Seven projects receive international Passive House Award

Building with an eye to energy efficiency is not only cost-effective, it can also augment architectural design. This has been proven by the winners of the 2014 Passive House Award. Six buildings and one region were recognised today at the opening of the International Passive House Conference in Aachen: an apartment block in Berlin; a New York retrofit; a seminar building in Goesan, South Korea; an art museum in Ravensburg, Germany; a building complex in Espoo, Finland; a terraced house in Philadelphia; and an entire passive house district in Heidelberg.

Better Building conference hears commercial property warning

Last week's Better Building conference in Dublin heard from experts speaker on the present and future of the construction industry in Ireland. Topics at this year’s conference pushed the building industry to think beyond energy efficiency and consider full life cycle costs of materials, transportation issues, and living buildings.

Better Building to mix green architecture, policy debate & networking

The Better Building Conference returns for a 3rd year on 9 April at Croke Park Dublin with a genuinely exciting line up of inspiring case studies of future innovations and essential information on the new building control regulations. This full day conference is packed with presentations and panel discussions in three parallel streams and has plenty of important networking opportunities. Don't miss out on what has genuinely become one of the key events in Ireland's construction calendar. Click here to view the full programme, and click here to register now.

Finalists announced for 2014 passive house awards

The Passive House Institute has announced the finalists for this year’s Passive House Award. The winners, across six categories, will be announced on 25 April at the International Passive House Conference in Aachen, Germany.

Accredited Passivhaus Design to show affordable housing at Ecobuild

Low energy design specialists Accredited Passivhaus Design (APD) are promoting the design of affordable housing to the passive house standard at Ecobuild from 4 to 6 March. According to APD, the passive house approach can reduce rent arrears while reducing the need for off-site allowable solutions as part of compliance with the UK's zero-carbon homes target in 2016. Part of the UK government's proposal for zero carbon homes, allowable solutions permits the counting of carbon credits as a carbon reduction strategy for buildings.

Lindum focuses on biodiverse green roofs at Ecobuild

Leading green roof and turf specialist, Lindum, will be focussing on pollinators and biodiversity at this year’s Ecobuild exhibition which takes place on March 4-6 at ExCel, London. At the forefront of green roof technology relevant to UK climate conditions, Lindum has developed pre-grown vegetation mats containing mixtures of wildflowers, herbs, perennials and sedums can provide a wonderful flowering display and encourage biodiversity.

Passive house in the spotlight at Ecobuild

Passive house will be represented stronger than ever at this year’s Ecobuild on 4 to 6 March, with a series of events throughout the exhibition focused on the world’s leading ultra low energy building standard. Passive House Plus will also be at this year’s exhibition — come find us at stand S800.

Viessmann to showcase pioneering fuel cell system at Ecobuild

Leading international heating systems manufacturer, Viessmann, will unveil the first mass-produced, commercially available, domestic fuel cell in Europe at Ecobuild on 4-6 March. Viessmann and Panasonic have jointly developed the Vitovalor 300-P polymer electrolyte fuel cell-based micro combined heat and power system (mCHP), which goes on sale in Germany this April. By 2020, Panasonic and Viessmann expect a five-digit number of systems to be installed in Europe.