Archer Lane Sheffield

HEM Architects has just completed a new build sustainable home, located in a sensitive suburban site in Sheffield. Green Building Store’s PERFORMANCE triple glazed timber windows and doors and MVHR design service were chosen for the project.

Low energy design

The house was designed using PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) to be as low energy as possible within the budgetary and practical constraints of the project. The location was quite constrained by the back gardens of adjacent houses, adjacent allotments and views from the existing house all constraining the footprint and also had a west-facing aspect. Despite these constraints, the project achieved a space heating requirement of 23 kWh/m2/ year.

Design concept

The house was designed as a sunken, walled garden to give privacy to both the occupants and the neighbours. A low block containing the kitchen, dining and circulation spaces creates the fourth wall of this garden. Straddling this is a simply pitched roof form of the “garden shed” that straddles this block and interfaces between the private garden and the more public front face of the house. The “shed” houses the entrance, living space and bedrooms.

The “garden wall” element is designed materially to be very much part of the garden whilst the “shed” is a lightweight, cleanly detailed structure that sits in this landscape. The house combines a range of materials such as a zinc roof, stone and timber cladding to create a clean, contemporary aesthetic.

Triple glazed timber windows and doors

Green Building Store’s PERFORMANCE range of windows and doors (with a whole window U value of 0.85 W/m2K) were recommended by architect Paul Testa to the selfbuilder client for the project.

The windows selected were PERFORMANCE inward opening tilt and turn windows and there were also two PERFORMANCE Lift and slide doors, a single entrance door with a small viewlight and two fixed angled windows following the line of the roof. The colour scheme used for the PERFORMANCE windows and doors was outside colour RAL 5008 and the inside colour was a transparent white colour (D9010).

MVHR heat recovery ventilation system

Green Building Store supplied, designed and commissioned the Paul Focus 200 MVHR system at the project, utilising a ductwork system of rigid spiral wound steel. Paul Testa worked with Green Building Store’s MVHR Design Service very early on in the design process, at almost a pre-design stage, to ensure that MVHR was well thought through from the project’s conception. The MVHR system was expertly and neatly installed by a joiner working on the project, using the clearly labelled drawings and instructions supplied by Green Building Store’s MVHR team.

Thermal comfort

The clients are reportedly very happy with the thermal comfort of their new house. Despite having initial teething issues with the heating system, so far, in their first winter they’ve not felt much need for additional heat; just cooking a meal provides any top up they might require.