German Passive House Founder Visits China First Passive House
Time：2014-04-17
On April 15, Dr. Wolfgang Feist, founder of German passive houses, was invited to the coast of the Taihu Lake in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province to visit the just-completed "Bruck" passive house project in Landsea Green Building R & D Base.
According to sources, with an investment of 220 million yuan, an area of 60 mu and a total floor area of 40,000 square meters, upon inauguration, Landsea Green Building R & D Base will have capabilities such as integrated design of green buildings, building energy efficiency, environmental protection, building intelligence, renewable energy development and utilization, building decoration integration and component testing, and will provide integrated services such as meeting, training and presentation. Previously at the "10th International Conference on Green and Energy-Efficient Building & New Technologies and Products Expo" in March 2014, Qiu Baoxing, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and J. Henley, President of the World Green Building Council awarded plaques to four Chinese green building bases. Among these bases, Landsea Changxing R & D Experimental Base is an integral part of East China Green Building Base.
The "Bruck" project was implemented by Landsea Technology in association with the Passive House Institute and German Energy Agency (dena). This is Chinas first passive house designed and built according to German passive house standards in an area hot in summer and cold in winter, as well as Chinas first project according with Three Star Green Building standards, DGNB standards and LEED standards. With 48 standard rooms and 4 suites, a floor area of some 2,500 square meters, the project is positioned as a green hotel.
Passive house was born in Germanys renowned financial center Frankfurt in the 1990s. Such houses use ultra-thick thermal insulation materials, have complex door & window structures, accomplish efficient heat insulation based on house structures, and heat rooms through solar equipment and electrical appliances, thus reducing or consuming no actively generated energy. The worlds first "passive house" was built by Feist in Darmstadt in 1991 with an average heat consumption of only 10kwh/m2.a. As a renowned German physicist and structural engineer, Feist was hailed as the founder of passive house energy standards.
During the visit, Feist spoke highly of Landseas newly-built "Bruck" building, thinking it more difficult to build a passive house in Changxing than in Germany, "We do not need to take refrigeration and dehumidification into account in Germany, but new standards are needed here as the Yangtze River Delta is hot and humid," he said. Nevertheless, the "Bruck" project succeeded eventually as a project second to none in China in terms of professionalism, scale and forwardness. On April 11, the project took the most critical test before becoming a passive house: final air tight test, and passed the test with a ventilation rate of 0.34 times under a positive pressure of 50Pa and 0.37 times under a negative pressure of 50Pa, far better than 0.6 times--the prescribed standard for passive houses. This shows Chinas architecture has been up to advanced international standards, and the project will become a benchmark for design and construction in areas hot in summer and cold in winter.
"Through the project, Landsea hopes to promote the development of Chinas building energy efficiency and make an attempt at commercialization of passive house," said Xie Yuanjian, Executive Vice President of Landsea Group, adding, "As Chinas green building leader, passive houses will be launched as early as possible as Landseas next-generation products."