E4 - ROMANIA

Product used – Porotherm Clay Block

Architect – Tecto Arhitectura

The e4 brick house built near Bucharest, Romania is a single family house reflecting the four principles: energy, economy, ecology and emotion. The solution adopted for this house combines the use of clay blocks with the use of alternative energy sources in order to ensure the quality of living with affordable construction and maintenance costs.

Keeping in mind the comfort needed for a modern family with two children, the architect created flowing indoor spaces and set minimal accents by unusual colours and surfaces of natural materials.

An additional distinctive element, used for the first time in Romania for a family house, is the thermodynamic solar wall (also called “Trombe wall”). It contributes to the natural ventilation of the house by enhancing heating/cooling of the interior with zero power consumption. This is possible due to a combination of greenhouse effect and the thermal inertia of clay blocks. In winter, the thermodynamic solar wall absorbs heat during sunlight hours and then slowly releases it overnight, supporting an overall lower energy consumption.