100-apartment passive house

Design program

A 100-apartment passive house residential building complex with flats of an average of 50 m2, with car parking and bicycle storage. Three different types of housing units were developed in the three blocks. The smaller apartments of 40 m2 are studios, while the larger ones (50m2) have one and a half and one plus two half-rooms (60m2). The living rooms are oriented towards the open facades, only subordinate rooms face the corridors.

Building concept

The building complex was divided into three parts due to the relatively large volume based on the high number of apartments and due to the most favorable orientation. The building parts surround an inner courtyard where a green area has been created. We established parking lots under the yard above the ground floor, mostly in the basement underground garage, and some on the ground floor.

Why a hanging corridor?

A passive house can be designed with any system (with sectiond, middle corridor, side corridor, etc.). We have reinterpreted the traditional suspended corridor system. The three-building complex has a personal entrance from both Jasz Street and Zsinor Street. The horizontal circulation system of the building is an open side corridor divided by pillars and bridges organized around the inner courtyard surrounded by the buildings, which is located outside the thermal envelope. The uniqueness of the system is that the suspended corridor is set back from the windows of the apartments to ensure privacy. The distance is the greatest at the living room of the two-room apartment, smaller at the kitchen of the one-and-a-half-room apartment, and the smallest in the case of the studio apartment. The two vertical circulation cores were located between the building blocks as separate elements. The advantage of the suspended corridor is that the rooms of the apartments can be ventilated and get natural daylight.

Architectural concept

Within the thermal envelope, the strict rationality of the flats is the determining factor, which is counterpointed by the free lines of the external corridors and stairs. Towards the inner courtyard, the building shows its bustling, colorful side, the communal, bustling side, while towards the gardens it shows its calm, private face. The use of materials also supports the above. The thermal envelope of the apartments is an insulated white thin-plaster system with prefabricated reinforced concrete balconies. Behind the exposed concrete framed structure of the inner courtyard, a colored metal cladding adheres to the wall at the corridor and bridge connections and runs along as a suspended ceiling.

Adopted strategies

• for tenants: 15-20.000 HUF (40-50 EUR) heating costs per apartment - per year
• for engineers: The general criterion for obtaining the qualification of the “Darmstadt Passivhaus Institut” is that the total specific annual primary energy demand is maximum 120 kWh / (m2year), the n50 air tightness pressure test is maximum 0.6 1 / h, the overheating frequency is maximum 10% , and the specific net heating energy demand does not exceed 15 kWh / (m2year), or the heating design load does not exceed 10 W / m2.
• for designers: compact design - a given building volume is associated with the smallest possible heat loss surface. The proportion of facade glass surfaces should not exceed 40%. The optimal orientation allowed by the site and the building regulations - most of the glass surfaces should be oriented south-east to south-west, a small part of them can be oriented east or west, and the north-facing glass surface should not exceed 5%. The use of external louvred shading against summer overheating. It is important to ensure that the flats are ventilated at night to prevent summer overheating. Thermal bridge-free design - minimizing heat loss in the passive house is essential. Heat recovery ventilation: with continuous air exchange, the requirements to obtain the “passive house” qualification can be met by recovering 70-90% of the thermal energy of the extracted used air. The clean air (dust and pollen free filtered) is blown into the bedroom, living room, and the extraction takes place from rooms with polluted air (kitchen, bathroom, toilet).