Issue 49 - passivehouseplus.co.uk

Peter Rickaby looks back on an extraordinary career, the challenge of convincing people of the need for a new approach to buildings, and the people who helped him to do just that.

The retrofit market is messy, scuppered by knowledge and skills gaps, and inconsistent approaches. Ele George makes the case for industrialisation to level up the retrofit market.

One of Europe’s key climate breakthroughs came in the form of the EU’s nearly zero energy building target, as Dr. Marc Ó Riain explains in the latest part of his series on the history of low energy building.

In each edition, Passive Plus Plus profiles leaders in construction and architecture who have endorsed the Irish Green Building Council’s call to address the environmental impacts of buildings across their entire lifecycle.

What do you do when a building type is inefficient, common, hard to treat – and often used to house vulnerable people? Chris Morgan of leading passive house architects John Gilbert Architects tells the story of an extraordinary pilot project that may show the way to solve the stickiest of problems.

In recent years, the drive to reduce the embodied carbon of buildings has led to a resurgent interest in timber and other biobased building materials. But peering into the future, if we are to think not just about carbon but also land, water, and regenerating nature, how might we build to meet our essential needs, and what might we build with?

By Lenny Antonelli and Andy Simmonds

A couple breathes new life into a set of historic barns, creating an Enerphit dream home in the Gloucestershire countryside.

Mike Eliason, architect, founder of Larch Lab and author of the must read Building for People, reflects on how a series of personal and global crises – from pandemic lockdowns and climate disasters to urban housing challenges – shaped his mission to bring sustainable, community-focused, and climateadaptive neighbourhoods to North America.

Five years ago, a fabric first trailblazer took a dose of his own medicine – and delivered a family home that combines climate action, comfort, cost-effectiveness and resilience in the face of a record-breaking storm.

Through its enduring partnership with Swedish manufacturer NIBE, Unipipe has helped to establish heat pump technology as a cornerstone of energy efficient living in Ireland.

Amvic, Ireland’s leading manufacturer of insulated concrete formwork (ICF) has published an environmental product declaration (EPD) via the Irish Green Building Council’s EPD Ireland database, for its Amvic 300 ICF block system.

A coastal self-build home in Co. Antrim opted for Grant to design a bespoke heating system featuring an air-to-water heat pump, hot water cylinder, underfloor heating, and smart controls.

Green cement pioneer Ecocem has announced the construction of its first production facility dedicated to ACT, its low carbon, globally scalable cement technology, at its Dunkirk site.

A new podcast dedicated to longform interviews with leaders in the natural building sector will be launched this year.

Interest in flat pack bio-based building is growing, according to We Build Eco, which creates easy to assemble, energy efficient building kits manufactured from any design.

Kore Insulation has received the stamp of approval for the Kore Insulated Foundation System from the UK’s construction product certification body, the British Board of Agrément (BBA).

Cavan-based manufacturer Kore Insulation is looking to ramp up exports having received the stamp of approval for the Kore Insulated Foundation System from UK construction product certification body, the British Board of Agrément (BBA).

Drawing from 25 years of experience promoting airtightness and green building materials, Ecological Building Systems has developed Passive EcoWall, a system which integrates high quality, low embodied carbon, natural materials to deliver passive house performance levels, including exceeding Ireland’s nearly zero energy building (NZEB) standards.

The construction industry can drive down embodied carbon emissions while achieving best practice energy performance - using a tried and tested solution from one of the UK’s pioneering green building product suppliers.

A survey of 1,500 UK homeowners by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) – a cross-party think tank – has revealed government failure to make people feel confident in taking steps for the net zero transition, jeopardising its success.

Wales’s devolved government has moved forward with plans to standardise sustainable, timber-based affordable homes in the country with the publication of a new pattern book.

Certified passive house to be alternative means of compliance to proposed Scottish passive house equivalent.

The Smarter Finance for EU consortium, which is aiming to unlock €100bn worth of green homes across Europe, announced the launch of a European centre of excellence to promote green home certification and investment across Europe at the Irish Green Building Council’s annual residential conference in Dublin.