Häfele Protecting the Barratt Green House

HAWA Frontslide 60/Matic window shutter systems from Häfele UK have been installed on the first zero carbon home by a mainstream house builder in the UK.

The Barratt Green House,voted the winning design in The Mail on Sunday British Homes Awards' 2007 competition for the Home for the Future designed by Gaunt Francis Architects and built by Barratt Developments is located at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Innovation Park in Watford.

The automatic shutters not only provide a distinctive and attractive external feature they also play a crucial part in the technical design. They are linked to a central computerised building management system that automatically opens and closes the individual shutters to optimise solar gain and minimise solar overheating. For convenience, occupants will also be able to manually over-ride the automatic function of each shutter. The high quality shutter mechanism is manufactured in Switzerland by one of the world leaders in sliding technology Hawa AG. The Hawa Control –PRO controller system is also compatible with central building control systems (bus systems) with in-built safety back off / stop facility, and is CE tested.

Gary King, Häfele Architectural Product Manager said : 'Barratt will now test this home for the next two years and plans to apply the most successful aspects of the design to future homes, which we hope will include sliding shutters.'

Tel: 01788 548855
Web: http://www.hafele.co.uk