Copenhagen,
16
July
2012
|
00:00
Europe/Copenhagen

Model Home 2020 Receives top industry accolade at British Homes Awards


The VELUX Model Home 2020 project emerged as the winner of the Innovation Award for Building Technology at the prestigious British Homes Awards (BHA) held on Thursday 1st July in Central London.

The two zero carbon homes were selected for the accolade by a panel of industry experts. The judges commended the VELUX scheme for its original use of building technology and the exciting way it captures natural daylight and ventilation to minimise energy consumption. The properties were hailed as an exemplary benchmark for the design of future sustainable homes.

The Model Homes semi-detached design, to be built in Kettering, Northamptonshire, have been designed by another of the BHA's winners, HTA Architects, who received the coveted title of Architect of the Year. They are intended to offer an example of sustainable homes that are both appealing to the consumer while remaining affordable and easily replicable for the mass house building market and aim to deliver a 70% reduction in carbon emissions with the remaining 30% of carbon offset by allowable solutions.

Kevin Brennan, Head of Sustainability at VELUX Company Ltd, comments: "At VELUX, we strongly believe that it is possible to build bright and well ventilated zero carbon homes that the consumer will want to live in and that the mass house builder can reproduce simply and profitably. We are delighted that our Model Home 2020 project – a pioneering and ambitious bid to transform the way the industry perceives sustainable homes - has been recognised by the industry in these prestigious awards."

About Model Home 2020
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by VELUX as part of our strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is our vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air. The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles frequently referred to as "active house". The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate-neutral.

'Model Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. They are six of eight projects financed by VKR Holding A/S the owner of VELFAC A/S, VELUX A/S, Sonnenkraft, WindowMaster and several other companies in the building sector. The two demo projects in Denmark are built as a partnership between VELUX and VELFAC.

In VELUX we believe that one experiment is better than a thousand expert views. Each building must reflect and respond to the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built. The houses will be open to the public for 6-12 months after completion and then sold. Each house will be monitored during occupancy to learn how the experiments turn out in real-life conditions. The two buildings in Denmark, Home for Life and Green Lighthouse (in Aarhus and Copenhagen) are finished, those in the UK, Austria, and Germany will follow in 2010 and the house in France in 2011.

www.velux.com/modelhome2020/