Our latest house to be completed near Kinsale in County Cork is now available to view on the official passive house website. See webpage here. We have not had the house fully certified but nevertheless it still following passive house principals and uses many passive house features and products.
The house has been cleverly designed so that the open plan kitchen, dining and sitting room have views to the ocean at Old Head and across the Derrynasaggart Mountains to the north while enjoying the curved ceiling over the whole space. This was a challenge within the planning constraints of the site but the resulting design has overcome the constraints to produce a house that makes the most of the features of the site.
The extension is built of timber frame construction with loads of cellulose recycled newspaper insulation with a specification to passive house standard. The converted cottage to yoga studio used sheep wool insulation and the overall project is now A rated.
The extension incorporates sedum grass roofs. Sedum grass roofs are great for the environment; habitat for insects and bees, manage rainwater and flash flooding, protect the roof structure and keep sequestering CO2 for the rest of the building’s life. But they are also beautiful to look at and we have design the link so that you can look out over the sedum on the lower roof, which has a apt backdrop of the Burren in the background (home to sedum like plants). The sedum changes with the season and even has flowers in the spring but at the same time is easy to maintain.
Above is a photograph of the house nearing completion.
