Swedish Designer Aims for Affordable Passive Homes

Swedish architect Anders Holmberg hopes to design a passive solar home for all. In Stockholm, Sweden, he hopes to find his answer. There, Holmberg has designed four highly insulated passive homes that are a testament to simplicity, style and small footprint.

For starters, the homes are constructed from styrofoam blocks lined on either side with a layer of plywood, otherwise known as structurally insulated panels (SIPs). The homes also use solar heating for space and water, as well as recycle waste heat from appliances and other devices in the home.

That’s perhaps the most innovative concept used for these homes. Recycling waste heat is not unheard of (see heat recovery ventilators), but reusing heat from appliances and devices within the building is a practice most often seen on the commercial or industrial scale here in the United States. Given the amount of heat that most appliances produce, there is great potential for recycling heat in the modern home.

Holmberg’s passive homes are clad with dark wood paneling and what he calls “tubes” maintain shade over the front entry and rear patio of the house. The idea behind these patio shelters is to block out sun at the height of summer, keeping the home cool, but allow access in winter when the sun is low in the southern sky.

Another key feature is size. These passive homes are relatively small, using nearly every square inch as living space, including an attic-level second story. All interior walls are painted white to reflect sunlight around the living space. Yet even in such a seemingly small space, Holmberg has managed to fit up to five bedrooms, though second-story headroom will be limited considerably. In the interest of function and footprint, these passive homes maintain simple, traditional pitched-roof design while incorporating passive solar building at every opportunity.

While the architect speaks to the future of low-cost living in modern homes, his Four Passive Homes are far from affordable at this point, currently retailing for the Swedish equivalent of more than $680,000. Nonetheless, these and similar designs represent a growing tendency toward eco-friendly architecture. Today, we tend to focus more on retrofitting our existing buildings, but over time, as new construction picks up again, designs like Mr. Holmberg’s will play an increasingly pivotal role in new home design.

Posted on August 26th in Passive Solar by Dan.