ENERGY-EFFICIENT FAMILY HOUSE
HOUSE AT MILL CREEK
Location: Mühlen in Taufers / South Tyrol – Italy
Architects: Pedevilla Architects, Bruneck
Collaborators: Erika Plank, Frank Oberlerchner
Site area: 335 m2
Living area: 155 m2
Cost: EUR 430.000
Date of construction: 2012-2014
Info: The family house is located at the exit of the Mühlwald valley, 862 m above sea level. It blends into the surrounding landscape like a white monolith and at the same time evokes the calm and elegant serenity of a manor house. Its rising roof form indicates the upwardly striving, loose sequence of rooms. Square window openings of varying sizes relate to significant points in the immediate steep mountain landscape.
A consistent material choice of local sands, lime and white cement underlines the monolithic character of the building. The façade surface presents itself in a washed coarse plaster. Complementing this are smooth custom concrete window sills made of white cement, as well as the cantilevered concrete canopy over the entry portal, hand-cropped of solid elm wood. Furthermore, the diamond-shaped roof panels were handcrafted from white cement and dolomite sands which were then sandblasted in order to achieve a precise match with the façade.
In terms of sustainability and energy-efficiency, the building was awarded Casa Clima B class by the Casa Clima Agency. Casa Clima buildings exhibit optimised construction methods, careful execution and a high level of comfort. In order to be qualified as Casa Clima B category, the building’s heating energy consumption had to be within the spectrum of 50 kilowatt-hours per square metre annually, which would also be known as “five-litre” buildings for their theoretically energy consumption of 5 litres of oil.
Far beyond the calculated values, however, the sustainability of the project was determined by important fundamental considerations that challenged any habits of contemporary construction. Minimizing the footprint, together with the space-saving split-level development, formed the first sustainability criterion. In addition, the solar energy input - paired with exciting views - is dosed by the purposeful placement of variously sized openings. The fact that the windows are situated on the very inside of the façade, made it unnecessary to install solar shading. Likewise, balconies which would rarely have been comfortable to use at this elevation were omitted.
These considerations, together with the simplistic monolithic brick construction, led to the fact that regional, very high-quality materials with a high level of craftsmanship became more economic. This benefits the feeling of space in the highest degree – Shedding the abundance, extracting the simple and presenting the valuable as the search for a kind of purity.
