Windsor
Our Client had an existing private property on 10 acres of green belt land cleared to develop to passivehouse standards a new family home, completed in 2010. Finbo were engaged as Project Manager following completion of the majority of the design work. Approximately NZ$5m was invested in the entire site redevelopment.
The outstanding property, designed by one of Europe’s leading passivehouse designers, Bere Architects, consists of basement, ground and first floor, swimming pool, workshops and stables for 10 polo ponies with associated corrals, ménage and 400m drained training track. The entire site was reseeded and fenced with border hedgerows attracting wildlife back to the once wasted expanse of ground. An Iskra AT5-1 12m turbine sited at the rear of the site, the first to be approved for domestic installation in the locality is estimated to produce 8.7MWh of energy for the site and will save almost 5 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
Initial issues resolved were to remove and bury 11kV overhead cabling and reclaim a boundary breached by the illegal spread of a neighbouring caravan park. All buildings were constructed with the use of reclaimed imperial bricks mixed with new metric bricks in a Flemish bond. 24,000 reclaim roof tiles imported from France were individually drilled for fixing prior to blending and laying.
The cladding hides a super insulated cavity over a steel frame. Ground beams connect to 130 CFA piles formed u to 18m in London clay. Specialist supplier Schock provided insulated stub column modules to provide the thermal break with the concrete ground beams. Steico, Rockwool, Dow and Foamglas insulation products were utilised in the fully insulated and airtight envelope. Soundcraft manufactured the bespoke triple glazed thermally broken timber frame windows and doors with Dynamight Scotland installing and providing the PAUL passivhaus certified whole house heat recovery unit.
Extensive solar pV arrays, a solar hot water panel array, intelligent lighting, in house and in wall sound system, CCTV and whole site telecom service complement the services installations whilst an automated veranda blind provides additional solace from the summer sun at the rear of the property.
Approximately 70 separate trade contractors and over 100 suppliers were managed along with the project team of architects, structural and service engineers.
Location: Windsor, England
Client: Span Group, London
Architect: Bere, London
Project Manager: Finbo
