Integrated design and Passive Houses for Arctic Climates

Integrated design is important for passive buildings and it has to be started in the early stage of the design process. The proposal of a new dormitory building in Sisimiut, Greenland will be an object of the paper where shape of the building, indoor climate and energy needs are crucial factors to be considered in the design project.

The architectural proposal for the dormitory has given the building a cylindrical shape which gives great opportunity to investigate the possible solutions in this building shape comparing to traditional shapes. The task was to set up the functional requirements for the dormitory building on room level (number of rooms and bathrooms, kitchens, building site, indoor needs, etc.) and to optimize its design with respect to indoor environment (e.g. depth of room, insulation thickness and window design).

For analysis and comparison, simulations of energy performance were done in the software iDbuild on room level with the number of alternative space solutions for individual room with common bathroom and common kitchen. The space of solutions was compared and combined and resulted in an answer to the design of the building/dormitory which gave the best possible solution with respect to indoor environment and energy performance. The paper outlines the importance of Integrated Design in early stages of designing and building a well optimized Arctic Passive House.

The objective of the paper is to evaluate important factors such as the extreme weather in Greenland, building design, energy performance and space of solutions in a climate where the need of saving energy costs is highly accentuated.