Product category:
Bricks, Blocks and Lintels
News Release from: Hanson | Subject: Hanson House 2 at OFFSITE2007
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 May 2007
Hanson House 2 at OFFSITE2007
Hanson House 2 - a concrete/masonry dwelling swaps traditional positions of living rooms and bedrooms to deliver naturally ventilated home designed.
Building materials giant, Hanson, is turning conventional living on its head at OFFSITE2007, with its revolutionary Hanson House 2 - a concrete/masonry dwelling that swaps the traditional positions of living rooms and bedrooms to deliver a naturally ventilated home designed to cope with 21st-century climate conditions The three-bed detached Hanson House 2 has been constructed at BRE's Watford headquarters alongside Hanson House 1, which was erected for OFFSITE2005
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 6 Oct 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Flue design made easy
Flue Component Scheduling Service from Red Bank, part of Hanson Building Products, is aimed at easing the pressure on architects and specifiers when designing new homes.
Easy compliance with Thermalite
Just published by Hanson Building Products: brochure detailing the solutions offered by Thermalite aircrete blocks to achieve compliance with the new Part L requirements.
The neighbours will clearly demonstrate progress made in the past two years.
In particular, the new house was planned in the context of the Government's voluntary Code for Sustainable Homes (introduced in December 2006).
And HH2 refines the innovations in offsite fabrication shown in HH1 which, together with thermal mass and natural ventilation, assist in achieving the zero carbon target that housebuilders and developers will have to meet by 2016.
Further reading
Hanson benefits for housebuilders and developers
Hanson invests in materials and systems to meet its customers' needs including recently a major investment in dry silo mortar facilities.
Innovative new village features Hanson bricks
Vibrant variety of bricks from Hanson Building Products have been used in the construction of the various buildings that comprise the development.
Hanson invests in new Formpave works
Hanson Formpave doubles paving production capacity as business expands.
The most significant difference since 2005 is that HH2 has been specifically designed to mitigate the impact of the warmer, wetter weather that climate change is predicted to create in the UK.
"Our OFFSITE2007 house focuses on occupant comfort in the changing UK climate," says Gerry Feenan of Hanson.
"It is important to balance the benefits of solar gain during the winter with minimising overheating in the summer".
"Hanson House 2 tackles both issues by employing high thermal mass, coupled with a natural ventilation system and a radical rethink of living spaces to deliver comfortable summertime conditions".
The principle design feature is a ventilating roof lantern that is used to enhance natural air currents by means of the 'stack effect', i.e.warmed indoor air rises and escapes through the ventilating roof lantern, which opens and closes as required to meet prevailing weather patterns.
To take full advantage of this, bedrooms are provided on the slightly cooler ground floor, with the living room, dining room and kitchen provided on the warmer first floor.
The rather unusual shape of the roof is further emphasised by vertically run zinc sheeting; and stack-bonded brickwork completes the building's distinctive appearance.
As with Hanson House 1 the main structure uses masonry panels manufactured off-site in a controlled, factory environment.
This brings the benefits of high quality and speed of construction coupled with little or no site waste.
(On-site construction typically incurs 20% wastage, and also tends to be more susceptible to weather-related delays and difficulties.) "We're delighted to welcome Hanson back to OFFSITE this year," says Jaya Skandamoorthy, Director of Innovation, BRE.
"This second-generation building incorporates many of the features we will need in the changing UK climate".
"It's particularly interesting in the way that it uses a traditional concrete/masonry construction to take advantage of the benefits of high thermal mass, which helps to even out the temperature extremes of summer".
"Equally, because it is also highly insulated, it will remain warmer for longer in the colder months of winter it features a wide range of leading-edge sustainable products, including:.
* high-performance windows with three-layered, argon-filled glazing.
* high-performance external doors.
* sophisticated wall coatings.
* solar panels.
* provision for the installation of a disabled lift platform.
* smart building technologies for the remote operation of heating, lighting, energy monitoring, security provision.
* an interactive web-based hub that enables full community support for health, education, welfare and leisure.
• Hanson: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Buildingtalk email newsletter
• Buildingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
