Above: The VAX unit extractor on top of the roof
The client paid a lot of emphasis on the need for the right balance of socially responsible sustainable design and economy. A core aim of the project was to provide economically viable natural heating, ventilation and cooling.
The house therefore has a south-facing conservatory, making the most of the sun to provide heating for the house in winter with a brise soleil to shade it from the summer sun.
A system called a VAX (Venturi Air eXtraction) especially designed by us for the project provides ventilation and cooling in summer by opening vents at the top of the house at night to allow air to cool the fabric and reduce daytime temperatures. There are no fans and minimal moving parts.
A curved wall of heavy construction in the conservatory acts as a thermal flywheel to help maintain coolness in summer and warm it in winter.
Above: The curved 'massive wall' to help heating and cooling
Above: The bris soleil shading the conservatory
Above: The kitchen and dining room shaded
Above: The bris soleil seen from outside the garden
Cooling and heating: The house is laid out to take advantage of natural heating and cooling with systems designed to be economic to build, run and maintain. Especially designed for the house, the VAX (Ventury Air eXtraction) system provides natural summertime cooling and, having no fans and few moving parts, offers a very low lifetime cost solution. This is developed from our conservation experience of similar Victorian ideas at the Natural History Museum.
Thermal flywheel: The natural heating and cooling systems rely on the principle of the thermal flywheel and the curved wall of the conservatory provides the mass required to make it work.
Measurement of performance: We have installed a weather station to measure changes in the house’s internal environment as the external environment changes and this will be monitored by us in the coming months and years to learn lessons on how to improve design in the future.
