Berlin firm Peter Ruge Architekten completed an experimental apartment complex last year in Changxing in southern China, Passive House Bruck. The apartments, according to the architects, are an experiment with “passive housing,” or buildings that reduce their ecological footprint through the use of energy-efficient design.
The firm states that a goal of the project was to acclimate residents to the idea of passive housing, to show them that such spaces could be comfortable even in extreme weather conditions. As such, the building’s 36 flats, six executive suites and four three-bedroom apartments are lived in on a temporary basis.
The climate in the region is damp and warm. The designers adapted the building’s facade to mediate this weather through the use of triple-glazed windows which are shaded from the sun. The vertical cladding adorning the facade is made of terracotta rods, which the designers state form an outer shell which protects the building from intense sun.
The firm received a Gold Medal World Green Design Award in 2014 for the project. They state: “Energy efficient buildings in Southern China are a great challenge due to the climate conditions; they are the answer to the introduction and realization of sustainable and future-oriented passive house standards in the Chinese residential housing market.”
Hopefully the trend catches on.
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Passive House Bruck by Peter Ruge Architekten. Photographs by Jan Siefke.
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