conservation - passivehouseplus.co.uk

The default answer when you want to do pretty much anything to a listed building is ‘no’. The default assumption if you want to achieve the Enerphit standard for retrofit is ‘tackle everything’. So how on earth do you retrofit a listed building to within a whisker of the Enerphit standard — with the blessing of the conservation officer?

Architecture practice vHH has announce that it is planning to adopt the passive house standard on a three-storey extension to the Grade 11 listed Leicester Cathedral, which is due to start on site in July 2019.

When it came to upgrading an old stone-walled building to the Enerphit standard — with all the inherent challenges such an upgrade poses for energy, airtightness and moisture — who better to have as your client and defacto site manager than a professor of physics?

This pioneering upgrade project, completed in 2009, turned a Victorian redbrick in Birmingham into one of the UK’s greenest homes. Along with a much wider ecological agenda, the house employed fabric first principles of insulation and airtightness, and met passive house design targets at a time when the standard was still in its infancy in the UK.

Most energy upgrades to historic homes in architectural conservation zones take a fairly gentle approach to insulation and airtightness — this one did the exact opposite.

The RIAI, in partnership with Joseph Little Architects, has announced the launch of an intensive one day programme on home energy upgrades designed specifically for architectural professionals. The course will be delivered through lectures and workshops.

One of the mid-west region’s best known primary schools has moved to reduce its annual water and sewer charges by installing waterless urinal systems.

The Model School in Limerick City invested in the systems, installed by BR Waterless Solution, to offset the scale of metered water charges that were introduced for all schools and educational centres in January. 

Historic buildings are all too easy to ignore when considering potential candidates for energy upgrade work. The heritage value of an historic building can often mitigate against the most obvious interventions, such as adding some form of wall insulation or replacing windows. Architect Fergal McGirl takes a typical Georgian building in Dublin through the energy rating process and proposes some considered upgrade measures. 

CAMPAIGNERS AGAINST the M3 motorway claim they have stepped up their campaign by occupying a tunnel they say they have secretly dug under the proposed route that passes through the Tara Valley in Co Meath.

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has joined international experts to vehemently condemn plans by the Irish government to build a motorway through one of Ireland's most historically important areas. In his first broadcast interview on the controversy surrounding the M3 motorway that is already well under construction through the Tara Skreen valley, the Co Londonderry born poet condemned a "ruthless desecration" .

ALTHOUGH the Irish Heritage Trust (IHT) got the all clear to take over Fota House and Gardens shortly before Christmas, Brian Cowen has attached very stringent conditions.

Dartmouth Square near Ranelagh, Dublin, which has been at the centre of disputes between Athlone businessman Noel O'Gara and Dublin City Council since 2006, has been granted special conservation status by the council.

THE planned demolition of the Lismullen national monument in Tara to make way for the M3 motorway is being investigated by the European Commission.

An increasing number of sustainable homes are being built in Ireland but many of them are in rural areas, and yet, Ireland is an increasingly urban society. Jason Walsh looks at one recent attempt to renovate a small terraced house in inner-city Dublin, bringing it up to modern environmental and energy efficiency standards.

“The thing to bear in mind is that even though it got knocked down, every single window sill went into another house, all the flooring and slates went into another house”, says Stephen Porter of Stonebrokers on the recent demolition of Lough na Vale in Sandymount.

Construct Ireland tracked down the busy director of Limerick Civil Trust to talk about the sterling work already done, current projects and to ponder the implications of recent FAS cutbacks.

A recent study undertaken by Dublin City Council could serve to shatter many commonly held misconceptions about how existing buildings can perform when compared to new build, even simply just in terms of running costs.

Leading Eco Architects Rachel Bevan and Professor Tom Woolley look at the connection betweeLeading Eco Architects Rachel Bevan and Professor Tom Woolley look at the connection between conservation and sustainabilityn conservation and sustainability.

Hugh Dorrian, member of the Main Committee of the recently launched Building Limes Forum Ireland reveals lime is regaining ground as a key material not only in conservation projects, but in new build.