ERASMUSHOVE: a success story of how to make a sustainable house a home
The Active House Label Awards was held on 17 October 2019, in the framework of the 7th Active House Alliance Symposium. The submitted projects have been evaluated by a distinguished Jury and awarded in different categories.
ERASMUSHOVE project is the winner of the BUILT BUILDINGS WITH RADAR CATEGORY. After the awards, we had the pleasure to discuss with Mr Bas Hasselaar, developer of the project, about sustainable houses, what it is like to win an Active House award and how more houses can become sustainable.
Do you believe that consumers are interested in sustainable houses in your country and is there a market for your project?
As soon as people are told what the benefits of an active house are, they are interested. Interest in sustainable housing is on the rise, and Active House answers many questions that are currently hot topics, such as health, energy and environmental performance.
How do you think we can convince more people of the importance of healthy buildings? How does your project address this important aspect?
A large part of the solution is education. People don’t know much about the benefits of a healthy home/building. It is important to get the word out. I have used my house as an example project and done a lot of knowledge sharing.
How can the concept of smart houses be incorporated with the concept of sustainability? How was the case for your project?
I have a smart home. Monitoring is important to ensure a healthy indoor climate while at the same time maximising energy efficiency. It is important to know what is happening in a building in order to be able to properly respond.
Congratulations on winning an award at the Active House Awards this year. Why did you decided to submit your project for the Active House Awards?
My house is designed from the very first sketches as an Active House. All aspects have been carefully integrated into the ultimate design. I was curious to see how others would assess my vision and creation.
What did you think about the 7th Active House Symposium? Would you recommend the events organised by Active House?
It is always a pleasure to visit the Symposium. Interesting speakers, good atmosphere, nice connections to be made. I recommend it to anyone interested in healthy and sustainable building.
If you were to give one piece of advice to next year’s contestants, what would it be?
Start with the end user, but integrate all aspects, as they influence each other. The best building is one where comfort, energy and environment are integrated into one seamless solution.
Bas Hasselaar is a consultant Building Physics & Sustainability at DGMR in The Netherlands. In that role, he participates in many tenders and projects where sustainability and a healthy indoor environment are important. Additionally, he is a board member at both the Dutch Active House alliance and international Active House alliance. He was the chief editor of the Active House Design Guidelines and currently oversees the update of the Active House Specifications to version 3. Since 2017 he lives with great pleasure in his award winning, energy positive Active House that he designed and commissioned himself.
You can follow Bas on Twitter at @BasHasselaar
Read more about the ERASMUSHOVE project here
