The IBA Raises a Solar Awning in Wilhelmsburg

Building features don’t come much more striking than this solar awning, composed of photovoltaic cells. Just as sunflowers bend to follow the position of the sun, the textile membrane strips on the southern side of the ”Soft House" rotate. The International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg unveiled these innovative buildings on 7 May, when they were also awarded an IBA plaque. The façade curtain is the stand-out feature of these terraced houses, which were designed by the US-based firm of architects Kennedy & Violich, from Boston. The project is one of a set of “Smart Material Houses” that the IBA is using to showcase intelligent construction materials.

Hamburg, 7 May 2013 – “The “Soft House” is a real looker! The delicate structure of the strips that make up the façade curtain, and the buildings’ aesthetic feel, energy efficiency, and sheer practicality have won over all of us. Moreover, behind the solar awning lie fantastically bright buildings that allow the light to flood through, while meeting both Passive House standards and the IBA’s excellence criteria,” explained the IBA Director Uli Hellweg as he awarded the project the IBA plaque.

Project manager Jürgen Klein spoke on behalf of the Augsburg-based client, PATRIZIA Projektentwicklung GmbH. “We are very pleased to be able to unveil the “Soft House” to the public here, as part of the IBA Hamburg, The houses combine simple materials with a sustainable energy concept in an intelligent way – it is a “Smart Material House” in every sense.” Unusually, the residents use the solar electricity themselves, rather than feeding it into the public grid; each house has 24 batteries, in which the electricity is cached. With a storage capacity of 21.12 kWh, the batteries can provide enough electricity to power the average household for two days, with the result that the residents are almost independent of energy suppliers.

The four terraced houses share the distinctive textile membrane, which is constructed like a large-scale blind. This allows residents to control the view and light levels on the upper floors. The membrane strips containing the photovoltaic cells thus both protect the buildings from the sun and generate energy.

Covering 160 square metres over three floors, and with their own garden and terrace, the houses make ideal family homes. Translucent curtains with embedded LED lights can be found inside. These allow the residents themselves to decide upon or change the layout of the spacious interiors, while also helping them to control warmth and light within their homes. The electricity that is generated by the membrane façade on the exterior of the building is fed directly into the curtains, so that they provide an additional lighting option for the interior by means of the integrated LEDs.

Besides the photovoltaic system, the Passive House energy concept also includes the use of geothermal energy, which is converted into thermal heat via heat exchangers, or used for cooling in summer. Like the other IBA projects in Wilhelmsburg Central, the “Soft House” is connected to the new local heating grid.

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