Several passive houses were constructed in Öland by using local materials to avoid transporting construction materials, thereby reducing carbon footprints.
Vickleby project considered energy and climate issues at both local and national scales. Using local materials, such as wood and limestone, along with energy-efficient technologies allowed addressing traditional, environmental, and economic architectural design values in Öland. Using limestone on facades reduced the maintenance costs when comparing with traditional wooden facades in Sweden. An interview with a real estate agent showed that wood along with limestone mirror the traditional and local architectural style in Öland and create a sense of welcome.
The passive houses were equipped with an integrated ground source heat pump (Thermia Diplomat Optimum) and a mechanical ventilation system to improve the energy performance of the houses. The heat pump fine-tunes the operation continuously. The optimum regulation ensures that the heat pump is always allowed to operate under ideal conditions. Any such system allows one to reduce the annual heating costs up to 80 percent.
Resources needed
-Between 2000 €/m2 to 2500 €/m2.
Evidence of success
First, Vickleby addressed the traditional and social architectural design values by using local materials in the construction of the detached houses, thereby enhancing owners’ satisfaction with the overall design.
Second, Vickleby exploited an efficient integrated system to both improve the energy performance of the detached houses and improve indoor environment quality. The total energy consumption of passive houses in Sweden must be at most 26 kWh/m2.
Difficulties encountered
Discussions were proceeded first with Kalmar municipality to use local limestone as façade materials. Öland includes several historical sites, accordingly, additional evaluations had to be planned and performed in detail to avoid damage to Öland’s contemporary and historic architecture.
Potential for learning or transfer
The project addressed both traditional and environmental architectural design values in constructing the detached houses in Öland. Any such practice can be adopted in other regions with different architectural styles, characterized by features, which make buildings historically identifiable. Accordingly, using local materials along with energy-efficient technologies helps one to satisfy different architectural design values.
Tags: Design, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy
