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
Well done Kevin, great find and a very interesting project.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to see that it is the only passive building in Canada because of the cold climate the heating costs for traditional buildings must be huge. It will be interesting over the next few years to see if there is a development of more passive houses in Canada.
From reading the summary did the building achieve passive standard certification or has it just been calculated using phpp?
The article says that all the materials required for construction came from Austria. Surely this has sent the carbon footprint of the building through the roof, so to speak. The savings to the environment through heating may have been outweighed by the carbon emissions to get all the materials to the site. A quick check shows that the distance the materials would have to travel is over 5200 miles!!
It is interesting to see a geothermal system being used in such a cold climate.
Very good review kevin.
Jan
Hi Jan,
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you the materials had to travel a long way but it is not going to require the use of very large amounts of emissions. The house would be contained in a small number of containers and proberbly shipped along with other materials which would further reduce the carbon emissions. Overall there will be large amounts of energy saved in the future of the building. Substantially more than was required to get materials to Canada.
As this was the first project in Canada it was good that it was properly constructed by the Austrians as they have experience in the area unlike the Canadians. This building now gives the Canadians a platform from which to develop from.
Geothermal is more effective in which the ground is warmer but it can still be used in very cold climates such as this.
Finally on the point you make about passive certification, there is no information given about that it received passive house certification. However it has being deigned in accordance with PHPP Verification. The values outlined above do indicate it is to the passive standard.
Kevin
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteYou're right. It’s hard to believe that this is the first certified Passive house in Canada. One would have thought that people in this climate would be very keen to make the most of good insulation, solar gain and geothermal energy. The savings in cost that you mentioned (90%) is remarkable.
What was also notable was that it only took 5 days to erect and finish the prefabricated timber wall sections. This is a huge advantage with timber framed. In my case study the client wanted blockwork and the severe Irish Winter of 2010 meant that there was a long delay as the blockwork couldn't be carried out in the frost. You'd be along time waiting to lay a block in the winter in Canada!!
Also ,I see the U Value of the glazing was 0.79W/m2K. Is this for the glazing alone or the glazing and frame? The combination should be under 0.8W/m2K
Good blog again Kevin.
Shay
Hi Shay.
ReplyDeleteThe window is a solid wood triple glazed window with cork as insulation layer. That was meant to be uw value of 0.79W/m²K, with a ug value of 0.74W/m²K.
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteFirstly I am amazed that this is the first project of its kind in canada. But surly there is a closer source of materials than austria? have you any information on this?
Do you know what the cost of this project compared to traditional methods of building are?
Although when one sees the long term savings surly the initial cost, once its within reason, will be totally dwarfed by the current savings.
Great post,
Look forward to hearing from you.
Kieran
Hi Kieran,
ReplyDeleteAs I have already stated in my reply to jans comments,
this was the first project in Canada so it was good that it was properly constructed by the Austrians. It wasnt about obtaining materials closer to Canada. it was about giveing the Canadians a platform from which to develop from.
figures have not been released with regard to cost savings for the project.
kevin
ReplyDeletethe carbon footprint is most certinley not top of priority for this building, due to the fact that it is the first passive house built in canada this must be taken into consideration. it is great to see how fast the timber walls section can be erected especialy when compared to concrete built.
good post
Anthony
Good blog Kevin, it has drilled up a lot of interest!
ReplyDeleteIn relation to previous comments, it doesn’t surprise me that the materials were shipped in from Austria. You say that the games were held in 2010, so I am assuming design and construction began on this in 2008/2009. At this stage, Passive House was still very much an unknown, and Germany and Austria were the go-to place for materials. Even today, when designing in Ireland (a place that has the third biggest number of Certified Passive House designers) designers and specifiers have to go further afield to Germany to get a lot of their Passive Certified products. And as the concept was for alpine architecture, you are right, nobody does it better than the Austrians!
I would wonder about how the designers dealt with the different temperature and humidity levels throughout the building. The best recommended room temperature is 22oC for changing/dressing areas and 16-19oC for sports halls and areas of activity. The project would have to be entered into the PHPP as two different buildings, and I would be curious to find out if this has an effect on the efficiency of the MHRV.
Another issue would be the noise between sports arena areas and quiet meeting areas for the delegates. I wonder what type of mineral wool was used, or even if something like GUTEX was used also, as you remember from our visit to Ecological building systems, this was very high performance in terms of sound insulation. I wonder was the same wall construction used throughout the building, or was the build-up altered to accommodate different thermal, acoustic and humidity requirements? It would probably be difficult to get this information, but your blog certainly made me consider these aspects of sports centre design. It is difficult to get a Passive House building that is not a house or an office, so well done!
Eimear