Tigh Na Cladach PassivHaus

This is the UK’s first social housing PassivHaus development and it has been certified by the Scottish Passive House Centre. The ‘Tigh-Na-Cladach’ or ‘house by the shore’ development consists of 15 one, two and three bedroom semi-detached houses and one workshop, overlooking the Firth of Clyde in Dunoon.

Image © Andrew Lee

Designed by Professor Gokay Deveci of Robert Gordon University, the affordable, low energy housing scheme has been developed by Fyne Initiatives; the commercial subsidiary of Argyll based Housing Association, Fyne Homes.
Professor Deveci explains,

“The design typology of this development is that of a typical fishing village in the West coast of Scotland, in response to the place and context, whilst respecting both contemporary and traditional Scottish architecture. This development demonstrates that it is possible to design practical, energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing social housing. The design of these buildings is not compromised by the fact that they are ‘affordable homes’.”

Each home has been designed to run at one tenth of an average home’s energy needs.

How is this achieved?… Using the PassivHaus principles.

• very good levels of insulation with minimal thermal bridges

• well thought out use of solar and internal gains

• excellent level of §

• good indoor air quality, provided by a whole house mechanical ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery*

*Heat Recovery Ventilation Each house is equipped with whole-house ventilation through a Mechanical Heat Recovery system. The two bed rooms and the lounge room are constantly supplied with fresh air, whereas in the kitchen and bathrooms warm stale air extracted constantly. Before the extracted air leaves the house, it passes by a heat exchanger that extracts the heat and transfers it into the fresh supply air, this heats the house using the heat from people’s activities, cooking, appliances, etc.

Project Name: Tigh-Na-Cladach, Dunoon | Architect: Professor Gokay Deveci, Robert Gordon University | Client: Fyne Initiatives / John Brown (Strone) Ltd. | Image © Andrew Lee

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