Villazero - the world's first carbon dioxide neutral villa.
Villazero is the world's first carbon dioxide-neutral villa, located in the Dalarna region of Sweden. There were two major focus areas in the project. One was to test new innovative materials and solutions to build more sustainably. The other was to draw attention to the fact that the construction industry is the least equal industry in Sweden. In order to show role models so that more women dare to apply for construction, the project chose an all-female construction team for Villazero.
Local
Sweden
Region Dalarna and municipality Borlänge.
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund
The project was active from spring 2020 to summer 2022.
No
Yes
2022-06-30
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Mondo arkitekter Dalarna AB Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Gabriella Last name of representative: Hagman Gender: Female Nationality: Sweden Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Engelbrektsgatan 34 Town: Falun Postal code: 791 60 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 23 70 53 00 E-mail:gabriella.hagman@mondo.se Website:https://dalarna.mondo.se/
Name of the organisation(s): Fiskarhedenvillan AB Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Gunnar Last name of representative: Jönsson Gender: Male Nationality: Sweden Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Georg Karlssons gata 5 Town: Borlänge Postal code: 781 70 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 243 79 42 42 E-mail:gunnar.jonsson@fiskarhedenvillan.se Website:https://fiskarhedenvillan.se/
Name of the organisation(s): Structor Byggteknik Dalarna AB Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Kristina Last name of representative: Hansen Gender: Female Nationality: Sweden Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Slaggatan 13 Town: Falun Postal code: 791 71 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 10 130 12 00 E-mail:kristina.hansen@structor.se Website:https://www.structor.se/bolag/structor-bygg-dalarna-ab/
Villazero is a development and collaboration project whose project goal was to build a carbon dioxide-neutral detached house in Borlänge, Sweden. The impact goals were to test innovative materials and solutions and to obtain and spread knowledge about how to build sustainably at an economically reasonable price. Another goal has been to draw attention to the lack of women in a construction industry that is far from equal, and the project therefore chose to build the house with the help of a female construction team and do a feasibility study on it. The design process has been innovative, allowing the climate footprint to guide the design. Three companies got together and have run the project together with support from Region Dalarna. The house is Swan certified with the additional certification ZeroCO2. Villazero became the Sweden Green Building Council's first pilot project in the new initiative to certify single-family houses within ZeroCO2 in Sweden and also the first single-family house in the world to be certified according to it. The project has attracted enormous attention worldwide and has reached over 620 million people. It has been nominated and won several awards for innovation, good collaboration and good contribution to sustainable construction. Over 60 companies and organizations have collaborated in this project and several things are unique to Villazero, such as the innovative foundation of replacing concrete with wood, the smart frame system and the consistent use of wood in all structural parts. All with the requirement that it should be easy and cheap to reproduce.
Carbon-neutral construction
Equal construction industry
Innovative construction methods and materials
Surface-efficient design
socially and economically sustainable
We reached the goal of building a carbon-neutral villa. Villazero was completed in the spring of 2022 and shortly afterwards a new houseseries of Fiskarhedenvillan was launched and is based on the experiences from Villazero. An important goal has been that the house should be buildable by everyone and not be more expensive than a traditional house. The cost of a house from that sustainability series is even cheaper to build than a traditional house, which was an important goal of the project. The first house from that series has already been built. Shortly after the launch, approx. 20% of all houses from Fiskarhedenvillan are from their new sustainability series. Mondo architects has produced a sustainability manual based on the experiences from Villazero and which is used in all major construction projects that they design. It is in the form of a checklist of sustainability points, to ensure that both the client and the employees work to design and build as sustainably as possible and where the cost of projects is counted in both money and climate impact thanks to life cycle analyzes and experiences from Villazero.
As for the work with increased gender equality, that work continues thanks to the attention from Villazero. The Women Building Sweden network did the study on the female construction team and continues to work together with 82 business leaders in the region who signed an article on increased gender equality based on the work of Villazero. During 2023, a number of workshops and educational initiatives will be implemented to influence the industry and decision makers. A website with free tools and concrete tips that everyone can take advantage of is about to be launched during the year. Even though the Villazero house is now finished, its legacy lives on and contributes to a more sustainable development for innovative environmentally friendly construction methods, a more egalitarian construction industry and a more socially sustainable form of living.
The goal was to build a compact and surface-efficient house, but still have a sense of space! Wood has been a prerequisite for passing the ZeroCO2 certification and the material is very present and can take its place. One of the greatest qualities of wood is that it can be experienced with all our senses. The warmth, the roughness, the smell of the wood cannot be replaced by any other material. In its surroundings, the house stands out, with its dominant roof that gives a feeling of security and stability. The wood makes the house land, in the place, in the context, in a landscape, where the wood has played a big role in the building tradition. In our landscape, wood is not just a material, it is our history, our culture, our origin. The wood also gives a feeling of small scale to the otherwise rather robust villa. Thick walls create layers and security for those who live there. Outside the window you can see the sliding wooden panels that provide sun protection and in this way the exterior is also experienced from the inside, the effect of which is another layer of security. Since wood was the obvious choice in terms of climate, a whole developed in a natural way. There is a consistent use of wood in the house – even the slab on the ground is made of wood instead of concrete. The roof slope has been adapted to the solar cells on the south side and the gable roof on the north side. Here, the properties of the material have controlled the roof slope and thus the design. Climate impact guided our choice of materials, and so did the design. We followed our self-developed concept "Form follows footprint", to clarify the goal for ourselves. The wood has found its natural place. Why wouldn't it? Wood "follows footprint". Wood, a renewable resource with a small footprint, which also stores CO2. In the wood lives a materiality that is not only tradition but also the future.
