Picture House Court Passivhaus

Project details:

Picture House Court was developed as a Passivhaus private housing development of 26 units in three terraces of town houses and a block of nine apartments above a retail/office unit. The apartments were built in timber frame by experienced Passivhaus timber framers, Cygnum. The houses were masonry cavity wall construction. The buildings were heated with direct electric heating with solar thermal hot water and immersion heater back-up.

Delta Q acted as Passivhaus Consultant, through Stages 5-7 following appointment of the client, under a traditional contract. We developed PHPP models for each building, supported the design team in clarifying and optimizing designs, undertook frequent site inspection visits and spent a considerable amount of time troubleshooting on site. Due to issues with application of a paint on airtightness product which was relatively new to the UK at the time, airtightness targets were not met in all cases. An experience from which we learnt a lot.

The apartment block was certified to the Passivhaus Classic Standard; one block of houses was certified to the PHI Low Energy Building Standard and one building was certified to the AECB Building Standard. These were amongst the first certified Passivhaus buildings in Bristol.