All of the materials used in the construction of the building shell—the CLT panels and PHI-certified aluminum-clad wood windows from Austria and the wood-fiber boards from Germany—were assembled in Slovenia by Lamo, a carpenter the Stiches had worked with previously. The finished prefabricated wall panels that were shipped to Canada included 12 inches of wood-fiber board insulation attached to the CLT panels and built-in windows, with the strapping and siding attached as well. Each wall was basically one panel. All wall, floor, and roof panels were loaded and shipped in four 40-foot open top containers to Invermere. Assembly of the house was done straight out of the containers by crane and took 5 days to lock up.
Exterior motorized venetian blinds on all the south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows are used to protect the building from overheating. Two panels of vacuum tubes (for a total of 60 tubes) installed on the roof take care of domestic hot water generation year-round. An ERV supplies the ventilation; its supply air is fed through a 100-foot geothermal loop (earth tube) to preheat the air in winter and precool it in summer. A 4,000-liter rainwater harvesting tank was added for flushing toilets and gardening.
“Our focus has never been only on Passive House but also on renewable, wood-based products,” states Tomaz. “As we were very familiar with the cradle-to-grave sustainability and high quality of the products manufactured by the suppliers we work with from Austria, Germany, and Slovenia, we naturally chose to work with them.” To showcase the beauty of these products, the finished CLT walls, ceiling, and roof were left exposed. Oak flooring throughout the house was chosen to be in alignment with the path of using exclusively natural renewable building products.
