The house intended for a large family was designed in order to overlook the landscape in Covilhã, a small city in Portugal, southern Europe. Embraced by this house, a courtyard protects us from the hot climate. Sustainability was an objective since the beginning of the project. This eco house includes all state of the art techniques to increase sustainability and energy, eficiency and low carbon emissions on construction. Thus, the use of a light steel frame construction, the rainwater reuse, passive solar energy and the development of an excellent thermal insulation, everything has been considered in order to achieve the best energy autonomy and efficiency.
Eco house in Covilhã
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Sustainability in home design
There are several components that make this house sustainable:
- The roof of the house has a single slope, allowing rainwater to be directed to a water tank for irrigation.
- On the other hand, the “light frame steel” construction allowed high thermal efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions during construction.
- The existence of a patio allows greater shading on these facades and consequent use of this difference in pressure to provide natural ventilation of the spaces.
- The type of windows allows controlling solar radiation to the degree necessary to provide the house with a passive system.
- Solar panels on the roof allow you to reduce energy consumption
It was using these elements that we designed this house and took another small step towards environmental sustainability.
