Winter energy-plus house Sol‘CH, Poschiavo (Switzerland)
The new building’s two-storey structure, which replaces an existing building, is based on a longitudinal, narrow floor plan that slightly slants inwards towards the east. The steeply pitched gable roof is asymmetrical in shape with a significantly larger surface area facing south. For the building, which is also designed as an energy-plus house in winter, the north sides of the façade and roof are also designed as solar-active surfaces. The energy concept includes an air-to-water heat pump, a 3,000-litre storage tank and electric mobility with bi-directional charging.
The importance of the façade as a surface for providing energy is also shown by the installed PV output of 65.6 kW, which is distributed over 284 m2 in the façade and 187 m2 in the roof. The PV system, which consists of 435 modules in 45 different sizes, generated a total of
44,972 kWh in the first year.
The careful and precise detailing on the roof and opening edges is also reflected in the joints for the façade and roof modules. Starting with the standard modules in the roof, a coherent grid was developed in which the openings and building incisions are precisely coordinated. Highly efficient PV modules with an anti-reflective coating are used on the roof, while satinised and coloured front glasses in the PV façade with their anthracite and brown tones round off the harmonious overall impression.
A residential building in a village setting that provides both a compelling architectural response and coherent energy concept, and which is exemplary for the suburban area in terms of the building’s structure design and handling of the solar envelope.
The project received an award by the jury of the “Architecture Award Building-Integrated Solar Technology 2022“.
Project partners
Architect: Nadia Vontobel Architekten GmbH
Get an Overview of the series "Solar architecture at its best – Excellent projects from the Architecture Award Building Integrated Solar Technology 2022 introduced briefly“
About the Architecture Award Building Integrated Solar Technology
The “Architecture Award Building-Integrated Solar Technology“ was started in the year 2000 by the Solarenergieförderverein Bayern (Bavarian Association for the Promotion of Solar Energy) and held since then for the 9th time. The award is established as an international competition concerning the interface between architecture and solar energy. The prize honors exemplary contributions of planning and designing building-integrated solar systems.
In the last edition of the competition the jury singled out 15 projects from 121 entries, which we want to present in a series. The jury was unanimous in its positive assessment that even with very different building tasks, and in different environments, these projects show that photovoltaic modules and solar thermal collectors can be successfully integrated with equal ambition in terms of design and technology.