Covestro polyurethane walls build passive prefab house

Covestro has aided the development of low-cost housing, collaborating with prefabrication firm Logelis, based in Drôme, France.

The prefabricated housing model, named ‘House of Nations’, uses wall panels with a polyurethane core. The panels are lightweight, highly insulating and cost £970 per square metre. The average UK new build home cost is around £1600/sq metre.

Covestro’s supplied its polyurethane to the ‘House of Nations’, a pilot building in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, that was built with the city’s council, Logelis and Covestro.

Markus Steilemann, Covestro’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “This highly cost and energy-efficient building was completed in just four weeks.

“With this pilot project, we want to show how we can work with partners to provide housing quickly and inexpensively. This is an increasing challenge in many cities.

Lutz Urbach, Mayor of Bergisch Gladbach, said: “Communities like Bergisch Gladbach often face the challenge of providing affordable housing as quickly as possible. This is exactly where the model building comes in. In view of the advantages for all stakeholders, I can well imagine that it will be a success in other locations as well.”

The outer envelope of the model building is fully insulated with polyurethane. Self-supporting, prefabricated elements formed the walls, which comprise a core of polyurethane foam encased in a thin layer of cement. The floors and drop ceiling likewise are also insulated with polyurethane.

The wall panels are super-insulating, with a thickness of 16 centimeters. The house uses only 15 kilowatt-hours per square metre in a year, fulfilling the passive house standard.

Covestro’s wall panels weigh 100 kilograms, providing fuel savings for transport, with easy installation. The single-story ‘House of Nations’ has two group rooms, a kitchen and two bathrooms.

Along with charity L'Œuvre d'Orient, Covestro and Logelis provided the housing model to communities in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, to construct of 70 homes for displaced victims of the Iraqi Civil War.