Passivhaus Advisory for Weyside Urban Village

CHALLENGE

The challenge for Weyside Urban Village lay in balancing architectural design and practical urban design solutions, with strict Passivhaus performance standards that require an optimised façade design, low energy consumption, minimal risk of overheating and good daylight.

Phase 1 consisted of single dwellings, terraces and maisonettes whilst the second phase brought forward (Phase 3), introduced apartments and town houses.

SOLUTION

Our approach delivered a rapid options appraisal for each dwelling typology providing meaningful feedback and design advice to adapt an existing RIBA Stage 2 design to achieve meet Passivhaus levels of performance in a cost-effective manner.

We geared our process to allow us to work quickly and collaboratively with the design team to unlock Passivhaus by optimising the site layout, building form & massing, glazing sizes and locations, shading strategies, building servicing strategy, and developing the performance specification.

RESULTS

Our approach enabled all homes in both phases to target Passivhaus certification with 335 designed to Passivhaus ‘Classic’ and the 20 remaining homes designed to ‘Passivhaus Low Energy Building Standard’ as a cost-effective response to specific site constraints.

The project achieved unanimous support at planning with the Passivhaus approach specifically mentioned as reason for support. Phase 1 was shortlisted at the Housing Design Awards 2024.