The three-bed Larch House in Ebbw Vale, built by Pendragon Design & Build for United Welsh Housing Association, was designed by bere:architects as prototype social housing that could be replicated in future affordable housing projects around the country.

Situated on a misty hilltop, the house features Natural Building Technologies’ (NBT’s) Pavaclad woodfibre insulation system beneath external larch cladding.

The structure is a 225mm timber frame with glass wool infill insulation, a 100mm service void on the inside with wood fibre insulaton and 100mm NBT Pavatherm Plus rigid wood fibre insulation boards installed in a continuous layer over the building’s timber frame exterior , with infill insulation between the studs, and OSB boards used on the internal face to provide racking strength and airtightness.

The Larch House’s exterior wall U-value is an impressive 0.095W/m²K, with an airtightness level of 0.21m³/hr/m²@50Pa.

Analysis provided by NBT’s WUFI moisture modeling software demonstrated the suitability of the Pavaclad system for use in the house’s specific location and climate.

The Larch House features solar thermal and photovoltaic solar panels on the roof, which meet the building’s water heating requirements, as well as triple glazed Passivhaus certified windows, and a low energy heat recovery ventilation system.

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