Casa EÑE: a Passive House in Madrid Featuring Amorim MD Facade®
Casa EÑE: a Passive House in Madrid Featuring Amorim MD Facade®
A Passive House in Harmony with Its Surroundings
Casa EÑE is a contemporary residence located within the landscape of the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares Regional Park. Certified to the rigorous Passivhaus standard, the home shows how architecture can minimize energy demand while blending into its natural setting. Passive House design principles combine strategies such as reinforced insulation, airtightness, high performance glazing, and optimized solar gains, creating interiors that remain comfortable and efficient throughout the year.
Amorim MD Facade® as Part of the Passive House Strategy
In this context, Amorim MD Façade® was applied in two layers of 40 mm each, creating an 80 mm cork envelope that adds natural insulation, breathability, and long-term durability. The facade requires very little maintenance and helps stabilize indoor comfort, while its renewable origin significantly reduces the project’s overall carbon footprint. Together with the laminated wood structure, high performance glazing, and natural ventilation strategies, Amorim MD Facade® played an important role in ensuring the building achieved Passive House performance standards.
The Natural Origin and Production Process of MD Facade
Amorim MD Facade® is produced through a 100 % natural, additive free industrial process. It uses only cork as its raw material, with no synthetic binders or chemical additives. The expanded insulation corkboard is manufactured at Amorim's dedicated facility in Vendas Novas, Portugal, where cork granules are subjected to high pressure steam in autoclaves. This activates cork’s own resin, suberin, which binds the particles together naturally. The process is energy efficient, more than 90 % of its energy needs are met using biomass derived from cork byproducts, and all production waste is fully reusable, reinforcing the system’s extremely low embodied energy. Amorim MD Façade® has a negative carbon footprint.
Beyond Performance, A Natural Aesthetic
Amorim MD Facade® also delivers an authentic visual character that matches Casa EÑE’s design intent. The warm texture of cork gives the exterior a natural, contemporary appearance that blends into the surrounding oak and shrubs. Its durability ensures that this aesthetic quality is maintained with minimal intervention over time, enhancing sustainability across the full lifecycle of the home.