Overall project description:
The Royal Government of Bhutan is constructing a Hotel & Tourism Management Training Institute (HTMTI) with a Training Hotel in Thimphu, Bhutan with financial & technical assistance from the Government of Austria.
Bhutan is one of ADA´s (Austrian Development Agency) priority countries due to the comparable mountainous topography, climate and size focusing on the energy and tourism sector, the preservation of the environment and protection of natural resources.
The main aims of the HTMTI project are developing state-of-the-art facilities for training on the one hand side and to introduce innovative building & buiding service technologies that match the countries high interest and efforts in environmental compatibility and sustainability due to the highly sensible mountainous and up to now highly preserved environment.
The project consists of three different work tasks and energy wise of three stages of development:
- the adaptation work on an existing building dating from 1974 (a middle European 1900 type)
- to newly build a banqueting hall in an upgraded traditional version (a middle European 1960 type) and
- to develop a training hotel facility with passive house or low energy standards and modern building service facilities (a 200x European passive house or low Energy type) as a prototype for future public buildings and the private single family house sector.
Project Specifics:
The climate in Thimphu located about 2400 meters above sea level is characterized by very large daily temperature variation in winter due to a mostly clear sky combined with high solar radiation inducing high temperatures over the day. During summer the sky is generally covered due to monsoon clouds with quite high air temperatures (up to 30?) and high air humidity.
As the climate at Thimphu is completely different to climates at comparable see-level sites in Central Europe the principles of Solar Architecture have to be adjusted to Bhutanese climatic conditions under scientific monitoring from Dr. Klaus Krec, University of Technology Vienna aiming to develop a Bhutanese standard.
The very limited availability of insulation (especially hard insulation), of seasoned wood for windows/doors and double glazing (air-tightness and u-values) challenge architects and technicians as well as supervision on site on a very high level.
Conclusion:
The nearly ideal conditions (both during winter time with high radiation impact and summer with comparatively low radiation impact) increased the governments interest to introduce and try to implement for the first time passive-house or low-energy technology.