Self-Sustainable House from Natural Materials near Sofia, planned in 2023

The house is planned as a “Passive House” with a recuperation ventilation system and additionally added RES, such as PV & Solar, making the home a near zero-energy building. Natural sunshading and ventilation are planned accordingly.

The building is carbon negative due to the usage of ecological, prefab, healthy natural materials such as straw modules for exterior wall, straw as floor and roof insulation, clay as interior plaster, wood exterior cladding and interior finishings, lime exterior plasters, etc.

Vastu Sastra is the world’s oldest concept for harmonization of living indoor spaces and the house is planned compelety according to the principles of harmony.

The single-family house has two main living floors, connected by a stair on the northwest and a heated attic space, serving as a play room for the children. The main building entrance is on the north through an entrance foayer. Accessible environment is achieved. On the ground floor are placed: living room with dinning space, oriented towards east, kitchen, open space corridor, separate room for a family member with a bathroom, separate toilet, food storage, technical installations space, open stair. The outside garden is accessible through a terrace towards the east. The upper floor contains a master bedroom, two children bedrooms, two shared bathrooms and a guest room/cabinet. The attic open space aims to be used for relaxation and children games, including a climbing wall as well. The roof is 4-sided with 1-meter eaves for natural sunshading of the upper floor. The top roof opening serves for natural ventilation and light, which comes down to the ground floor through a glazing in the intermediate floor.

The building is square-sized with a simple volume. The ground floor is painted with white lime plaster and visually separated from the first floor, which is finished by a combination of a wood cladding facade and plaster. The facade resemble the traditional bulgarian housing architecture with horizontal composition and division of the two stories with an extended upper floor. The windows are rectangular, following the functional needs in the building and on the eastern facade is placed a big glazing connecting the living room with the garden and the terrace.

The building is planned as a “Passive House” by the following energy-efficiency measures:

•  compact building volume
• high levels of thermal envelope
• minimizing the thermal bridges
• achieving airtightness of the external constructions, including the windows installation
• high-quality wooden windows with good thermal insulation qualities
• usage of natural materials with thermal mass, sound and thermal insulation
• energy-efficient recuperation ventilation system
• energy-efficient lights, etc.
• RES, such as PV & Solar