Active House

Revision as of 15:52, 23 July 2020

Introduction

The Active House initiative is based on the philosophy that buildings should be beneficial both to the environment and to the people who live and use them.

History

In 2011, representatives from around the world and across the construction sector - designers, architects, product designers, manufacturers, academics and so on - collaborated on strategies that would deliver holistic buildings that could be healthier for their occupants and more beneficial to the environment.

Principles

The Active House principles have been applied to different types of buildings including residential, academic, commercial and others. The primary goal of an Active House structure is to provide a beneficial indoor environment with an emphasis on the user.

Increased daylight and climate control are seen as key contributors to mood and performance of building occupants and are essential in Active House designs. Additional contributing factors include energy efficiency, water conservation and sustainable materials.

For the thought leaders associated with Active House, the buildings are seen as ecosystems that should be self sustaining. They should also be sensitive to the needs of the occupants, since building occupants are put at the centre of the design.

Nine key factors

Three primary principles - comfort, energy, environment - have been designated as the driving factors behind Active House. Within each of those principles there are nine factors associated with Active House specifications. Each factor has qualitative (or softer) and quantitative components.

Comfort

• Daylight (1)
• Thermal environment (2)
• Indoor air quality (3)
• Acoustic quality (4)

Energy

• Energy demand (5)
• Energy supply (6)
• Primary energy performance (7)

Environment

• Sustainable construction (8)
• Freshwater consumption (9)

An Active House radar diagram maps out all of the factors. It can be used to illustrate how each factor has an impact on the other and illustrates how this influences the eventual outcome of the proposed design.

Active House, not Passivhaus

As the name implies, Active House is about actively taking the initiative to do whatever is possible to deliver desirable outcomes for building occupants. It is a holistic approach to design. This is seen as a contrast to the Passivhaus approach, which stresses the significance of heating and cooling systems in buildings.

Developed in Germany in the early 1990s, Passivhaus suggest that, 'A Passivhaus is a building, for which thermal comfort can be achieved solely by post-heating or post-cooling of the fresh air mass, which is required to achieve sufficient indoor air quality conditions – without the need for additional recirculation of air.’ This means that a traditional heating or cooling system is no longer essential.

Whilst Passivhaus adopts the principles of passive design, it differs in its imposition of an overall limit on primary energy consumption. This limit includes domestic hot water, lighting, projected appliance consumption, space heating, fans and pumps.

Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• An Introduction to Passive House - review.
• Code for sustainable homes
• BREEAM.
• Fabric first.
• Green deal.
• Home Quality Mark.
• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
• Passivhaus
• Sustainability.
• VELUX.
• Zero carbon homes.

External resources

• Active House, Active House for dummies.
• Create an Active House radar.