Point 6 Projects Ltd, run by Eddie Acford, has undertaken their most complicated project to date. Oyster Falls is a Passivhaus overlooking the beautiful Croyde Bay in North Devon. At just under £1million build cost, this incredible grand design has some of the most up to date “green” features. The build was started in August 2012 with completion in July 2013. Oyster Falls has been designed by architects Gale & Snowden and it is the fourth Certified Passivhaus project built by Point 6 Projects Ltd.
Passivhaus Certified buildings are a challenge to achieve at the best of times but in Oyster falls case the topography of the site access and the condition of the substrata, the location, design of the building and complex civil engineering makes this an even bigger challenge.
Oyster Falls is 40 meters from the water’s edge it has been built using traditional block work with steel frame supporting the ground floor Demi deck flooring system and 300ml of insulation wrapped around the whole of the first floor with no thermal bridges.
Internally it has 345sq metres of useable floor area, including four bedrooms, a boot room, a master bedroom with ensuite, an open plan ground floor area including kitchen, dining, and living space, with a separate utility room, larder, and storage in the main spine of the house. Outside, as well as the beach as the play area, it has gardens on the ground and a green roof garden which will have a reservoir of water.
The site backs onto the main road between Braunton and Croyde and the house is cut into the hillside below, this means that a five meter retaining wall had to be built to support not only the main road but also a car park that is big enough to house 8-10 cars.
The stand out feature of the house is that it will be glazed floor to ceiling on all three sides allowing for 180˚ of panoramic views across the north Devon coastline. The seamless glazing system is a high performance triple glazing with a very low G value between 35-40% to avoid overheating whilst maintains enough solar transmission to allow heat gain. As Passivhaus buildings do not house a heating system a Paul Novus MVHR system has been installed along with the air source heat pump which is a Vanvex 85, very efficient and suitable for this building. Passivhaus airtightness of 0.6 air changes per hour will be achieved in the building.
For more information visit www.point6projects.com