Alterna

Foto: Tommy Kosior

Alterna Houses is a turnkey contractor who designs and builds single family houses in southern Jutland. Based on the current demand, the company wanted to build a maintenance free house with very low heat consumption at a cost similar to that of a typical standard house. 

In their low-energy display home in Haderslev,  the company  has succeeded in keeping the annual expenses for water and heating down to 5,000 DKK.  In addition, the house has geothermal central heating, a heat recovery ventilation system and under floor heating with electric temperature control.

Alterna’s  clients are quality conscious people who know what they want so, apart from a low-energy house, individuality features high on their list.

“With our target group in mind, we thought that it might be fun to create visual details that are a bit different.  For example, fibre cement panels cover half of the house façade and this creates a nice contrast to the bricks and makes for a maintenance free house,” explains Henrik Nielsen from Alterna Houses.

Based on the idea of giving the house character, Alterna also chose to install Troldtekt on all the ceilings. Good acoustics were important because the single storey house is centred around an open, high-ceilinged kitchen-dining area which is directly connected with a roomy living room.

“It is obvious that large high-ceilinged rooms with hard quarry tile floors and large windows can pose a risk of bad acoustics.  Here however, the ceiling panels have completely eliminated this problem and everywhere in the house the acoustics are incredibly pleasant,” says Henrik Nielsens.

“Several visitors were inspired by the Troldtekt panels in the display house and later ordered them for their own homes. Some installed Troldtekt in just the kitchen, while others preferred Troldtekt throughout the entire house.”