At the foot of the Montserrat massif, in the beautiful town of Collbató (Barcelona) we have built two houses in the last year and another one is under construction.
“Collbató I” is a 244 m2 house distributed over two floors. A project by the ArquiTIR architecture studio, directed by the architect and passivhaus designer Eva Jordan, which meets the requirements of the Passivhaus energy efficiency standard with the use of natural and ecological materials.
The use of an industrialized construction system made it possible for the structure, with a light wooden framework, and the roof of the house to be completed in only 5 days (SEE VIDEO), in an agile, precise, and safe way, by means of CAM computer-aided manufacturing. and the use of BIM technology in project management. For its part, the exterior cladding of the façade was resolved with SATE with rock wool insulation.
The low energy demand (less than 15 kWh/m2 year of heating and less than 18 kWh/m2 year of cooling) has been achieved through the application of passive architecture techniques (good insulation, good orientation, watertight walls, solar protection in summer, night ventilation, solar reflectivity), with the use of natural or sustainable materials, free of polluting particles, which in addition to reducing the environmental impact, protect the health of its inhabitants.
The sanitary floor works as an element of thermal inertia that absorbs and stores energy to later release it to the environment little by little. The house has its windows facing south, to capture the heat of the sun and warm up instead of using heating. In addition, they have triple glass, plastic interlayer and noble gas filling with high thermal performance carpentry. The glasses are of low emissivity, which work by trapping the heat inside and reducing its thermal transmittance with variable solar control depending on its orientation.
The final result, in addition to almost zero energy consumption, the comfort and quality of indoor air stand out.
The project materializes the client’s wishes to have quality spaces and thermal comfort, to which was also added the specific request for a house that on the ground floor would be organized from a central office from which to control the rest of the activities.
Isabel Pérez, owner, comments on her impressions of the house and the construction process.
From the beginning we liked the idea of building a house with high energy efficiency, thinking about comfort and future savings.
The project has been carried out with great responsibility, quality, and dedication, first of all by the architects and the construction company and also by the rest of the professionals who have participated in the execution phases.
Like almost everything in life, it is one thing to plan and quite another to make what has been thought or designed come true.
A limited group of people participated in the planning, while many more and from different companies participated in the execution; By this I mean that a good dialogue (and channeling of information), understanding and, above all, flexibility are paramount.
Sometimes it’s lucky that things don’t turn out exactly as planned, deviations can be even better than the initial idea.
On the other hand, there are all the necessary procedures to materialize the project: permits from the City Council (whose achievement puts the patience of the most patient to the test), permits for the supply of basic services such as water and electricity (which must also be pursued and fought for)…
“The interior temperature in summer and winter exceeds our expectations”
As the project progresses, takes shape and everything is solved, the feeling of starting to see the design materialize is a real pleasure.
The details with which we must live on a daily basis are gaining prominence and all those other structural aspects that we have had to modify, fit and mold during the process lose relevance.
In the end, we have managed to build a house our size, stupendous and very comfortable; the temperature that is maintained inside in summer and winter exceeds our expectations.
