Regardless of what type of pace we are talking about, buildings need to meet a certain set of criteria and satisfy the needs related to the use of that very space. Whether we are talking about office space, suburban houses or multi-story buildings, all these types of construction projects have certain criteria to meet – and using or living in such buildings, of course, costs money. Think about temperature regulation year-round, maintaining office space, buildings and houses, while we can’t forget the impact our living and working space can leave on the environment.
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Energy Use, Saving, and Sustainability in Construction
Today, we are used to controlling many, if not all, our appliances remotely and via our smartphones, while our utility costs are often hefty. At the same time, our living space and constructions we are building are leaving a huge impact on the environment with the final energy use or buildings in the US reaching 3,006 million tons of oil in 2018, rising from 2,860 million as measured back in 2010. Backed by the mentioned statistics, it is no wonder that people are considering ways to address sustainability and environmental preservation. One of the ideas that managed to stand out in construction and architecture trends is the Passive House concept or Passivhaus.
A Sustainable and Energy-efficient Trend: German Architecture in the US
The idea behind Passivhaus originated in Germany, in the early 1990s, representing a strict concept backed by energy-efficiency and based on five principles. Superior window, ventilation and heat recovery, thermal bridge free design, construction with airtight quality and quality installation. Such homes are buildings are made to be sustainable and take advantage of solar energy by maximizing solar gain. In the UK, the English city of Norwich has 100 such houses, meeting strict and rigorous standards of the Passivhaus concept. The concept is getting more popular although a decade old, while it appears that the US architects are also finding good use in the Passive house construction technique.
Photo by Majid Gheidarlou on Unsplash
