, enjoy and maintain, and requires no heating due to its unique design.
The project was also delivered on time and on budget, and generated value for the client. The construction cost of the project - a 110.7 square meter house with 40 square metres of landscaping both above and below ground - was £450,000. The house value now is around £900,000.
Project Need
As a Passivhaus certified, light, bright, three bedroom house in London, with the majority of its living space underground, and excellent air tightness (with a reading of 0.572 ach@50Pa, where regular houses vary between 2 to 29 ach@50Pa), the house is unique.
The bespoke design created by RDA achieved the client’s vision, whilst also overcoming a number of planning objections. Initially local residents raised objections on the basis that the house would appear too big and not blend in with the area’s Edwardian character.
To address these issues, RDA used London Stock brick slips and introduced a living wall to enable the house to gently blend in with the leafy, Edwardian residential street on which it sits. The inside of the house is unexpectedly spacious; cleverly the lower storey has been sunk below street level so that 50% of the building’s total volume is hidden. In addition, a variety of external finishes visually break down the upper storeys.
Interior finishes were carefully selected to achieve the warm, natural and contemporary feel requested by the client: exposed concrete walls, different textures of wood and a bespoke, curving timber staircase, plus glass and white walls to retain a sense of clean modernity.
Design Challenge
Planning permission for this project was hard won over the course of 3 years. Even though the corner site was an old garage backing onto the client’s existing property, the location was extremely sensitive, requiring much negotiation with the Ealing council, local residents, and environmental groups.
Local residents were engaged initially through consultations but were opposed to the proposal as they believed it would be of a different characteristic to the Edwardian street. There were also questions over whether the building would overlook neighbours or damage surrounding trees. To overcome this, RDA paid particular attention to the placing of windows to avoid overlooking neighbouring properties. An arborist was used to ensure the health of surrounding trees. RDA also proposed the building of a basement level to make the house appear smaller from street level. A living wall was designed to help the house to settle and blend the house into its surroundings.
With RDA’s extensive planning expertise and the use of specialist planning consultants, after much hard work the team managed to successfully meet the council’s requirements. RDA were able to bring the project in on budget and produce a beautifully finished Passivhaus which addressed all council and resident concerns.
Sustainability
The Eco Lodge is one of only a few houses in London built to the rigorous Passivhaus standard. Passivhaus is a way of designing and constructing buildings so that they require little or no energy to heat and have excellent indoor air quality and comfort levels.
Upon calculating the amount of glazing, over shading, volumes of rooms and the type of heating and insulation system required, the calculations proved that this house could survive without any heating whatsoever, purely using solar gain through the south facing windows and the heat generated by inhabitation and itself. The hot water would be provided by evacuated tubes as well as a parred down normal boiler. The way the ventilation system would work would be upon a mechanical ventilation heat recovery system.
The sophisticated system within the house maintains a constant temperature of 20?C and low energy use by utilizing high levels of insulation, excellent air tightness and triple glazing throughout. A Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) unit also utilises outgoing stale air to warm incoming fresh air.
Local builders and suppliers were used, and plants were locally sourced.
Architecture - Residential - Constructed
This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow.
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