Revisiting Princedale Road, the first Passivhaus retrofit in the UK
Completed 10 years ago, this Victorian residential retrofit achieved an 80% carbon emission reduction. With Net Zero London firmly on the agenda, we thought we would revisit Princedale Road to find out what has happened since we completed the house in 2010 for Octavia Housing. Marion Baeli went along and was fortunate to be welcomed by the original tenant, who is still living very happily in this ground-breaking project.
Achieving Net Zero in the built environment is complex, reductions will need to continue to be made when constructing new homes and in operational energy for all homes. The real challenge however is how to decarbonize existing housing to reduce energy demand and CO2 emissions. The Princedale Road project was a government led competition to investigate this challenge. The revisit was a great opportunity to review it and hear first-hand from the tenant how this Passivhaus retrofit has performed.
"The house is lovely in the winter months, we are nice and warm, I love this house and want my family to grow up in it."
Resident at 100 Princedale Road
One of these houses is very different from the others, it has no gas connection or central heating system and uses 83% less energy each year than a ‘typical house’
We can report that the building fabric has had no issues with no signs of damp anywhere and the triple glazed, prototype windows are working fine. The Genvex combi unit (MVHR/hot water tank) has worked perfectly, providing continuous fresh air and hot water. Maintenance is changing the MVHR filters once a year. Overall servicing needs to be carried out by appropriately trained facilities maintenance teams, just a matter of learning about new equipment, a nice and exciting learning curve.
For operational energy there is no gas or central heating system fitted in the house and hot water is via solar thermal panels on the roof. The tenant reported that she has never felt cold in the winter ever or had to add any additional heat source. There were some issues during the summer heatwave with the top floor bedrooms becoming uncomfortable which could be helped with external shading. The house has an underground labyrinth that tempers incoming air beneath the footprint of the house.
Completed in collaboration with Octavia Housing, Eight Associates, Ryder Strategy and Enhabit, it seems extraordinary that 10 years have passed since the tenant moved in. As we are all now quite rightly working towards our collective decarbonising goals, it is interesting to pause and learn from projects such as Princedale Road. Perhaps this paints a picture of how we all need to be living ten years from now in London 2030.
For further information see our Princedale Road project page or our Princedale Road case study.
We believe that as architects, we need to be firmly aware and take responsibility for our impact on the environment. PDP London is signatory of the Architect Declare declaration and the AJ RetroFirst campaign and apply their principles through conscious planning, design and construction (fabric first) and through careful thinking of the maintenance and operation of our buildings. We also embrace restoring nature to promoting biodiversity, optimising the health and wellbeing of people and creating long-term value for society with an improving quality of life.