Building a passive house in Spain

We will never forget the day we first stepped into a passive house. We had been reading for years about passive houses and especially about the Passivhaus green building certification.

We knew that several homes had already been certified in Catalonia, so after several weeks of waiting, we managed to arrange a visit to one of the first passive houses certified according to the Passivhaus standard in Spain.

The house is located in Moià and the owner, Albert, is also a passive house builder. Albert’s company, Farhaus, is a family business founded by his grandfather that initially focused on timber frame construction and has evolved to incorporate the most restrictive seal in Europe in terms of ecological construction.

We organized the visit to the house in Moià—a small and charming village in central Catalonia—with some colleagues from the studio.

We arrived as architects interested in energy systems, construction details, and materials, and the owner, Albert, very kindly gave a detailed explanation of how everything worked, answering all our questions.

But at one point in the explanation, he stopped and told us: “It’s not about how little it consumes or how sustainable my house is; it’s about the sense of comfort my family feels living here.”

We have heard the same statement ever since from owners and users of passive homes. In fact, a Passivhaus home does not only take into account data confirming the return on investment and energy savings; one of the main criteria is achieving the comfort of its inhabitants.

The sensation of living in a space with the appropriate level of temperature and humidity, surrounded by natural, chemical-free materials and receiving solar energy in just the right measure to achieve a harmonious whole, can only be experienced by spending a few hours inside a passive house.

For this reason, I always recommend to everyone who wants to build an eco-friendly home that they visit different houses before deciding on one construction system or another. It is important to understand why efficiency and comfort are high-return investments in our home.

Is it possible to build a passive house in a Mediterranean climate?

Passivhaus is a construction standard (a set of construction criteria) that originated in Germany about 20 years ago and is now widespread throughout Europe.

Just like ecological certification for food products, Passivhaus defines a series of ecological criteria whose score must reach a minimum factor to obtain certification.

With this certification, we essentially ensure that our home will be comfortable, ecological, and efficient, and that it will have nearly zero energy consumption.

The more than 20-year track record of the Passivhaus certificate, as well as the certification of more than 20,000 buildings, supports a body of knowledge that has been refined over the years.

Today, the Passivhaus certificate includes special criteria for each climate; thus, in a Mediterranean climate, the higher solar incidence and smaller temperature variations between day and night are taken into account—bearing in mind that Passivhaus was initially defined for a Central European climate.

A Passivhaus home works like a thermos. Its interior is so airtight that it lets practically none of the generated heat escape; therefore, with very little energy, we can heat the entire home. The interior heat is maintained thanks to a mechanical ventilation system that performs air renewal from the outside in a highly efficient manner.

The Passivhaus standard in the Mediterranean achieves savings of around 90% compared to the energy expenditure of a conventional home. In summer, however, stricter control of solar incidence will be necessary to avoid overheating the home.

You can also visit the website of the Passivhaus Building Platform Spain.