Passive architecture

This residential transformation project reinterprets a 1960s house through a careful strategy of structural reuse, volumetric clarity, and spatial densification. Situated on a corner plot within a heterogeneous urban fabric of varying building scales and typologies, the intervention preserves the footprint and foundational concrete frame of the existing house while extending vertically with a lightweight steel structure engineered to withstand seismic loads. Giorgos Sfakianakis The architectural language is defined by a sculptural massing of opaque facades and calibrated openings. Responding to the proximity of taller neighboring buildings and the challenge of privacy, the house assumes a monolithic presence. To mediate light and spat... More

Carr, working with a progressive client, has designed a project that transfigures commercial architecture and interiors by embracing sustainability, longevity, and innovation. This project, situated on an urban industrial site in Collingwood, showcases Carr’s potential to transform industrial spaces into vibrant and sustainable environments. Rory Gardiner The design of 116 Rokeby echoes Collingwood's industrial materiality combined with a pragmatic approach to sustainability. Rory Gardiner Rory Gardiner Robust and tactile The form is robust and tactile, expressing strong architectural repetition on the facade while adopting a holistic, inside-out approach. Figurehead, a Melbourne-based construction company, is both... More

The buyers of the Bay View House, aptly named for its waterfront locale, were seeking a perfect home to retire in, one with a smaller footprint that meshed with their creative leanings, all while staying within a set budget. Energy and water savings, as well as working with the natural landscape, also were the key challenges. As outlined in Atlantic Focus magazine, Passive Design Solutions worked in conjunction with Carpentry Inc. and Engineering Ltd. to develop a concept that met these needs while leveraging the performance opportunities of a passive energy design.  Caption Performance efforts began with the orientation and layout of the home. The team considered existing trees and landscape, and clerestory and operable windows... More

Drawing inspiration from local Norfolk pines, the latest mixed-use residential project by Koichi Takada Architects is a sculptural and sympathetic addition to its coastal location in Burleigh Heads (Queensland, Australia). The organic, overlapping architectural curves and linear screening form the basis for this responsive building with passive design principles at play.  Scott Burrows   Designed to appreciate the 1,012 square-meter beachfront site on Goodwin Terrace at the southern end of Burleigh Heads Beach, the north facing 10-storey structure provides 15 unique apartments, two dual level penthouses with private rooftop pools, and impressive ground floor wellbeing amenities for residents to enjoy the prime location year... More

Casa de Victoria, an eco-guest house near the coast of Bay of Bengal The project is designed as cluster of small studio units for long term visitors to stay in a nature friendly environment.  Ramya Prasad Site Planning The guest house comprises of 3 studio units connected by a small corridor with an avenue of existing trees on one side, which have been retaining. The units are placed in a way, that there are small sit out spaces created in-between the units which gives privacy and acts as a small courtyard spaces. They also increase the cross ventilation and let in natural light inside the units. Caption Unit Design Each unit is designed as a small studio apartment. The units consist of a living room, bedroom, and a work... More

The idea of horizon is strongly felt on the site through the stark mesa that lies adjacent to the community. Overpowering in scale, the Mesa forms the backdrop of the project. Caption Caption This idea of horizon is grounded in the concept of TERRA. A single-story structure in constant connection to the desert floor, low in profile, the roof edge, demarcated with a steel ribbon, forms a datum line, characteristically reflecting the Mesa’s strong horizontal edge. Caption Caption Light is in constant play in the desert, reflecting off the desert floor...diffused through the leaves of mesquite trees. In TERRA, the roof encompasses the project, extending past the edge of the enclosure,  to form a series of prote... More

Urban planning and architectural design  The new school campus creates within the municipality a place with its own identity. Despite its size the building and its entrance area is not disturbing the spatial and functional context of the place as it stands on the other end of an urban axis connecting the campus with the village square unveiling its potential to become a lively street. The community character of the building is visually supported by a public library situated in an exposed corner facing the village. The school is set in a mellow slope and the design works with different floor counts facing the entrance area on one side and the school grounds on the other one. The large building is divided into several structural vo... More

This project is integrated into a suburban housing environment. Located in the Rue des Chantereines in the city of Montreuil, the site of the project faces housing blocks typical from the sixties which heights goes from five to ten stories. On the other hand, the inner borders of the parcel are surrounded with houses and their gardens.   COOPIMMO is our client. It is cooperative for affordable housing, that has become one of the first producer of social accommodations with a renting-purchasing system. COOPIMMO is also a pioneer at the national scale on using the « Fair Lease Agreement », a plan that regulates the price of the land for this type of constructions. Its structure allows it to take action all around... More

Location: Kyiv, UkraineArea: 255 m2Year: 2018Principles and decisions made in the project.1. Priority of the site (the main value of suburban accommodation is site). The house is designed with a rational approach to the site. Buildings are concentrated in the northern parts with minimal shading and maximum space in front of the house. The site is elongated in plan, so the house has an elongated shape too.2. Subordination to the four cardinal direction. The permanent residence rooms are oriented towards the southern side.3. The house is divided into functional zones. Technical sphere (garage, technical premises, auxiliary premises), transit zone of general purpose use (kitchen, dining room, living room), private area (bedroom).4. A lot of st... More

Our company Biodomes www.biodomes.eu designs and builds custom, one-of-a-kind glass, metal and concrete geodesic domes. We offer over 20 different geodesic dome models that can be sized and customized in a number of ways. We also build earth sheltered, green roof geodesic domes that can be insulated to passive house standards. Our goal is to create structures whose function is as important as their form, buildings that are beautiful and functional at the same time. Earth sheltered, glass geodesic domes represent the ultimate sustainable passive eco homes of the future and the timeless design and alluring aesthetics of geodesic domes offer unsurpassed versatility, they can be designed as ultra modern passive eco-homes, recreational spaces, i... More

The Vogels’ residence in Sattel, Schwyz, is located 1,100 metres above sea-level, in the Mostelberg skiing and hiking region. The site grants a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains and the Lake of Aegri in the distance. As the plot shows a slight dip, not much of this panorama can be seen close to the ground. The basic concept of the building was however developed out of this seeming disadvantage: both the residential part of the house and the part dedicated to work are raised above ground level and rest on an unheated basement, which only houses the garage and the basement. And because the building code only allowed a two-storey structure, the house expands horizontally. This led to its characteristic projections and embeds it in a... More

A house without heating system. The windows and prefabricated walls are so well insulated that the home’s primary sources of heat are the occupants and the sun. The heat recovery ventilation provides fresh air without heating process. Principle: Successful integration in the site thanks to its double face, closed to the north to limit heat losses and opened to the south to benefit from free solar energy. Aesthetically, it is a sculptural and abstract replica of a traditional house. Descriptive: A second skin with an open work cladding in untreated bamboo envelopes the structure in solid wood panels. This cladding, which becomes grey over the time, took inspiration from traditional barns in this part of the Ile-de-France region. It p... More

The intense urban rhythms of bustling New York fit perfectly to the character of a technological giant like Google, but the interior of its headquarters is dominated by a sense of "escapism" and undisturbed by external factors, working experience. In the fourth largest building of the city, there has been significant changes in terms of energy improvement and working conditions. The building retains its architectural style, while at the same time, also includes elements of a contemporary approach. A huge volume of 270,000 m² whose external surface consists of a ceramic finish, dominates and imposes itself on 111 of 8th Avenue trying to maintain the closest connection to the city even though inside the building strategies for the future... More