The project starts that will show children the mysterious world of energy-efficient construction

How is an energy-efficient house built? Why is the shape of the house and its orientation to the cardinal directions so important? And how can ventilation occur from morning until evening without heat escaping from the house? Thanks to a new project from the Passive House Center, children from elementary schools across the Czech Republic will find answers to all these questions. In August, a new educational project titled “Let’s Live Healthily – It Will Be Fun!” was launched.

The project “Let’s Live Healthily – It Will Be Fun!” is an initiative by the Passive House Center aimed at showing young schoolchildren from grades 4 to 6, as well as their parents and teachers, how energy-efficient houses work and why they are considerate of human health and nature. The project will last nearly two years, starting this August and concluding in April 2016. It is supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants. During this time, it plans to playfully reveal to thousands of children and adults the mysterious world of how healthy houses are built today.

Building a truly good house is not simple. The selection of land, skilled professionals to advise you, the choice of suitable materials, and a lot of checking and work are required. “Our new project has one main goal. To show the Czech public in a fun and interactive way that energy-efficient houses are not complicated at all; on the contrary – their basic principles are so simple that even small children can discover them. They just need to be shown the way, at the end of which they will find the solutions,” explains Jan Bárta, director of the Passive House Center.

The main educational tool of the project will be the so-called experimentarium – an interactive exhibition consisting of a total of 11 stations spread over an area of about 200 m2. The experimentarium is based on the desire of children and adults to explore, search, and play – each station is therefore also interactive. Visitors not only read but also assemble, measure, spin, and move elements, pump, and weigh.

The entire interactive exhibition shows both small and large what is important when building a house with regard to its energy efficiency. The basic principle used by the exhibition is a game about designing a dream house. In the process, visitors will learn how to ventilate a passive house during winter when they don’t want to open a window. They will try to insulate the house as quickly as possible, assemble a window frame, or take aim at a house full of thermal bridges. To find the right solutions, they will have to roll up their sleeves, think, and play. They will discover that seemingly complicated things are very simple when you know how to approach them.

The exhibition will visit 40 primary schools across the Czech Republic, entertaining and educating 3,000 children aged 9 to 12. Throughout the exhibition, which involves building a dream healthy house, a pair of trained animators will guide the children. At each station, they will fill out worksheets together, play a fun game about how to build a passive house, and then take the game along with information sheets for their parents home. Additionally, for several months, the educational experimentarium will also be visible to the general public in large science centers across the Czech Republic.