UKPassivhaus specialist Mike Jacob has joined with award-winningarchitect Adrian James to create a flatpack home that takes less than a week to install. Dubbed "Kiss House" the prefabricatedhousing model is similar in concept to the Mini House froma few years back, but on a much bigger and more livable scale.Offering two,three and four bedroom versions, the Kiss House is built usingcross-laminated timber (CLT),which is a sustainable alternative to traditional building methodssuch as concrete and steel construction.
"EachKiss House shell is made from top quality precision engineered CLTwhich is fast becoming recognized as the optimum method ofconstruction worldwide due its exceptional performance in terms ofenergyperformance; strength; fire, acoustic and seismic performance andsustainability," Mike Jacob, Director of Kiss House tells NewAtlas. "Hugecarefully managed forests mean more trees are planted than cut downand each Kiss House will regrow in approximately one hour. Iknow it sounds incredible, but it is simply because the managedforests in Austria are huge and very carefully managed."
TheKiss model also meets Passivhaus standards, which has a primary focusof reducing a home'sheating demand and primary energy consumption. The Passivhausstandard was developed by Professors Bo Adamson of Sweden andWolfgang Feist of Germany in the 1990s and describes itself as "aholistic low energy design concept."
Passivhausfeatures include highinsulation;passive solar gains and thermal mass; air-tightness of a building andnatural indoor air circulation.
"EachKiss House is a certifiable Passivhaus," says Jacob. "Thisis the international gold standard for energy efficiency inconstruction. Passivhaus buildings have exceptional comfort and verylow running costs. There is no better standard for energy or comfortperformance."
TheKiss House comes in three different versions. Kiss 2.1 whichis a 80 sq m (861 sq ft) two bedroom home with a 53.4 sq m (574.8 sq ft)footprint. Kiss 3.1 is a 124 sq m (1,334.7 sq ft) three bedroom homewith a footprint of 78.4 sq m (843.9 sq ft) and Kiss 4.1 is a 140 sq m(1,507 sq ft) four bedroom home with a footprint of 85.8 sq m (923.5 sqft).
Each house is prefabricated off site in a series of "panels," allowing the home to be shipped andtransported in a "flatpack." Once delivered on site andafter the concrete slab is prepared, a Kiss House can beassembled in about three to four days anywhere in the world.
"Theyare panelized, so they are shipped in an efficient manner – notvolumetric which means transporting 3D buildings which isn't veryefficient," says Jacob. "They are transported by road orsea depending on where in the world our client is. We can shipanywhere and are currently talking to customers all over the world."
The Kiss House featuresopen-plan living on the ground floor, with a large modern kitchen,wooden flooring and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Individualbedrooms and bathrooms are located upstairs on the first floor andthe home is 100 percent airtight. The exterior can be finished in fourdifferent cladding options: traditional masonry (bricks);metal (zinc, copper, or stainless steel); classic rendering or timber(larch, cedar, chestnut or others by request).
EachKiss dwelling is created and designed to suit the individual owner'sneeds and although these are prefabricated homes, they are by nomeans carbon copies of each other. The interior and floor-plan canchange for each home and Kiss House can also provide the home as anempty shell, for buyers to complete the interior however they desire.What's more, the homes are designed so that they can be reconfiguredover time and grow with a family or individual as their living needschange and evolve.
Costsfor the Kiss House is case dependent and subject to bespokespecification, however the homes are designed to offer a high qualityhousing product targeting the mid-range price point. A priceguide for a fully fitted Kiss House inthe UK is approximately £2,000 (around US$2,550) per square meter.
Startingprices for the Kiss export model should be available next month,with shell only models promised to be highly cost effective.
Source: Kiss House via Treehugger