The house is designed so that a part of the house can easily be divided and rented out. In Sweden, it is often very divided between different forms of housing, with separate residential areas and separate apartment building areas. With Villazero, where there is a rental unit, the house contributes to a mix of different forms of living and provides social sustainability in the form of integration between different social classes. It also creates financial sustainability as the owners get extra money by renting out part of the house, which makes living dynamic and flexible and allows people to share spaces instead of people being forced to choose between living by themselves in a house that is too big or moving. The owners simply use as much space as they need and when they do not need the whole house, they contribute to social integration and receive financial compensation for it. In Sweden, the construction industry consists almost exclusively of men. In the case of carpenters, there are as few as 1% women and this affects the industry very negatively. In Sweden, we struggle with bad jargon in the workplace, a macho culture that contributes to risk-taking and thus also increases the risk of accidents, carelessness and construction defects. Equal workplaces increase satisfaction and well-being, reduce the risk of mental illness and contribute to better profitability for companies and more innovation. The construction industry is conservative and needs to change quickly to build more sustainably. More women need to enter the industry and increase innovation capacity, but role models are needed so that more women dare to apply to the construction industry. In Villazero, we therefore chose to build with a female construction team, both to start debate about gender equality, and to show female role models. This has giving the project enormous attention and has therefore also contributed to highlighting the problem in the industry.
The project has been completely transparent during the course of the project in sharing all the results and also offered the public and those active in the construction industry to come and make study visits. Continuously during the course of the project, we have had seminars about the state of the project and what lessons we have learned, we have made informational videos about the results that were posted on Youtube and the project's website and which were available to the public. We also have an Instagram account where the public can continuously follow in real time everything that happened with the construction. The project has attracted great public interest and many articles have been written, both locally, nationally and also internationally. The project has also participated in pod recordings, had question sessions with the public via social media and been interviewed by television and radio due to public interest. The attention surrounding the female construction team has meant that the women who worked with it have gained an increased pride in being part of the project and in the industry and have become good ambassadors to attract more women to the construction industry. The commitment from society, from for example the organizations “Swedish Form” and “We don't have time”, has caused the knowledge and interest in building sustainably to spread further and spurred the project's members to continue striving for sustainable building and dared to launch a new house series.
Over 60 different companies and organisations were involved in the project. From the local construction contractor who provided a female construction team to the consultants who, together with the three companies that were the initiators, constructed and designed the most sustainable solutions and the new innovative construction methods. The female construction team was more careful with details and had a constant dialogue with the architects about the design, which increased the quality. The University of Dalarna also participated in the project, both through research on the female construction team and as a knowledge spreader to students and teachers on the construction courses for the results that came from Villazero. The non-profit and regional interest organization for the construction industry in Dalarna - Byggdialog Dalarna - helped with collaboration and dissemination of the results as well as finding the new innovative materials and construction methods. They also helped organize seminars about the project so that the results and knowledge could be disseminated. In order to find all the new innovative materials and construction methods, the project invited suppliers to a fair where over 40 suppliers participated. Several of them were just at the beginning of their process of reaching the market with their new products. The project further helped the suppliers through collaboration partners to be able to register their products, calculate the climate impact and get help to reach the market. In this way, innovative solutions were spread more quickly to the market. The materials that were selected were both locally produced and from abroad, all depending on the climate footprint they had. Region Dalarna helped with the financing and supported with its regional network. The Swedish Institute, which works with spreading Swedish innovations abroad, wrote about the project, which meant that information of the project was spread internationally.
Our three companies who are initiators of project Villazero were also project owners, which we normally never are. This meant that we could control the process in the project completely to see the climate as the most important customer and thus did not have to compromise with material selection and design. Our companies are experts in designing houses and calculating the construction, and where the knowledge was not available within the companies, expert help was brought in from other consultants in the industry, such as for example for electricity, plumbing and installation of solar cells. It was an iterative design process in collaboration with all disciplines where a lot of calculations and simulations regarding, for example, design, daylight, carbon dioxide emissions etc. were done to find the best way. The measuring stick has been our certifications, they have decided whether it has been the right choice we have made. Collaboration also took place with interest organizations, for example with the women's network Women building Sweden, which helped with the study on the female construction team. Dalarna's insurance company helped with expert help on where insurance claims most often occur and participated as a referral body regarding the new innovative construction methods. Cooperation with the university meant that several students did their graduationjobs that were linked to the project and the interest organization for the construction industry in Dalarna - Byggdialog Dalarna, ensured that information was spread and reached the entire construction industry in the region.
