Text description provided by the architects. This village project in the suburbs of Beijing focuses on the problem of indigenous resident loss in rural areas of China. The overall goal is to improve residential comfortableness and realize energy self-sufficiency by means of green transformation, to introduce functions such as creative office, and to realize function conversion and rural revival.
The main goal of the project is to explore the technical possibilities and construction realizability of assembled nearly zero energy rural house reconstruction. The approach to this goal is to respond to rural ecology and cold climate in a targeted manner, to use the technical strategy of passive house to achieve minimum energy requirement, and to combine multiple new solar energy utilization methods to achieve nearly zero energy building. Prefabricated modules are used for the added residential part, and are assembled on site.
1. Process – Nearly zero energy building in rural area combining ultra low energy consumption with modular assembly
The building has improved the nearly zero energy building space system that is suitable for the single-story courtyard layout. The courtyard divides the building into three parts of simple shapes, and air-tightness units are connected with passive house and stairwell wind tower to enhance heat radiation in winter and guide the natural ventilation in transitional seasons. The sloping roof uses skylights to achieve natural lighting and uses photovoltaic tiles to provide electric energy.
The building is an experiment of low-cost assembled residential modules. The composite model is consisting of light steel system and OSB board, and two kinds of thermal insulation materials are filled inside and applied outside to ensure the system’s heat transfer coefficient and air tightness. The standard residential modules from the structure to the interior decoration are completed in the factory, and three modules are combined to a residential unit of complete functions on site.
The courtyard and building facade integrate advanced green technology, the book room gathers nearly a hundred books on sustainable buildings, and the exhibition hall shows the energy-saving and construction technologies of nearly zero energy rural house, making it a showcase and demonstration of the nearly zero energy rural house model.
2. Planet -- Reducing ecological impact and realizing carbon neutral building with net zero energy consumption
The rural ecology and the tall poplars on the north and east sides of the plot are kept, and a ladder shaped vegetable garden is designed in combination with the existing poplars and the green space at the village entrance. Based on the ecological functions, the three courtyards are defined as different themed courtyards, respectively water courtyard, solar courtyard and zero carbon garden decorated with waste. A greenhouse is set in the south courtyard, where a fish and vegetable symbiosis system composed of water culture vertical plants（vertical hydroponic plants） is arranged.
In terms of passive energy saving, it starts with the utilization of solar radiation, and uses super thermal insulation structure（super thermal insulation envelope）, air tight unit（air-tightness units）and a heat-bridge-free （thermal-bridge-free）design to control the heating demand in winter to below 15W, so that the total energy consumption per unit area is 14.6 kWh/m2.a.
In terms of active energy production, it combines photovoltaic tile and colored photovoltaic film to provide power for the building, and uses solar hot water system to provide hot water for the kitchen and bathroom of the residential part.
