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Architects: Architekten Stein Hemmes Wirtz
- Area: 339 m²
- Year: 2009
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Photographs:Linda Blatzek
Text description provided by the architects. The +Energy House is located in the wine community Kasel, in the Ruwer valley, and repeats the two storey with a gable roof structure in the village. Currently it is used as an office, but can be converted to a home when needed. The elongated structure was built with solid wood construction on a concrete floor slab. All structural and partition walls are made of solid wood plate elements, which remain undisguised in the interior, where an ivory-colored glaze applied to the walls and ceillings reveals the texture of the wood structure.
Circulating the construction is a 30 to 40 cm thick layer of insulation (walls, roof and floor). The airtight and thermal bridge-free design of the insulated shell are basic principles of a passive house. In addition, the house has a heat recovery ventilation system, the air is introduced via ground collectors. The regional materials are used in the exterior: oak at the main volume and slate for the single-story volumes. The resource-saving and CO2-neutral building materials wood and slate come from Ruwertal and tie the building into the landscape and the rural environment.
The roof surfaces are treated accordingly to the compass: north facade with elements of copper, the entire area to the south with integrated photovoltaic panels. This additional component of the passive house can be used as +Energy House. The interior spatial character is determined not only by the materials - wood and slate – but also through the open floor plan and open space connecting the two floors in the entrance area.
In addition, the interior and exterior spaces are deeply connected. Wood windows with triple glazing in glass-over-frame construction make very large frameless windows in groundfloor. Upstairs, bay windows in the south façade draw the eye to the landscape. The high quality, unobtrusive building design not only has its roots in the region's architectural character, but perpetuates creatively and technically in the future.
