Replicable Harmony Home apartment building project - energy efficiency, microclimate and sound insulation

Combining almost 30 years of experience in construction and sustainable innovation, the STATS Group has created an efficient replicable residential project Harmony Home, achieving the long-term goal of the construction industry - to achieve high energy efficiency while ensuring a healthy microclimate. The project, which is currently also available to real estate developers in Latvia, allows optimising of costs and time, while ensuring very high quality and sustainability of the building.

High construction quality according to VST technology

Harmony Home buildings are built using Austrian patented VST technology. Using the pre-fab method, there are walls accurate up to a millimetre, mezzanine floors and other building structures that form an excellent quality monolithic, dense and durable building. It is the basis for a long-lasting, energy-efficient, fireproof building with excellent sound insulation. The building built in this way is free of cracks and crevices even after decades.

According to the project dimensions, VST technology panels are manufactured in the factory, reinforcement and engineering communications are installed, the panels are only assembled on the site, other communications are located and concreted. The VST wall panel consists of two 24 mm thick, evenly pressed cement chipboards (PCC), which are joined together in one panel at the factory. PCC is moisture-proof and ecological, it contains 63% chips, 25% cement, 10% water and only 2% impurities.

VST technology retains all the advantages of reinforced concrete panels: high compressive and tensile strength, increased resistance to dynamic loads. At the same time, the advantages of wooden buildings are not lost: a microclimate favourable for living and an even heat temperature on the wall surface.

Passive house standard

Due to the construction technology, the energy efficiency of the building corresponds to class A with a total energy consumption of up to 40 kWh/m², which allows Harmony Home to easily meet the standards of a passive house. In addition, the VST system is certified as a passive house component. High standards are achieved through a number of preconditions.

First of all, it is a uniformly high density of the building, which is achieved by using dense cement chipboard and special concrete, which is even able to fill critical areas such as openings under the window, as well as the formation of air bubbles is excluded. The density of the building has also been tested in the Blower Door air flow test (for example, in the Sky Garden residential complex in Jūrmala). It should be noted that the high density of the building also provides excellent sound insulation Rw = 56 - 62 dB.

Secondly, it is the prevention of cold bridges. For balconies, which are traditionally the most critical place, thermal barriers are used - a unit of reinforcement and thermal insulation materials, with the help of which the balcony is strengthened in the reinforcement of the building's floor covering. This structural unit guarantees safe connection of the balcony with the load-bearing structures of the building and reduces the escape of warm air through the structural elements of the building in winter.

Individual microclimate generator

Due to the very high density of the building, the air exchange or recuperation system plays an important role. In Harmony Home buildings, an individual recuperation system for each apartment is provided as standard in the project. Ventilation pipes are installed in the mezzanine floors, which ensure air exchange. The Harmony Home Teika building usesZehnder recuperation equipment, which not only provides constant fresh air at home, but also has heat and moisture recovery functionality. This in turn affects both energy efficiency and the microclimate in the apartment.

Opportunity for developers - resource optimisation and higher quality

Harmony Home is designed for the export market, based on the high requirements of Northern Europe for the quality of construction and space, architecture and building physics. It solves the most pressing problems of the construction process - the availability of construction materials and labour and the increase in costs, as well as promotes the predictability and quality control of the construction process.

Harmony Home, compared to a standard apartment house, not only provides excellent long-term building quality, but also allows the developer to optimise the necessary resources:

• to reduce the development time of the construction project by 70%;
• to reduce construction time by 25%;
• to reduce labour costs by 30% (a smaller number of employees is needed on the construction site);
• to reduce overall costs by around 10%, which is particularly important at a time when traditional construction costs have risen sharply.

 

Fully planned and customisable project

STATS Group offers Harmony Home as a residential development project designed to the smallest detail, which includes everything from building projects with utilities, construction with VST technology patented in Austria, to a sales platform and marketing tools. Each developer has the opportunity to choose the most suitable project set.

This project, as an apartment house, hotel or service hotel, can be replicated on any plot of land with appropriate zoning, taking the requirements of the developer and location into account. Simultaneously with the implementation of the existing classic apartment building project (also possible as a high-rise building), other types of building projects are being developed - a low-rise apartment building (especially suitable in areas with a limited number of floors and high demand for living space) and also an exclusive family home. With the design work already done, each project has the opportunity to choose the required number of floors and buildings, as well as the types of apartments on the floor.

First project in Latvia is being implemented - Harmony Home Teika

The first house built according to the Harmony Home project is in Riga, Teika, Ķeguma iela 39. Harmony Home Teika has 48 apartments, 4 floors, 3 buildings - apartments are available for sale. The apartments have a thoughtful, ergonomic layout, panoramic windows and glazed balconies. The building has spacious lifts leading to the basement, where there are individual storage rooms and a bicycle/trolley storage room. The total construction process of the project is one year - predictable and shorter deadlines are one of the advantages of this project. You can find out more about the new project at www.harmonyhome.lv

About the STATS Group

STATS Group is a group of Latvian companies with experience in construction since 1993. Step by step, bringing together the most enthusiastic professionals in our field, we have grown in everything - in the team, the range of services, the quality, the ability to be courageous. All activities of the companies are related to the construction industry. Our passion is our own desire to be proud of the quality of our work, to look for new opportunities to build better and more efficiently, as well as more sustainably.

Prepared by Elektrum Energy Efficiency Centre in cooperation with STATS Group