Active House Workshop in Budapest

2014. november 21., Common news 6198 active house fenntartható építés környezettudatos építészet

On the 19th of November, Active House Alliance and HuGBC held a very dynamic professional event.

The Kinnarps House showroom offered an inspiring venue for the international workshop, where Danish, Dutch and Hungarian professionals helped the participants to get acquainted with active house philosophy, and they had the chance to analyse the different factors through practical examples.

The event started with a quick introduction led by Mónika Tornóczky, the secretary of HuGBC. In a few sentences all the participants had the chance to reveal their relation with the topic of the workshop.

Kurt Emil Eriksen, the secretary of the Active House Alliance (AHA) explained the "active house theoretical background" based on the balance between the 3 principles (comfort, energy and environment), and showed the tools developed by the organization that support the planning and implementation process. The radar - based on active house specification - illustrates and demonstrates the performance of the buildings, and highlights if one factor takes a back seat over the other.

Lone Feifer, director of the Model Home 2020 program, held her first presentation about this year's biggest international conference on sustainable buildings, and enhanced the Manifesto of the World SB14 Conference in Barcelona. After a short coffee break she continued with a report of the pilot buildings' operation experiences of the last 10 years from all over the world. Based on the feedback and experience of the people who has been living and working in the active houses and the measured results it is confirmed that spaces with 5% or higher daylight factor ensure healthy indoor environment, which also reduces the energy used for artificial lighting. Thanks to the night cooling, and solar shading pleasant summer climate can be provided in these buildings. The results are based on scientific assessments and researches by acknowledged academics.

Pál Baross, chairman of HuGBC gave a detailed presentation about the complex retrofitting of Central European University in downtown Budapest, where the principles of sustainability and environmental consciousness prevail. Natural lighting and ventilation play an important role as well.

Zsolt Gunther leading architect, vice president of the Active House Alliance, shared his personal experiences through 2 self-designed building by presenting the active house theory in practice. Mr. Gunther lined up design and operational observations through the example of a residential building improvement and a new office building, highlighting the importance of architectural quality, enriched with several beautiful photos.

In the afternoon, the group work started, the participants discussed their suggestions in relation to four topic area, and reflected for the Active House Guidelines material which is in progress. The content structure of the new instrument was presented by Bas Hasselaar, the Dutch specialist, who coordinates this work within the Alliance. During the interactive, dynamic exchange of ideas graphic summary diagrams were made summarizing the presentation of the group's work. This method proved to be very exciting and brought a new level of atmosphere in professional consultations.

At the closing of the day it became apparent that this type of experience changing is extremely useful not only for guest experts, but for the staff of the organizations as well. The workshop with all 33 participants reached its goal and proved to be successful.

Hereby we thank the participants and the lecturers 'active' involvement! Special thanks for the Kinnarps Hungary Kft. for the venue which raised the creative atmosphere even more!