ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
The potential for Passivhaus design in healthcare
Mark Elton of Cowan Architects looks at the potential for Passivhaus technology in hospital estates, and urges the UK ‘to take note of what is already happening on the Continent to reduce unnecessary heating bills while improving patient and staff comfort for a healthier outcome’.
Winter is an appropriate time to think about the excessive heating costs that hospitals around the UK are racking up in order to keep patients comfortable all day, every day. However, in the Höchst district of Frankfurt, the world’s first Passivhaus hospital, the new Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst, is underway, with construction of the new 664-bed facility (which will be equipped with 10 operating theatres) due for completion in the first half of 2019, and it is time we took a note of this form of construction’s positive implications for both the public purse and patient and staff welfare, as well as the environment. The good news is that the potential for 80–90% savings on heating can be achieved with retrofit as well as new-build.
In the Sustainable Development Unit
report, Securing Healthy Returns, published in June 2016, John Holden, director of Policy, Partnerships & Innovation for NHS England, acknowledges that ‘The evidence presented here shows that we don’t always have to choose between saving financial resources or protecting
the environment – indeed, the most effective investments can often save money, improve health now, and safeguard the environment on which all future health depends. What’s good for the environment, and good for the patient’s health, can be good for the nation’s finances too’.
Impacts on many levels Any building project, new-build or refurbishment, has an impact on the environment, both around and within it. This affects us on many levels: n Individually, through our air quality, light, and comfort within the building;
n Locally, through impact on townscapes or countryside;
n Regionally, through the sourcing, manufacture, and transport, of building materials, labour, and water;
n Globally, through the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on our warming planet.
However, with careful forethought and design, it is possible to mitigate the worst
of a building’s impact on the environment, and even have a net positive impact.
Reducing energy use Historically, by far the biggest environmental impact of any building over its lifetime is the energy used to heat or cool the spaces within it. Cutting down on this energy use should be one of the overriding considerations in the design of cost-effective, eco-friendly buildings, yet studies have shown that, more often than not, so-called low energy buildings have failed to deliver on their performance targets to the extent predicted by modelling. In the industry, this is known as the ‘Performance Gap’. It was in response to this that the Passivhaus design standard was developed in Germany some 25 years ago, seeking to address perceived shortfalls in design, construction quality, and modelling information standards. It is now the best researched, most rigorous design and quality assurance standard for buildings that there is.
A radical reduction in space heating demand Many European cities now insist on Passivhaus standards for all new buildings (whether they be houses, care homes, hospitals, schools, offices, or community buildings), because the Passivhaus principles allow us to design buildings today that use around 80-90% less heat energy than conventional buildings. This design approach delivers buildings that are independently certified, never get too hot or too cold, cost very little to run, and that offer the very highest standards of comfort and indoor air quality for the minimum expenditure of energy and fuel costs.
How does Passivhaus design achieve this?
An artist’s impression of the exterior of the the world’s first Passivhaus hospital, the new Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst, construction of which is underway.
In essence, Passivhaus design is the partnership between sound architectural principles and advanced material science. It focuses on the absolute energy performance and comfort conditions of a building through the understanding and
April 2017 Health Estate Journal 47
© wörner traxler richter, Frankfurt am Main.
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