It’s a radical idea: that to negate the environmental damage of construction, we don’t just need to build sustainably, we need to build less. However, most architects and building designers earn a living by doing exactly the opposite: by building stuff. So how can the design practice be reinvented for a world in which we need to do more with much, much less?

Medite Smartply has announced a donation of €250,000 to Technological University (TU) Dublin, to support the development of Design + Construct, a centre for collaborative, multidisciplinary education that will drive performance in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector through talent and technology.

The winners of the international Passive House Award will be announced on Friday 10 September as part of the 25th International Passive House Conference, which is fully available online. Tickets to the conference are still available.

For anyone interested in climate action, the government’s commitment to halve Ireland’s emissions by 2030 and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 was one of the highlights of the year. But we won’t reach this objective focusing exclusively on energy efficiency — we must turn our attention to cutting embodied carbon too, and this wil be a major focus of the Irish Green Building Council's Better Homes conference next Friday, 27 November. 

RIBA has published a report urging the government, local authorities and the wider construction sector to adopt post-occupancy evaluation as standard practice to ensure all new buildings meet intended energy efficiency ratings and provide optimum value for money.

It’s no coincidence that Nordic countries are some of the most advanced in the world when it comes to low energy design. In this article, three assistant professors of architecture based in Denmark and Finland discuss areas where we can learn from our Nordic neighbours — and where we might return the favour.

This issue features a certified passive house in South Island, New Zealand, and the Bagley Outdoor Classroom at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

Simply Architecture, and their new build residential project ‘The Fairways’ in Cork, has been named the winner of the 2019 Overall ISOVER Award, as well as being named Designer of the Year 2019, at the third ISOVER Awards.

Dr Marc Ó Riain looks at the influence of 20th century architectural giant Frank Lloyd Wright on low energy building design.

Innovations in low energy building were spurred in the 20th century by oil crises, but the political impetus for meaningful change receded once the crises ended, explains Dr Marc Ó Riain, bringing an attendant failure to set meaningful building regulations.

Design-and-build contracts have become increasingly common in construction, a trend that must be reversed in light of the Grenfell Tower fire if we are to deliver safe and high quality buildings, says quantity surveyor Michael McCarthy.

We must discard the architectural baggage of the 20th century to solve 21st century problems – argues our columnist Marc Ó Riain – and relearn some lessons from before the advent of oil.

The most celebrated architecture of the 20th century belongs firmly to the oil age, a heady mix of glass and steel and no need to have regard to comfort, given the availability of cheap fossil energy to fuel heating & cooling systems. But in the 21st century our buildings must adapt to and mitigate against climate change. That needn’t mean compromising on design, as one West Cork passive house shows 

In her second column documenting her family’s self-build passive house project, Nessa Duggan details the process of choosing a build system and finding an architect.

The big winners at this year’s UK Passivhaus Awards were Tigh na Croit by HLM Architects, which won in the Rural category, and Lansdowne Drive by Tectonics Architects, winner in the Urban Category. 

The Keystone Group is the first lintel manufacturer to offer an online Psi-value calculator designed for energy assessors and architects. 

The Royal Institute of British Architects said that, despite some growing pessimism among architectural practices about business prospects, passive house design represents a new and exciting growth area that offers added value for architectural firms.

This uncertified passive house on Ireland’s south-west coast makes a striking-yet-sensitive architectural statement.

The winners of the Passivhaus Trust's 2015 UK Passivhaus Awards were announced at a ceremony in London on Wednesday night. The awards aim to celebrate the design and performance of passive house buildings in the UK. 

At this year's International Passive House Conference in Germany, the Pioneer Award will recognise early Canadian landmarks in energy effiicent building, and in particular the groundbreaking Saskatchewan Conservation House. 

The Passive House Association of Ireland has announced its inaugural all-Ireland design charrette, in UCD on 5 and 6 November, in advance of its annual conference which takes place on 7 November in UCD.

The world's first passive house hospital, by Wörner Traxler Richter Architects, is set to be built in Frankfurt. In conunction with this, the Passive House Institute has also published new research on applying the passive house standard to hospitals. 

The winners of this year’s UK Passivhaus Trust awards have been announced. The awards recognise the best passive-certified building projects in the UK.

The number of certified passive house designers and consultants has passed the 4,000 mark globally, after the latest round of exams were held in more than 30 countries across Europe, North America and Asia. 

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust has announced the finalists for its 2014 Passivhaus Awards, which are sponsored by Saint-Gobain.

The Passive House Institute has announced the launch of a 3D model interface that allows for the graphic input of energy related design data. 

A new online passive house tutorial video series has just been launched by Energyquarter. The series is hosted by Tomás O’ Leary from the Passive House Academy, accredited Passive House Institute trainers.

At the time of writing RIBA’s Stirling Prize winning project is just hours away from being announced. But how sustainable will the winner be?

This is Villa Lagenkamp, the first certified passive house ever built in Denmark, finished in 2008. 

Construction has begun on what is expected to be Ireland's first certified passive house pharmacy. The project in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, was designed by Paul McNally Architecture.