The purpose
With the support of the ‘Electrabel fund for environmental protection 2005’, the polytechnic ‘KaHo Sint-Lieven’ has realized a building according to the passive house standards on its campus in Aalst-Nieuwerkerken. The project fits in with the layout of an environmental education garden on the campus. By way of its Knowledge Centre in Aalst, KaHo Sint-Lieven puts knowledge and infrastructure at the disposal of other educational forms in the region. Both pupils and teachers are welcome to follow trainings and instructional sessions over there. The project ‘Electrabel Cabin’ has been conceived to pass state-of-the-art knowledge about sustainable building.ble.
Passive house?
International volunteers, including Poles, Japanese, Spaniards, a Palestinian, a Czech and an Italian woman, stayed at KaHo Sint-Lieven for the construction of a pyramidal passive house construction. The term passive house stands for a specific construction standard for residential buildings with a good room temperature during winter and summer, without a traditional heating or cooling system. This means, among other things, that the accommodations:
- are equipped with a very good thermal isolation
- are sealed well to prevent draught
- are built up of regrowable materials
International enthusiasm
With the social-profit organization VIA, Domus Mundi organizes project weeks with an international volunteer network, in order to bring about a confrontation and an interchange of values, norms, ideas and insights between different societies. The international volunteers showed a lot of enthusiasm about the project: “In Japan, the building method is not known yet,” Tutsuya states. “There aren’t nearly any ecological projects. We build in a far more traditional way”. The testimony of Sami, a Palestinian, telling:
“I wanted to gain experience in ecological building to improve the situation in Palestine. Over there, there is a lot of work to do right now, because of the ongoing conflict my country is involved in. The past months, I have worked as a volunteer in refugee camps in Lebanon, but I really needed a break. When I return to my native country, I will be able to begin with renewed courage.”