The project has shown that it is possible to build sustainably. If everyone works together with the climate as the most important goal, it is possible to find new construction methods and quickly change an otherwise very conservative industry. The project also combines ecological, social and economic sustainability in an excellent way in the way Villazero is designed, both as a product and a project. The house has been a testbed for new sustainable materials and construction methods. When we also get time to fully work through the design of the house, it results in good architecture that is no more expensive than other houses. A design that gives character, with a future material that appeals to all our senses. The fact that we also focused on the lack of gender equality in the construction industry has led to several concrete measures, such as further research, debates, articles, workshops and that the majority of all companies in the construction industry in the region have signed up to work more for gender equality. The house is completed and the certification for ZeroCO2 is approved, with very good results. A report of the study on the female construction team has been published. There is a steering group and working groups to work further with gender equality in the construction industry. A brand new house series has been launched based on Villazero and a sustainability manual has been produced to be used in all building projects going forward. The project has been involved in developing a carbon dioxide-neutral certification for villas, something that did not exist at all before for private individuals. For the prize money we have won in the project, Villazero has established a scholarship for the best sustainable graduationjob at the university in Dalarna. A film about the female carpenters in the construction team has been made to be used in schools to inspire more girls to dare to apply for the construction industry.
Life cycle analyzes (LCA) and all technical requirements have been the basis for the design - Form Follows Footprint. For houses for private use, it is the concrete in the foundation and the concrete roof tiles that are the major climate culprit, and the project has several innovative solutions to replace, among other things, these products. Each material has also been carefully weighed in terms of quantity, so that we get a good balance between a well-insulated house without using too much unnecessarily so that we waste the earth's resources. All materials must be able to be part of a cycle without harming the climate. Sweden is a country with plenty of forests and wood is a fantastic material to work with if you want to build climate-smart. In Villazero, the concrete has basically been replaced by a slab of cross-laminated timber, and the external roof consists of silicon-impregnated wood from Organowood. Solar cells are installed on the roof of the well-insulated villa and pay back three times more clean energy than it consumes. In this way, the villa is not only self-sufficient in electricity, it also contributes electricity to the rest of society and reduces the need for dirty electricity. The frame and insulation also consist of wood in the form of a new smart frame system from Masonite Beams and wood fiber insulation. The building thus has wood in both the foundation, walls and roof and no concrete has been built in at all, which is very unusual in Sweden.
ZeroCO2 certification of a building requires that the climate impact of the entire building's life cycle be accounted for and balanced with climate measures to net zero climate impact. The life cycle includes the manufacture and transport of building parts, building processes and the use and final management of the building. The design has therefore always been based on the impact of the materials on the climate and the project has worked based on an iterative process where the design has tested itself based on the impact of carbon dioxide. ZeroCO2 is used as an additional certification for sustainable buildings where the basis may be one of the certifications Miljöbyggnad, BREEAM-SE, LEED or The Swan. From the beginning, the certification was not for houses for private persons, but the initiators behind this project did not give up and in the end Villazero had to be a pilot project to develop guidelines for that type of building as well. Building their own house is for many people the biggest deal of their life and we think that the market should be able to offer private homes that are in line with the sustainability goals we must adhere to in order to reach the Paris Agreement. In addition, Villazero is not only a house that must be ecologically sustainable in the form of reaching net zero in carbon dioxide emissions, it is also designed to be socially and economically sustainable. In Sweden, houses tend to be built bigger and bigger, but we believe that this trend must be broken. It costs more with a large area, both in material consumption during the construction period and then to heat the house during the winter, which can be quite cold in Sweden. Villazero is surface-optimized and flexible, both to reduce material used in the construction phase, and to not need as much energy for heating.
All parts of Villazero can be replicated and Fiskarhedenvillan has already produced a new house series based on the experiences from Villazero called Atmosfär. The new design process Form follow footprint can be used by everyone if one only learns to calculate life cycle analyses. There are many tools on the market that you can use to make such calculations. Thanks to the sustainability manual that was also developed in the project, all knowledge about surface optimization, climate-friendly materials and climate-friendly design can be used for all types of buildings, not just villas. In this way, it is not only possible to copy the result, the knowledge is scaled up to be used throughout the construction industry.
The entire construction industry globally must change construction methods and processes to become more sustainable, especially since the construction sector in particular accounts for a very large proportion of global emissions. It is a very slow and conservative industry, but we show through Villazero that collaboration is the solution if we are to be able to make that transition. What we have done in Villazero can be done all over the world. Everything from inviting to a fair where the latest innovative solutions are presented, to how to design in a reverse process where the climate and emissions control the process. The ZeroCO2 certification for villas, which we have been involved in developing in the project, is part of the organization World Green Building Council, a worldwide organization, which means that the lessons learned from this project reach the whole world.
