Passive house vs. passive design: sociotechnical issues in a practice-based design research project for a low-energy house

ABSTRACT

Building performance simulation tools such as the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) can be invaluable for improving energy-efficiency in housing design. However, achieving improved energy performance is also a sociotechnical issue, and how this is dealt with during the architectural design process seems less well studied. This collaborative design research project for a low-energy prefab house with an industry partner, a manufacturer of Structural Insulated Panels (SIP), is used as a case study to show that it is possible to achieve high energy performance while addressing specific socio-technical concerns within an Australian volume homebuilding market. A key issue that emerged in this project was the perceived tension between passive design expectations in Australia and those promoted through the Passive House software tool.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable
• housing
• prefab
• energy-efficiency
• sociotechnical
• Passive house

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The overall project team included: Director: Professor Mathew Aitchison; Chief Investigators: Professor Jose Torerro Cullen and Professor John Macarthur; Postdoctoral Researchers: Dr Sarah Breen Lovett and Dr David Kroll: PhD Candidates: Duncan Maxwell, Gerardo Sorret Cantero, Aaron Bolanos Cuevas, Jonathan Nelson, Robert Doe and Martin Bignall, alongside Industry partners.

2. Domestic Hot Water is electric.

3. 4 m² of roof area (requires storage cylinder)

4. 10 modules 1.658 × 0.994 m on north facing roof – 32.96 m² in total.

5. Mechanical cooling could be added for periods of overheating, if required.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council linkage project grant 2013 (LP13).