Jean Desforges House, Leather Gardens
When Newham Council came to Kind & Co to build four of their first five Passivhaus projects, they knew that the lower fuel bills would help their tenants, and the excellent build quality would mean lower maintenance in the future.
But they were all different in design, with different energy challenges and Kind & Co realised that they needed our skills to gain their first Passivhaus certified buildings. We were both delivery architects and certified Passivhaus Designers for all four sites.
Jean Desforges House is the first to be finished. It has five maisonettes and 16 flats in an eight-sided block, giving a very efficient shape. Our work included:
- We knew how to avoid extra heat losses at the junctions between walls and floors and knew which specialised windows and ventilation units were needed.
- We used our in-house modelling skills to calculate the shading and heat loss of each pane of glass.
- Our experience of housing design and construction made it easy to build and to keep air leakage really low. The building achieved air leakage one twelfth of the legal maximum.
- With a few weeks to go it is on track for Passivhaus Certification.