Energyplus-House, Chemnitz 2013
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Chemnitz (former Karl-Marx-Stadt) lost about 1/3 of its population due to job migration after the reunification of Germany. Since 1990, the labor market is only recovering slowly yet the curve changed direction. The real estate market went down as well; in the central area a lot of buildings are empty or are in desperate need for repair. The increasing number of voids due to partial demolition becomes eventually a structural problem for the cohesion of downtown.
Chemnitz stands for a long tradition of innovative industrial development. The city played an important role in the early industrial phase of Germany in the 1800s. Its built legacy comprises very fine buildings of the pre-Bauhaus modernist period.

The client being an energy planner is decided to fill one of the voids along the river Chemnitz with a 3-4 story residential building. The building is both a piece of urban repair in a gutted street and an innovative energy concept. Kaiser development is interested in a building functioning autonomously from public energy supply systems providing electricity gained from PV-Collectors and Air-Collectors. Chemnitz has the highest amount of sunshine hours/year in Germany.
The river Chemnitz is regularly flooding. The fortifications of the riverbanks and the aligning buildings need to respond to this natural condition.
The building is planned as a wood frame construction on pilotis, its sloped roof oriented towards south to support an energy concept with PV-collectors on the roof. The house will produce more energy than needed for its own consumption in terms of electricity, light, heating, warm water using the surplus energy for charging electric cars and bikes.
For a better balance of a seasonal surplus or minus the public power system is used. The surplus of energy that cannot directly be used for charging bikes and cars will be buffered in batteries. The electricity supply for those vehicles will be supplemented by water power (with a floating micro water wheel reacting to water table of the river). The connected value will be app. 2 kW.
The thermal energy will be created by solar thermal combined with geothermal sources. The building materials will consist only of recyclable and natural materials.
The sum of all consumption values aim at falling below the target values of the Swiss SIA values for energy consumption which outline the vision for the 2000Watt Society

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