+ H Y T T E . a V e r s a t i l e C o n s t r u c t i o n S y s t e m
383
+HYTTE. A VERSATILE CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM FOR ZERO
EMISSION BUILDINGS
Luca Finocchiaro
1
, Tor Helge Dokka
2
, Arild Gustavsen
3
.
1
Department of Architectural design, History and Technology, NTNU, Norway
2
SINTEF byggforsk
Norway
3
Department of Architectural design, History and Technology, NTNU, Norway
Abstract
+Hytte is the result of a complex multidisciplinary design process in which students,
researchers and industrial partners are called to collaborate in the design of a solar
powered house able to produce more energy then it consumes.
The development of the project at NTNU has been integrated with the activities of the
Master of Science in Sustainable Architecture in a sort of competition internal to the
master program. The winning concept was further developed inside the ZEB research
centre during twelve months of design in which flexibility was further enhanced and
addressed to solve many other issues. +hytte is today an off-grid construction module
that can be located in rough nature or also in the urban jungle; or an extension of
detached family houses able to compensate their lacks in energy efficiency.
As one of the pilot buildings built inside ZEB, +hytte will have to accomplish all ZEB
targets about energy and emission balances. In order to estimate which level of ZEB we
could aim for was it has been necessary to perform a series of simulations estimating the
energy demand of the building and the energy production due to the integration of
photovoltaic panels.
Results showed that emissions of the +hytte project can be balanced and fulfil ZEB
targets even when Passive house standards are not necessarily met.
Keywords:
zero, emission, system, solar, house.
Introduction
Mountain cabins - or
hytte
(s.) /
hytta
(pl.) in Norwegian – “represent for many
Norwegians the necessary tool for conducting a life close to pristine nature, outside
modernity”. Until only twenty years ago these small buildings were generally
characterized by a high degree of austerity. Today a new tendency of transforming hytta
into proper second houses has led to “a steady rise of energy consumption and related
CO
2
emissions in this sector, shifting the desire to live close to nature from a core tenet
of Norwegian culture to an unsustainable threat to nature” (Berker T., Gansmo H.).
A mountain cabin independent from the grid thanks to the passive and active use of
natural resources would not only strength the desired feelings of distance from modern
society and symbiosis with nature, but also lower the environmental impact of the
second house sector. Strong of this belief we initiated together with our MSc students in
Sustainable Architecture an integrated design process aiming at developing a prototype
of energy positive hytte.
In a competition internal to the Master program four different proposals were developed
by the students. In choosing the winner, priority was given not only to design excellence
but also to the potential of the prototype for future development. In the chosen concept,
called “Flex-box”, the spatial flexibility of the plan aimed at enhancing the market viability
of the prototype giving the possibility of adjusting the building features to different users
