Our Max Fordham House project designed by Justin Bere and Alex Whitcroft of bere:architects as been awarded CIBSE Project of the Year 2021. We are grateful for the recognition of our achievements on this challenging and unique project. There was a considerable amount of contractor design largely undertaken by our technical director Rafael Delimata. Research, development and manufacturing was also required in order to make client Max Fordham’s dreams come true. This was all conducted in house by Bow Tie staff. It is a 3 bedroom Passivhaus Plus project making it a Zero Carbon Home. It was nominated for RIBA house of the year in 2020 and featured on Grand Designs.
In the judges words:
“This winning project’s design intent of zero heating impressed the judges, who were interested in the range of innovations and how they might be scalable and replicable to other projects.
Using the Passivhaus standard, the building was designed so the heat loss on a cold winter’s day would be no more than the heat generated by the people within. It was expected that a rooftop array of PV could meet the annual energy demands of the house.
The building – with its thermally massive structure, effective window opening areas, glossy white external finishes to window shutters and effective night-time ventilation – is also designed to stay comfortable in extremely hot weather. Its peak measured internal temperature was 28°C on 25 July 2019, when London reached 38°C during the record-breaking heatwave.”
Key features:
- Heated by internal heat gains only. No radiators or underfloor heating.
- Fitted with bespoke internal pocket insulated shutters on all windows, designed and manufactured by Bow Tie Construction. These were the client’s vision. Opening and closing controlled by the BMS. Hugely improves the U-value of window openings at night.
- Biodynamic Solar Green Roof, Green Terrace and Balcony all act as slow-release reservoirs.
- We had a clear specification on M&E however it was within contractor design. Bow Tie Construction designed all automation and electrics in the house.
- Final airtightness result of 0.38 ACH (Passivhaus certification limit of 0.6):
For more information and completed and construction photos please head over to the Max Fordham House project page
CPDs on this project available upon request.
