Read Farrat's guide to specifying structural thermal breaks 

As construction delivery chain roles have become more fragmented, a lack of joined up thinking has meant that disparate elements of a project don’t always work effectively as a whole, says Andrew Mitchell, managing director of Natural Building Technologies.

Building physics take no prisoners. Anyone designing, constructing or upgrading the thermal envelope of a building to modern energy performance levels is duty bound to understand and minimise thermal bridging, or suffer the consequences. One-man thermal bridging encyclopaedia Andrew Lundberg of Passivate, who teaches thermal bridging analysis at Dublin Institute of Technology, gives some practical advice on why and how to tackle thermal bridging head on, and describes some of the leading innovations in thermally broken components.

Zephair have announced the launched of the Zephair Pre-Pro, an "easy to use and reliable way to perform quality control of your air tight layer by under pressurising a building".

How do you make an old building liveable on Ireland’s wind ravaged Atlantic coast? The answer lies in the envelope, with airtightness, super insulation and the eradication of cold bridges

As it nears completion, John Hearne visits what is anticipated to be one of the lowest energy buildings in Ireland's recent history.