Project Description

Emmanuelle and Aodh were keen on mber frame building, and the Green Build Centre (GBC) built the house’s closed-panel mber frames in their Cork factory.

“It’s factory fied, the panels come out pre-insulated and airght,” says GBC’s Kevin Murphy, a veteran of timber frame for two decades in the US and Ireland. He said that while GBC have built six or seven homes to a similar spec, this was the first that included a specific brief to hit the passive house standard — including a space heang demand of 15kWh/m2/yr, maximum heat load of 10 W/m2, airghtness of 0.6 air changes per hour and
maximum U-value of 0.15 for walls, roof and floor. Kevin found the requirement to hit the standard focused the mind: “It made sure everything was up to the mark. It was both challenging and interesng,” he says.

“And you’re working with MosArt who are one of the most preeminent [architecture firms] on the island for passive house. It was challenging at the beginning, and it was quite rewarding at the end of the day.”

GBC did more than just assemble the mber frame though — they did everything down to fing the windows and the landscaping too. They insulated the roof secons and block-clad timber frame walls with mineral wool and insulation, while the sloped roof and walls are also beefed up with an extra 50mm of rigid PIR insulation. The windows are triple-glazed Vrogum-Svarre units made with Scandanavian pine, and Siga airghtness tapes and membranes were used throughout the build too.

The house’s final airghtness result was 0.4 air changes per hour at 50 pascals — well inside the passive house standard. Art recommends that as many of the building team as possible – including window installers – are on site during
the airghtness test so they can clearly see where any leaks occur.