A sensitive development of social housing in Lambeth combines three new passive houses with six low energy flats delicately constructed inside an old Victorian terrace — and with the emphasis on good indoor air quality, residents are already reporting improvements in health & well-being since moving from their old accommodation.
With an intricate design based on the concept of two pitched-roof sections that overlap, this eye-catching timberframed Sussex home proves you can meet the passive house standard with just about any shape.
Built with a timber frame insulated with straw-bale, and featuring an extensive suite of ecological and recycled materials, this stunning North Yorkshire home also produces more energy than it consumes, making it the first straw-bale building in the world to reach the brand new ‘passive house plus’ standard.
Designed around an existing timber chalet, this striking contemporary house managed to go passive on a budget for one lucky family of six, all while inadvertently blitzing Ireland’s forthcoming nearly zero energy building standard.
While embracing traditional farmstead design made it trickier for this new build home in the Scottish Highlands to meet the coveted passive house standard, mixing modern standards of super-insulation with vernacular farmhouse architecture ultimately led to the creation of a very special home for proprietors Jeanette and Jon Fenwick — one that picked up a coveted UK Passivhaus Award in 2016.
Ecological Building Systems will host an event in London on Thursday 11 May, titled Insulating & Achieving Airtightness with Cross Laminated Timber.
The need for experienced contractors who can be depended upon to deliver the high quality product that a passive or indeed low energy house demands cannot be undervalued, leading timber frame manufacturer Kudos has claimed.
Leading timber frame manufacturer Cygnum picked up five awards during one week in October, in recognition of some of the high profile passive-certified projects it has completed in recent years.
MBC Timber Frame Ltd has announced the opening of its new manufacturing and design premises at Quedgeley Court, Gloucester. The company told Passive House Plus that it has the capacity to manufacture 50,000 to 60,000 square metres of passive housing per year at the new facility.
Built from a simple palette of timber and concrete, this diminutive but architecturally unique home managed to meet the passive house standard despite a small and awkward site.
This new timber frame home in the south of England met the passive house standard despite a less-than-optimum orientation, launched a brand new design-and-build venture between its architect and project manager, and embraced a subtle-yet-elegant design that maintains a simple passive house form while drawing inspiration from the local vernacular.
This brand new light-filled passive house set in the countryside of north Kildare was inspired by local farm buildings, and features a striking and exposed oak-framed structure.
A Galway-based timber frame construction firm established last year that specialises in passive house has committed to using 100 per cent ecological building materials and advanced technologies to keep its environmental footprint to a minimum.
This stylish new passive house in Cork City managed to achieve one of the best airtightness results Passive House Plus has ever witnessed using an innovative new Irish-manufactured airtight timber board
Leading Irish timber frame manufacture Cygum has said that it is possible to tackle the housing crises in the UK and Ireland by mass-producing high quality timber passive houses on a large scale.
Bristol City Council have appointed Gale & Snowden Architects as lead consultants on a scheme of 23 dwellings aiming for passive house plus certification.
Ecohouse Developments, a new low energy design and build service, has launched in Ireland. The company employs a team of architects, engineers and builders, and can deliver turnkey passive houses to its clients, or simply build the principle passive structure if the client prefers.
Despite some setbacks, this passive house in Roscommon managed to meet the passive house standard for fairly standard costs — all while emphasising natural materials like untreated timber, cellulose and sheep’s wool.
Twelve units in Great Yarmouth deliver low energy bills and comfort for new tenants using patented timber frame system.
The team behind this Surrey home intended to use it as a test-bed for passive house design and construction, without necessarily expecting to achieve certification. But as the house neared completion, they realised that they were within touching distance of the coveted low energy standard.
This new Dungannon home shuns conventional passive house design and embraces the late 19th century Arts and Crafts movement.
When Mike Jacob of Trunk Low Energy Building started planning to build this unique Essex home, it seemed likely to run way over budget, and still fail to meet the passive house standard. But rethinking key details and making tough compromises got the house within touching distance of passive, while slashing costs.
Hitting the Enerphit standard can be challenging for even the most seasoned passive house specialist, so what chances did Kate and Geoff Ball’s semi-d have when the architect and builder had no passive experience? With a well-planned approach and no end of enthusiasm, they passed with flying colours, as Kate Ball explains.
Building a passive house school is a big achievement, but the team behind Oakmeadow Primary School in Wolverhampton have done something even more formidable — they built one when they weren't even asked to, and they did it for a conventional budget.
A new timber frame house in Co Cork doesn't just meet the passive house standard, it does so for an impressive price.
Following on from my post on a two-week trip to Germany to study low energy building under the Phase Programme, I sent some questions to Torsten Windmueller, a timber engineer at Kompetenz Zentrum Holzbau & Ausbau, a centre of excellence for timber frame construction, to gauge his thoughts on the differences between building standards in Germany and Ireland.
In this dispatch, Darragh McKiernan, a graduate of Sustainable Energy at Cork Institute of Technology, reflects on a two-week visit to south Germany to study energy-efficient building.
We tip our proverbial hats to Cork-based timber frame manufacturer Eco Timber Frame who have posted time-lapse video of one of their recent passive house projects online.
Leading Irish timber frame manufacturer Cygnum is launching a pioneering closed low embodied carbon panelised building system that integrates cellulose insulation.
The Precision system has been developed by the company to drive down the costs of a building system that’s becoming increasingly popular due to its thermal performance, healthiness and low environmental impact.