Elverhuset, a new climate-based children’s nursery in the Municipality of Høje Taastrup, will be built as a passive house. ALECTIA and Bjerg Arkitektur will focus on very low energy consumption and on environmentally friendly materials and a first-class indoor climate.

The Elverhuset day nursery with an area of 900 m2 in the Municipality of Høje Taastrup will be built as a passive house. The building will be completed by the beginning of 2011 and the design, resource allocation and choice of material have all been prepared with the aim of creating an energy-friendly and environmentally friendly children's nursery. Project Manager Eva Boch from ALECTIA says:

“The day nursery will be designed to be as climate-friendly and sustainable as possible, so that the approx. 150 children and day care teachers experience an inspiring physical environment that is based on clean, fresh air, healthy and environmentally friendly materials, plenty of natural sunlight, space and contact with nature. Elverhuset will be built and certified as a passive house, so that both in summer and winter the indoor temperature is comfortable, yet has a very low energy consumption. All in all, this will provide the employees and children with a first-class indoor climate."   

ALECTIA is behind the project design of all the engineering disciplines with particular focus on sustainable solutions in collaboration with Bjerg Arkitektur. The turnkey contractor is Anker Hansen & co. 

Heart of the building cleans the building of CO2
A large atrium in the centre of the climate nursery acts as the heart of the building and distributes light and air out into all its corners. Lars Køhler from Bjerg Arkitektur explains:

“The atrium will act like a sluice for natural ventilation, which is essential in a children’s day care centre with many people gathered in just a small space. A large tree in the atrium and lots of green plants will help create a green and natural atmosphere throughout the building. They will also clean the building of CO_2. Together with the low energy and indoor climate initiatives, it will provide a Class 1 indoor climate, which is the highest indoor climate classification that can be achieved.”

Climate nursery prioritising low energy and indoor climate
ALECTIA and Bjerg Arkitektur work together on the following low energy and indoor climate initiatives:

• Solar heating systems for domestic water.
• Building is located so that the sun’s passive heating energy is optimised as much as possible.
• Building opens primarily to the south with large glass facades and is closed on the north side to exploit and maximise the sun's active heat contribution.
• Passive house windows with three layers of glass with extra insulating gases.
• Climate screen – exterior walls and roof – built very densely with slim light tree profiles and rafters, which minimise the thermal bridge effect. There will be a further insulating layer added with criss-crossing wooden bars so the thermal bridge is entirely broken.  
• Natural ventilation as a supplement to mechanical ventilation.
• Building with two floors in the most compact design possible, the square.
• Lowering of building in relation to the surrounding terrain, so that the effect of the terrain as a heat buffer in both summer and winter is exploited.
• Heavy concrete construction at ground level and a lighter wooden construction on the first floor, so that the heat accumulation effect of the concrete in the thermal system of the house is exploited.