With Old Holloway Cottage, located in rural Herefordshire, architect Juraj Mikurcik and his wife Joyce have lovingly crafted a beautiful-yet-simple passive home that is constructed from timber, insulated with straw, and finished with a palette of natural, durable materials — and all for a surprisingly small budget.

Appearances can be deceptive, and with his second A1-rated passive house in County Wexford, architect Zeno Winkens has designed a fairly traditional Irish home that also manages to include some unique design touches.

Once poorly understood by the mainstream building industry, airtightness is now increasingly seen as one of the most crucial objectives on any building project. Not only is it vital for energy efficiency, it’s also key for thermal comfort and for protecting a building’s structure from dampness and mould. In this comprehensive guide to airtightness, we look at why it’s so important, how exactly it’s measured, and most importantly, how to achieve it on site.

The Deerings, a large new certified passive house in the Hertfordshire village of Harpenden, is the stunning result of meticulous attention to design, energy efficiency and ecological materials by its architects, builders and a homeowner so taken by the experience that it led to an investment in an innovative passive house start-up.

The home of a local passive house builder, this super low energy home in County Mayo is inspired by traditional building forms in the west of Ireland — and it blitzed Ireland’s nearly zero energy building standard a whole five years before it was set to become mandatory.

Industry-leading mechanical ventilation company BEAM Vacuum & Ventilation has introduced a new user-friendly, high specification digital control panel for their popular Axco C130 Counterflow MVHR system. The aura-t wall mounted panel offers an advanced yet simple-to-use touchscreen controller for programming, commissioning and occupancy control.

Heat Merchants Group, the largest suppliers of heating, plumbing and home improvement materials to the professional and retail markets in Ireland, recently announced the creation of up to 75 new jobs in a €4 million investment programme that will see the opening of nine new Heat Merchants branches, and four additional Tubs & Tiles showrooms, over the next three years.

Leading insulated concrete formwork (ICF) manufacturer Amvic Ireland says that its new Amvic 300 ICF system contributes significantly to achieving the nZEB standard in new buildings, following a fresh energy assessment of some of the company’s previous projects.

London has joined 18 other cities around the world, including Paris, New York and Tokyo, in a landmark commitment to make all new buildings “zero carbon” by 2030. Regulations and planning policy will also target existing buildings to make them net-zero carbon by 2050.

A £2m passive house residential scheme has now been handed over to residents in Shropshire. The mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes in Callaughtons Ash, Much Wenlock, comprises ten homes for social rental and two in shared ownership.

The International Passive House Days, during which passive house residents open their doors to members of the public, takes place this year from 9 to 11 November.

Eoin Leonard, CEO of i3PT Certification, has been named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist for 2018.

Tramex Meters, the Irish designer and manufacturer of moisture monitors, has launched two new FeedBack DataLoggers — the DL-RHTA and DL-RHTX — for monitoring ambient conditions in buildings.

The Irish Green Building Council will host its Better Homes 2018 conference in the Alex Hotel, Dublin on Thursday 8 November.

A research project examining the effectiveness of ventilation systems in low energy homes is one of 45 new sustainable energy projects to receive government funding in companies and institutions across Ireland.

PAS 2035 follows high profile retrofit failures under government schemes

Even the most cursory examination of the figures shows how little housing the state is building, writes architect Mel Reynolds.

The annual UK Passivhaus Awards take place this year on 24 October at the London Build trade fair.

Charlie Luxton will speak at the first event in Ecological’s Perfect Airtight Seal on 16 October at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre, Swindon, while the London event on 18 October will take place in the Building Centre.

SOLA Energy Solutions, the pioneering Tipperary based deep retrofit contractor, is currently seeking to hire two mechanical/building service engineers to join its growing team.

Over the past year cold snaps, heat waves and severe storms have all brought the reality of the climate crisis home to the UK and Ireland. But with the climate changing in fast and uncertain ways, how can we construct buildings that will remain resilient — and keep their occupants healthy and comfortable — long into the future?

Over a third of new homes may be sick buildings which fail to comply with minimum ventilation requirements under Part F of the building regulations, new analysis by Passive House Plus has indicated.

Daikin have launched a new air-to-water monobloc heat pump that the company says is the ideal system for users with limited installation space inside. “The system delivers cutting-edge performance within the market’s most compact monobloc outdoor unit,” said Daikin Ireland heating manager John O’Shaughnessy. It delivers space heating with an optional connection to provide domestic hot water.