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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. 

As part of the Passive House Association of Ireland southern region programme of CPD in passive house building knowledge, members have kindly agreed to open their passive building projects for site visits as a learning resource for builders, architects, students, systems installers and potential clients.

Leading passive house consultancy Encraft has advised that the standard is affordable for large scale housing projects — and cheaper over the whole life cycle of a development — once there is some investment in learning and education up front.  

Cork-based manufacturer Poly Passive Mouldings Ltd has been recently been awarded a passive house certificate for its Passive Sills range of thermal bridge free window sills 

This year’s NZEB Open Doors event takes place from 11-13 November across Ireland. The event sees dozens of cutting edge, low energy buildings open their doors for members of the public to visit and experience for themselves. 

Leading low energy and passive house builder Pat Doran Construction Ltd recently picked up two leading construction industry awards for its Enerphit-standard upgrade to an early 20th century house in Rathgar, Co Dublin.

Thirty leading environmental and energy groups have written to the new secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy Greg Clark urging the government to maintain its commitment to crucial EU targets on energy post Brexit — including the demand that all new buildings be ‘nearly zero energy’ (NZEB) from 2021. 

Work is underway on the first hospital in the world to be built to the passive house standard, in the Höchst district of Frankfurt. The previous clinic on the site will be replaced by a new passive building with 666 beds and ten operating theatres planned over six floors. The Passive House Institute provided comprehensive support throughout the planning phase and will continue to do so during the building’s construction. 

Passive house indeed works everywhere was the core message at the second annual South Pacific Passive House Conference, writes Andrew Michler. The conference was held in Melbourne on 12-13 February. While just a handful of passive houses have been completed in Australia so far, a sizable contingent from New Zealand came to the conference armed with multiple examples of how even warm climate buildings benefit from the energy savings, comfort and critically the health of a passive house. With a major spike in asthma from damp and mouldy homes, the principles such as airtightness, controlled air exchange, and thermal bridge free design are finally being accepted as the best solution in this part of the world. 

Casa Architects has achieved NPPF 55 statusfor the development of a new passive housein a listed parkland near Frome, Somerset.NPPF 55, recognised as one of the mostdifficult planning applications to achieve, setsstrict planning restrictions to allow only trulyoutstanding or innovative architecture of thevery highest quality and standard to be built in the English countryside.

Buckinghamshire-based passive house door manufacturer Urban Front can now integrate airtight, insulated, thermally broken Petwalk pet flaps into their door systems, as one of the company’s latest door projects shows. 

Leading international sustainable technology manufacturer Viessmann has collaborated with high end prefabricated house manufacturer Huf Haus, to equip a UK residential property with first-of-its-kind technology.