The new kennel building for the Happy Landings Animal Shelter was a long time in the making.

First approached in 2012 the owners asked us for an energy efficient, easy to clean and manage dog kennel building. This was to replace the existing 1950s structure, which was in extremely poor condition. Cleaning the kennels was difficult and time-consuming and the water and electricity consumption was making the running of the shelter, which relies heavily on donations very uneconomical.

The new building was designed with Passivhaus principles in mind, but as every individual kennel has a “dog-flap” it was impossible to predict the air-exchange rate. However, the walls, floor and roof are extremely well insulated and there are south-east facing windows contributing to the heating requirement. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and air-source heat-pumps reduce the energy consumption further. The building has been occupied since 2020.