AECB Member: Green Building Store
The Cre8 Barn at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Stirley Community Farm in Huddersfield has just been announced as the winner in the ‘Retrofit Projects’ category in the UK Passivhaus Awards 2015, at a ceremony on Tuesday 7th July in London organised by the Passivhaus Trust.
The project, designed and built by Passivhaus specialist firm Green Building Store, involved the refurbishment of a derelict cow barn into an eco-exemplar educational centre and space. The project was designed to the exacting EnerPHit standard (a variation of the low energy Passivhaus standard, specifically designed for retrofits). A super-insulated timber frame structure was built inside the existing stone barn building (effectively a ‘box within a box’), preserving the outward appearance of the barn, whilst ensuring high levels of airtightness and continuous insulation. The timber frame structure has the additional advantage of supporting and shoring up the original stone building.
Green Building Store Director Bill Butcher commented:
”It is a great honour and privilege to receive the award, which is voted for by technical experts and practitioners within the UK Passivhaus community. We hope that the technical solutions we came up with at the project can offer a useful template for bringing historic and older buildings up to 21st century energy efficiency levels.”
Rob Stoneman, Chief Executive, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust commented:
”Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are delighted that Stirley Community Farm’s Cre8 Barn has won the ‘Retrofit Projects’ UK Passivhaus Award 2015. The Farm was always intended to be an exemplar – a place to change thinking by demonstrating the possible. There is no greater challenge to humanity than the prospect of chaotic climate change. Passivhaus is leading the way in addressing that challenge and we are extremely chuffed we can demonstrate that at Stirley.”
More information and free technical resources on all aspects of the Cre8 Barn retrofit are available at: www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/enerphit
View Passivhaus Trust film on the project on YouTube here.