Thermal Performance of Konrad Frey’s Prefabricated Low-Cost Loft House - A Case Study of a Pioneering Instance of Sustainable Architecture

Abstract

This contribution presents an ongoing research effort addressing the performance assessment of a number of buildings planned by the Austrian architect Konrad Frey, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of sustainable architecture in Austria. A number of his buildings, planned in the 1970s, consequently integrated principles of modern solar houses. Relevant key projects are subject of an on-going research project. Thereby numeric building simulation was deployed to assess the energy performance of the buildings. In this contribution, we present the intermediate results of a study that focused on one of his latest buildings, namely the prefabricated low-cost loft house. As opposed to architect’s rather complex early designs the loft house concept targeted inexpensive solutions and used simple and commonly available building components and systems. As part of the overall project, the thermal performance of this building was evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of passive cooling via various ventilation schemes (including night time ventilation).