Sunlighthouse by Hein-Troy Architekten, Austria

Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Thank you for signing up to Wallpaper. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Dubbed 'the first ever carbon-neutral, single-family house in Austria' by the client - leading roof window specialist Velux - the Sunlighthouse by Hein-Troy Architekten provided an aptly daring and contemporary backdrop to our Next Generation Austrian fashion story ('Alpine Club', W*154 issue).
The clean-lined, wooden house incorporates three floors and is located in the town of Pressbaum, a half-hour drive from Vienna. The main living spaces sit on the ground floor, with cleverly elevated roof windows bringing plenty of light into the sitting room - a feat, given that the nearby mountains cast a shadow on the plot, making natural lighting with conventional windows difficult. On the top floor are bedrooms and the lower ground floor contains storage and utility rooms.
Completed a few months ago, the house's most prominent design feature is the striking sloped roof - the architects' response to the steep gradient of the site. As well as skylights, the roof also includes solar panels that feed electricity to the structure's grid. Passive cooling can be achieved in the warm months and, adding to the building's eco credentials, there is a ground-source heat pump hot water system.
Sunlighthouse is one of a series of 'study' houses commissioned by Velux as part of its Model Home 2020 project. Locations range from northern Europe to the Mediterranean, showcasing the variety of Velux applications and allowing the company to study the products in different environments. The program not only promotes great architecture but also helps create the company's neutral CO2 emissions solutions and energy efficiency development. The houses produced through the program are studied closely and then released for habitation.
Supported by scientific partners Donau-Universität Krems and the Institute for Healthy and Ecological Building (IBO), the Sunlighthouse has already won the Austrian State Prize for Environment and Energy Technologies.
The clean-lined, wooden house - commissioned by leading roof window specialist Velux - incorporates three floors and is located in the town of Pressbaum, a half-hour drive from Vienna
The main living spaces sit on the ground floor, with cleverly elevated roof windows bringing plenty of light into the sitting room - a feat, given that the nearby mountains cast a shadow on the plot, making natural lighting with conventional windows difficult
A wooden screen provides a decorative effect in the main living area
The staircase
Picture windows frame the impressive views on the top floor
The building's eco credentials include solar panels that feed electricity to the structure's grid, and a ground-source heat pump hot water system
Sunlighthouse is one of a series of 'study' houses commissioned by Velux as part of its Model Home 2020 project
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).
-
Paula Rego’s decade of self-discovery is the subject of a new London exhibition
Paula Rego’s ‘Letting Loose’, at Victoria Miro in London, considers the artist’s work from the 1980s
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Pixel House unites a graphic identity and contemporary living in Kuwait
Pixel House by AGi architects brings together contemporary minimalism and a bold graphic approach to Kuwait living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Seven minimalist watches to invest in now
These minimalist watches are united by a focus on clean design and technical excellence, for timeless style
By Thor Svaboe Published