Paul Doran remembered
Editor Jeff Colley remembers Paul Doran, one of Ireland's foremost builders, who has tragically passed away.
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Why we wrote Designing for the Climate Emergency
Over the last century architects have unwittingly played a key role in terms of climate collapse and a slew of linked catastrophic environmental and social harms. A new book aims to change that.
Bad retrofit is worse than no retrofit
But doing retrofit well and at scale remains an enormous technical and financial challenge,
writes Dr Peter Rickaby.
HomeWorld 1981: car engine-driven houses & low energy ideas that stuck
In the latest missive in his series on the history of low energy design, Dr Marc Ó'Riain looks to some wacky and wonderful experimentation in a project that aimed to transform public perception of Milton Keynes.
Podcast: what we've learned from 20 years in green building mags
To kick start the new year, have a listen to co-founders Jeff Colley and Dan Hyde on what they've learned in the 20 years since our first issue came out.
“Addressing embodied carbon is a no brainer” says Eoin Ó Broin TD
In the #BuildingLife Ambassador Spotlight Series, Passive House Plus is profiling leaders who have endorsed the Irish Green Building Council’s call to address the environmental impacts of buildings across their lifecycle.
Punk retrofit: fighting the lack of vision on energy upgrades
In the aftermath of COP26, Dr Peter Rickaby asks what is the government’s plan to deliver
the deep, whole-house, quality-assured retrofits needed to get us to net zero by 2050?
The world energy crisis 2022
The energy crises of the 1970s did not prompt a major shift in Europe from foreign oil and gas towards energy efficiency and renewables. Will we learn this time around, wonders Dr Marc O Riain
Housing: turning problems into solutions for Ukrainian refugees
Our abundance of holiday homes and other vacant dwellings could be used to house Ukrainian refugees, writes Mel Reynolds.
Lifting retrofit out of its silo
There has been a sleuth of recent reports on how to retrofit Britain’s existing homes, but we must think deeper than the practical matter of reducing energy and carbon, to how we create beautiful places to live, writes Peter Rickaby.
The 1980s: A renewable revolution undermined
Marc O Riain explores how policy on both side of the Atlantic in the 1980s sabotaged a nascent revolution in renewables and energy conservation.
Let’s bring ventilation in from the cold
Why is there is such antipathy towards putting ventilation at the forefront of our
Covid prevention strategy, asks Residential Ventilation Association of Ireland chair and
co-founder David McHugh.
“Sustainability must be embedded at all stages of a building’s life,” says David Browne of RKD
In the #BuildingLife ambassador spotlight series, Passive House Plus is profiling leaders who have endorsed the Irish Green Building Council’s call to address the environmental impacts of buildings across their lifecycle.
ESG: a game changer for sustainable building?
With signs that the corporate world may be starting to move from greenwashing to genuinely grappling with sustainability via environmental, social and governance reporting (ESG), will this create opportunities for the widespread adoption of evidence-based sustainable building? Archie O’Donnell, Passive House Association of Ireland board member and environmental manager with i3PT, finds reasons for optimism.
We must take radical action on whole life carbon
Addressing building life cycle emissions requires much deeper action than is currently planned, says Marion Jammet of the Irish Green Building Council.
Housing for who?
Despite an increase in the construction of new homes, the number available for first-time buyers and families to purchase is falling.
Passive house 30 years on: qualified success or brilliant failure?
As the stringent fabric-first, low energy standard enters its fourth decade, Guy Fowler asks what sort of impact it has made on the world, and where it should go from here.
How do breather membranes work?
How do underlays manage to let water vapour through while keeping the rain out? Toby Cambray delves into the physics…
Top 5 questions about specifying structural thermal breaks
Read Farrat's guide to specifying structural thermal breaks
CO2 Monitoring in Classrooms: Plain English Guide for Teachers
By Simon Jones of the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre.
This simple guide is generic and should be appropriate for any classroom and CO2 monitor