Introduction:
The 2010 winter Olympic and Paralympics games were staged in Vancouver, Canada. As part of the construction works a passive sports centre was constructed at the whistler site which is 125km north of Vancouver. The “Austria Haus” which it has become known is a 250m² building which was the first passive house in Canada designed according to the PHPP verification. The sports centre was built in 2009 in partnership between Austria Passive House Group, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation and Sea to Sky Consulting. The house served as the Austrian Olympic Committee headquarters and daily broadcast studio for the Austrian Public Broadcaster during the games. On April 1st 2010 after the conclusion of the games, the Austria Passive House Group handed this facility over to the Resort Municipality of Whistler – which now used house two popular sporting groups: the Whistler off Road Cycling Association (WORCA) and the Whistler Nordics.
Design
This project was designed by the architect Martin Treberspurg. The idea behind the architectural design was to provide a sample of alpine architecture: a traditional, compact building with a southern-orientation and a gable roof. The monolithic appearance was enhanced by the use of black fibre-cement boards on the entire facade and roof. The ground floor consists of a restaurant area which has a south facing orientation to maximise solar heat gain. Upstairs is the location of the broadcast studio and a separate VIP area; however the internal layout of this building will change when the Austria Passive House Group hand it over to the resort municipality of Whistler.
Front elevation of Passive Sports Centre
Construction Personal
The Austrians provided all the building materials, including the feature logs, triple-glazed windows, walls, roof, ventilation and air circulation systems.
Companies included in construction included:
• Durfeld Log Construction(Whistler based): assembled the building
• Sohm Holzbautechnik: supplied the design and manufactured wood products
• BASF (German company): produced the dense, interlocking foam pieces called Isoquick, used for the heat trapping under the floor slab.
• Optiwin: supplied the triple-glazed windows
• Drexel-Weiss: supplied the HRV (heat recovery ventilators)
• Durfeld Log Construction(Whistler based): assembled the building
• Sohm Holzbautechnik: supplied the design and manufactured wood products
• BASF (German company): produced the dense, interlocking foam pieces called Isoquick, used for the heat trapping under the floor slab.
• Optiwin: supplied the triple-glazed windows
• Drexel-Weiss: supplied the HRV (heat recovery ventilators)
Construction Details :
The building envelope was prefabricated in Alberschwende, Austria by Sohm Holzbautechnik. Prefabrication took approximately 4 weeks. The building envelope was then shipped to Canada. The two story building was then erected by the Sohm team. After the erection of the building envelope this then allowed other companies to carry out the works required to complete the building.
Such elements that helped this centre achieve the passive house standard include:
- The floor which contains 250mm“isoquick” insulation helps the floor achieve a u-value of 0.12W/m²K.
- The 480mm timber frame wall which includes 320mm of mineral wool insulation between studs. The wall has an overall u-value of 0.121W/m²K.
- The roof contains two layers of “Isover” insulation with a total thickness of 440mm. The u-value for the roof is 0.106W/m²K.
- The glazing provided by optiwin has a u-value of 0.79W/m²K.
The building has an annual heating demand of 15kWh/m²a and a heating load of 17W/ (m²). The n50 value is 0.28/h which is well below the 0.6 needed at 50Pa in a passive house.
Along with providing high quantities of insulation, the building also uses a geothermal-fed heating system that allows the building to maintain a constant temperature of between 12-15ยบ C. This allows the building to be heated for approximately $300 a year compared with $3000 for a typical construction method in the area.
Video below gives an insight into the construction of the house.
Conclusion:
As we can see from this building, the passive house concept can be used on any project type provided the right design and construction techniques are used. More emphasis will surely need to be placed on buildings such as this throughout the world to get them to the passive standard.
It is difficult to understand the reason why this is the first and only certified passive building to date in Canada given the cold winter climate which they experience. It seems there is going to be a shift to passive house in the future with companies such as Durfeld construction moving specifically into passive house construction. The company wants to promote the passive house as a building option by promoting it as being economically attractive. To show that it can be economically attractive they have designed a pilot projects in which they hope will demonstrate the increased efficiency will offset the initial investment. It appears that the passive house standard is going to become more widely applied across Canada in the coming years.
Construction of the pilot project in Whistler taking place
