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Architects: Energiehaus Arquitectos
- Area: 213 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Pol Viladoms
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Lead Architect: Micheel Wassouf
Text description provided by the architects. ShowPass is an EnerPhit demonstrative retrofit of a building from the beginning of the 20th century, located in the urban heart of the city of Barcelona (22@). The energy solutions are on display to expose them to housing developers and construction professionals through open days. ShowPass proposes energy efficiency actions with a broader focus so as to demonstrate and disseminate the viability of EnerPHit energy retrofit in the Mediterranean as a reference standard. Moreover, ShowPass proposes a certified carbon-neutral building to mitigate the effects of climate change, while guaranteeing its dwellers a very high level of comfort and health. The building has been certified both under EnerPhit Step-by-Step and Ecómetro labels.
The EnerPHit- Step by Step renovation has been carried out in two phases. In the current intervention, work has been done on the thermal envelope of the building and on the conditioning of the ground floor and first-floor dwelling. The ground floor is organized in two parts: one, wide and open, maximizing natural light and cross ventilation, covering common uses (living room, dining room, kitchen) in connection with the rear patio. The other part, narrow and compact, contains the vertical communication, services, and technical rooms. This concentration of the vertical communications facilitates the distribution across the first floor, where the 3 bedrooms are located in contact with outdoors and natural light, and the dwelling on the second floor, which will be conditioned next.
A wide variety of low-impact ecological material solutions have been used to demonstrate and disseminate the feasibility of technologies in line with the need to decarbonize our buildings. For the street façade, thermal insulation with calcium silicate has been chosen on the inside in order to respect the original façade and to deal with the humidity by capillarity of the subsoil. On the other hand, fire-retardant glass wool insulation has been used in the ventilated façade of the patio, complemented with recycled cotton insulation inside. The annex in the patio is insulated with wood-fiber boards and clay mortar for optimal passive moisture management in summer. On the ground floor, a floating floor is installed on 10 cm thick high-density rock wool plates. To acoustically and thermally seal the building's construction joints, sheep wool from a local manufacturer and certified low-emission sealing tapes have been used. In addition, an energy recovery system of shower water has been installed to reduce the energy consumption of DHW (domestic hot water), one of the principal sources of CO2 gas emissions in a Passive House.
Regarding the active HVAC system, an air-to-water heat pump with a solar evaporator has been installed, thus eliminating the electrical consumption of the fan in the external device, as well as a compact heat exchanger with an integrated recirculation and heating/cooling device. According to the calculations of the PHPP (Passive House Planning Package) tool, the ShowPass building saves about 80% of its greenhouse gas emissions in the operational phase. The reduction of CO2 emissions in the whole life cycle span of the building (calculated over 50 years) is even higher: about 90% regarding to the building before the renovation. Likewise, users enjoy almost zero energy consumption with high comfort in the city center.
