Old Holloway Passive House Is All About Comfort And Luxury

Juraj Mikurcik self-builds a gem of straw and wood that demonstrates everything there is to love about Passive House design.

In a recent post we noted that Juraj Mikurcik’s Old Holloway Passivhaus was nominated for a UK Passive House Trust award; here’s a closer look. It’s what they call a “self-build” in the UK – where owners manage the process themselves, from land acquisition to construction. Self-build is not for the faint of heart; read Ben Adam-Smith at House Planning Help if you really want to get scared.

© Juraj MikurcikJuraj has been working on his house for years, and moved in last July. As a low energy, super-insulated Passive House design, it doesn’t have much heating, just a small 4kW wood stove, and two bathroom towel warmers connected to the hot water heater. The dog on the chair probably adds as much heat as the warmers do. I certainly wondered if it was enough. Summers can also be a problem due to overheating, but Juraj writes on his blog:

But that was last year; this summer has been incredibly hot in much of Europe, and I asked Juraj how it was working out. He sent me this chart showing interior and exterior temperatures, and writes:

It worked pretty well in winter too:

What makes a Passive House design so comfortable is the Mean Radiant Temperature – the walls and windows are so warm inside that heat is not drawn from the occupant’s body, which is the main reason we feel cold. The walls in Old Holloway are made of straw, prefabricated into ECOCOCON panels. This was the first installation in the UK, a brave move for a self-build project where you have nobody to blame but yourself if something goes wrong.

The video shows the three-day installation (warning: loud piano music).

The walls are finished inside with clay plaster, with a bit of “finely chopped straw in the top coat for a bit of sparkle .” There are many benefits to clay plaster; Juraj notes:

The exterior is clad in the material du jour – Shou Sugi Ban or charred cedar. Juraj did it himself with a blowtorch; this is seriously time-consuming and very impressive.

Passivhaus Trust/Screen capture

Data nerds can be impressed with the numbers, but I am impressed with how warm and comfortable and inviting and big this 1,022 square feet of house seems, and the use of natural, healthy materials with low embodied energy. I am envious of Juraj; as an architect, I hated every building I designed (which is probably one reason I quit). I am writing this post in a cabin I designed and want to tear down. I do not think I could live in a house I designed without complaining every second. Juraj tells another story:

This is the true wonder of Passive House design. Data are important, but luxury and comfort are the end result.

As a side note, the mechanicals were designed by Nick Grant and Alan Clarke, seen hard at work here. Nick is known to TreeHugger for his principles of Radical Simplicity, which were practiced on this house.