CRL Venturous Build Award 2016 for Stommel Haus "Heartwood"

An inspiring new web series that showcases Britain’s most extraordinary people and their construction achievements was revealed by CRL. Self-builders were being asked to submit their projects and architects, builders and developers refered their venturous builds over the summer of 2016.

 

Venturous clients of Stommel Haus  and their house "Heartwood" in Aberdeenshire with its groundbreaking "Heating with Ice" technology has been selected a winner of the new "CRL Venturous Builds Award". 

Click the image below to watch a presentation of the house by Wayne Hemingway.

Read here for more information about the award and read the CRL press release by clicking here. 

 

In November 2016 renowned designer Wayne Hemingway interviewed our clients Teresa and Vic about their "venturous build", their motivation to build a house from Germany and the eco features of this fabulously energy efficient home. The film is available now, click the image above to watch it. 

About the Venturous Build in Aberdeenshire

 

The project is a custom build project of a Scottish couple in Aberdeenshire for a very energy efficient eco timber house built of untreated arctic heartwood spruce from FSC certified forests in Finnland. It is insulated with recycled newspaper and recycled glass and only non-toxic building materials are used.

The house is a generous 3 bedroom house with 216 m² living space. There is a double height dining room from which you can see the very beautiful vaulted timber ceiling at around 7 m height. 

The house is fitted with under-floor heating on all storeys and triple glazing timber windows. 

It is heated with a heat pump and groundbreaking new technology “Heating with Ice” which uses the energy of the ambient heat, the ground, solar energy and the latent energy of ice to generate heating energy and hot water for the house. 

 

What makes the project venturous

There are several aspects which make the project venturous. Most of all, the project is venturous because: 

  • The house is fitted by ground breaking “Heating with Ice” technology which takes the energy from ambient heat, solar energy, the ground and the latent energy of ice.
  • It will score top energy efficiency
  • The materials: sustainable untreated, high quality arctic timber from FSC certified forests; recycled newspaper and recycled glass for insulation; gypsum and paper panels in the partition walls
  • The house is fitted with Solar panels which will generate more electricity than will be used by the house
  • The Scottish owners looked around to find the right partner for the project and found the partner in Germany. For most people this is venturous as you are dealing with a partner from a foreign country whose language you don’t speak. Together with the German partner Stommel Haus, there were several hurdles to take such as obtaining Planning Permission for such an unusual house and the Scottish Building Warrant.