A warts-and-all account of a landmark passive house conference

I had not intended to attend the UK & IRL Passivhaus conference in Belfast; I just happened to be in the neighbourhood, after speaking at the Scottish Ecological Design Association conference in Edinburgh, and Passive House Plus publisher Jeff Colley suggested I pop over. I did not expect much; although it was a joint conference of the UK’s Passivhaus Trust and the Passive House Association of Ireland, I didn’t think very many people would go to Belfast, a city that I only knew about through old news – I am from Toronto, a city so Orange that they banned St Patrick’s Day parades for a hundred years. I was even a bit nervous.

I was wrong about everything. I began to suspect I was wrong when I got off the airport bus in the middle of Ulster University and was surrounded by what seemed like thousands of students, and walked down a narrow street lined with full restaurants selling every kind of food and drink, to the Bullitt Hotel, recommended by the conference organizers, which would have been edgy and fun in Brooklyn or Shoreditch.

PHAI chair Caroline Ashe-Brady speaking during the opening session on passive house and the climate emergency

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I began to suspect that the conference might be different as well, when the local politician who is always rolled out to welcome visitors showed up in a Pewee Herman bow tie and talked of a “Just Transition.” Andrew Muir didn't just speak the usual platitudes but understood who he was talking to. Then there was Passivhaus Trust chair Emma Osmundsen, a force of nature who dominated the conference, and Stephen O’Shea, an architect now working for a major property developer, talking about taking passive house mainstream (which Stephen is doing at Cairn Homes). They were followed by the ever-animated Tomas O’Leary of Mosart and Jessica Grove-Smith of the head office, who noted that there were now 4.5 million square meters of certified passive house buildings – it is indeed scaling up and going mainstream.

After a break it was then time to make the decision: do I want to learn about non-domestic or residential projects? I hate it when there are multiple streams and you have to choose between when you want to see everything. It didn’t help when the rooms were so different; the non-domestic was in the main hall with lots of room and lots of air, while the residential was in a much smaller room, completely full, with inadequate ventilation – I wish I had not forgotten my CO2 meter and my mask.

Lloyd Alter with John Gilbert Architects’ Rupert Daly – with Sally Godber photobombing.

Fortunately, the content was so inspiring that I didn’t doze off; James York of Collective Architecture took my breath away with his social housing retrofits. He was followed by the most entertaining and hilarious speaker of the conference, Iain Stewart of Formative Architecture, who described how to build market-driven private housing to passive house standards. I have never seen anyone do it better.

It was a wonderful conference, in a wonderful town.

I will ruminate about rooms and multiple streams again; I missed the next seminar because that little room on the third floor was completely full by the time I got there. Fortunately, my time was well spent talking to the sponsors, learning about tapes from Siga and having my mind blown by Airflow's combination kitchen exhaust hood and MVHR for flats and small units, solving a problem I have been writing about for years.

Then it was time for the final panel discussion, and again I was faced with having to choose. Really, you want to end your conference with a bang, with everyone in the same room, building energy and excitement. I picked the panel on costs and standards (neither panel title spoke energy and excitement, so I went for the bigger room and the better air quality), and I am glad I did, because moderator Emma Osmundsen was determined to finish with a bang, and brought out the best in all of the speakers.

Passivhaus Trust director Sarah Lewis warned of using the term passive house too loosely.

Sarah Lewis of the Passivhaus Trust did her best to get us on our feet with her attack on those who use “passive house principles” instead of getting certified.

I can’t imagine closing out a conference with a topic like “handover to occupants” – this is not going to get people jumping out of their seats.

Fortunately, Dan Hyde (of Zero Ambitions consultancy and podcast) can make reading a telephone book entertaining and weird, and he made this dire topic interesting. He deftly handled Bronwyn Barry’s criticism about “why is this so complicated?” by describing who his audience is in heartfelt terms.

A slide from PHI joint MD Jessica Grove-Smith’s presentation showing the growth rate of passive house projects globally.

I asked an organizer why they split up the final session, and was told that they expected the speeches over drinks to be the real closer. It didn’t work; by that time, everyone was more interested in talking to each other. But these are small quibbles about what was perhaps the most well-organized, interesting and entertaining passive house conference I have ever attended. Nobody got to drone on; every moderator watched their watches, and the day just flew.

The evenings flew by too, because Belfast is alive with energy and fun, with Sally Godber photobombing all of my photos. One of the closing speakers noted Belfast's history: “30 years ago, this conference could never have happened.”

It’s hard to imagine when you walk through it today. It was a wonderful conference, in a wonderful town.

Conference delegates at a networking event at Commecial Court in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.