SIMILAR PROJECTS
Metrozones
Die IBA zeigt die Zukunft des BauensThe Building Exhibition within the Building Exhibition
to the projectVELUX Model Home 2020 - LightActive House
The aim of the “VELUX Model Home 2020” project is to search Europe for optimal energy efficiency solutions, while ensuring high quality living. In order to present a concrete example as part of the Internationale Bauausstellung IBA (International Building Exhibition) Hamburg, the company chose the Elbe islands as its German location. A semi-detached house in Kirchdorf dating from the early post-war era has been renovated, refitted, and extended to demonstrate how houses can be made more energy efficient.
Around half of Germany’s housing stock is in need of renovation to make it energy efficient, and no longer meets today’s living and comfort standards. Hence the energy saving potential is great, but there is a lack of positive reference projects, particularly in the detached and semi-detached housing sectors.
VELUX is a global company that has been developing its vision of daylight, fresh air, and quality of life for sixty years. As a partner of the IBA, it acquired a typical fifty-year-old semi-detached house in Wilhelmsburg in order to undertake a project that matched this vision. The key issue was how to employ forward-looking architecture and quality materials in an ideal way for renovation purposes. In addition to optimal energy efficiency, the aim was to achieve a high level of comfort for the residents, as the person as the user of the building should always be the focus of the planning.
The first creative ideas were provided by students from the Darmstadt University of Technology as part of a competition. A jury of experts awarded prizes to four of the twenty designs submitted. The concept was further developed on the basis of the students’ work. Redevelopment began in March 2010, with guidance given by a task force from VELUX. The “LightActive House” opened on 19 November 2010. Since December 2011 it has been occupied by a family of four, and thus provided for three years important information about what it is like to live there in practice.
The name “LightActive House” hints at the building's design: large windows, a central access area and library room provide a great deal of daylight. In addition, the renovation has been carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the German Society for Sustainable Construction using a carbon-neutral construction method – the energy requirements for heating, hot water, and electricity are met by renewable forms of energy. An extension containing a carport, utility room, living and dining room, as well as a canopied free area, divides the open space into a leisure garden and a plot for growing vegetables.
The concept had been enhanced by an e-mobility theme: Peugeot has provided an electric car free of charge for one year.
This German “VELUX Model Home 2020” is one of a total of six projects in five European countries, in which the company is seeking to create climate-neutral future housing that adapts to its environment in a dynamic way in order to ensure an optimum indoor climate.
The following videos provide impressions of the “VELUX LightActive House”:
Video 1: The new garden at the LightActive House combines the traditional and the modern.
Video 2: Following modernisation, the LightActive House offers its residents the highest levels of comfort and plenty of natural light.
ADDRESS
Katenweg 41
21109 Hamburg
PRIZES AND AWARDS
ARCHITECTS
Technical University Darmstadt, Fachbereich Architektur, Fachbereich Entwerfen und Energieeffizientes Bauen, Prof. Manfred Hegger Homepage
OstermannArchitekten
Lange Reihe 101
20099 Hamburg