Energy-neutral house 2.0

Energy-neutral house 2.0

AMSTERDAM (NL) - This house, in Amsterdam's new IJburg development, is the second home that architect Pieter Weijnen (a partner with Faro Architecten) and Renske Feikema have built for their family. Weijnen, who has been convinced of the need to build in a more environmentally friendly way ever since watching Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, sees the construction of his first house (see A10 #16), a couple of streets away, as the first step in his quest for more sustainable ways of living. This second house, which is similar in layout to the first, takes that quest a step further.

The new home has evolved from energy efficient to energy neutral and was this time built according to the Cradle to Cradle principle (materials are compostable or suitable for reuse without further processing). Weijnen opted for a passive house, thereby making a heat pump – a common feature of energy-efficient private projects in the Netherlands nowadays – unnecessary. Instead, there is a reserve supply of warm water in the plant room, which is kept at the right temperature by solar collectors. Two small wind turbines on the roof will generate energy for electricity. The toilet and washing machine use (filtered) rainwater.

A lot of thought has also been paid to insulation; strategies include triple glazing, sealing of all joints, high insulation vacuum tube solar collectors, wood fibre and a clay plaster finish incorporating phase-changing paraffin granules. Phase change materials (PCMs) absorb heat up to their melting point (in this case 21° C), which they then store or release as needed.

But what sets this house apart is not just the quantity of sustainable products or the fact that it achieves 100% CO₂ reduction. It is the way sustainable products have been integrated with the architecture – like the solar collectors in the cornice, the burnt larch wood of the facade, a tree trunk used structurally – that commands admiration and makes this a truly exemplary project. (Kirsten Hannema)