Trossachs Carbon Positive House

Overview

Through our experience of Passivhaus and achieving zero carbon energy useage in our designs, we started to examine the construction materials of our projects.

2/3 of the footprint of a typical house is created during the construction, with the remaining 1/3 being the energy used durning its lifetime.

Achieving zero-carbon in running therefore isn’t good enough by itself to deal with the climate emergency.

Carrying out a full review of the embodied carbon in a project has become another tool in our sustainable design toolkit, with this house being the first to sequester more carbon than will be released during its lifetime.

This is done through a combination of low energy design, using our Passivhaus experience, and the design, development and detailing of a split frame timber kit to eliminate cold bridges. The insulation is wood fibre insulation, creating a moisture friendly breathing wall construction, and is one sustainable alternative to petrol-chemical based insulation products.

Situated in the Loch Lomond & Trossach National Park, we are developing and refining the methods used in this project to ensure zero-carbon construction in all our projects.