In trickier housing markets, the instincts of house builders have often tended towards building to the worst legal standards required – or worse. One award-winning new project in Belfast’s suburbs is showing that it doesn’t have to be this way – and that developers can thrive by pitching homes designed to ensure comfort and low bills at increasingly energy-conscious consumers.
The spectre of high rise and reduced spacing between homes may cast a proverbial and literal shadow over new homes, if an anticipated government policy comes to pass. Mel Reynolds asks: could passive house offer a new route to achieving higher density without reaching for the skies?
Issue 43 featured an off-grid prototype house in British Columbia, designed and constructed to demonstrate an innovative approach to future building.
Having joined Saint-Gobain in 2007, Holohan has spent the last nine years as Saint-Gobain Ireland’s marketing director. Prior to this, he held the positions of marketing manager with Moy Isover and strategy manager for Saint-Gobain Ireland.
Leading heating technology manufacturer Grant has sparked the interest of many self-builders throughout Ireland, with its integrated heating packages for new builds, due to the high efficiencies and substantial long-term financial and carbon savings the packages can deliver for the homeowner.
Medite Smartply has announced a donation of €250,000 to Technological University (TU) Dublin, to support the development of Design + Construct, a centre for collaborative, multidisciplinary education that will drive performance in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector through talent and technology.
What do you get if you cross a quantum physicist, a forensic accountant, a merchant, an engineer and a software-whizz-kid architect? A terrible punchline presumably. But as Jeff Colley discovered on a trip to Sussex, you get something not to be laughed at: a collaborative approach that may be about to unlock a scalable, highly sustainable, circular economy-proof, flat pack build approach.
How flexible can heat pumps be to handle what may be inexactly defined heating demands, asks Toby Cambray?
Pioneering passive house modular housing provider Beattie Passive has had a busy start to 2023: being named a supplier on two multibillion pound frameworks for new build and retrofit, achieving certifications for environment, quality and health and safety, and launching a new website.
Sustainable building product supplier A. Proctor Group has introduced a new online U-value calculator, condensation risk analysis software, and members area with a range of technical supports available to architects, contractors, and customers.
Partel, a leading manufacturer of airtight and windtight membranes, has developed two new fire-rated breather membranes that exceed current fire safety regulation levels for high-rise and high-risk buildings: Exoperm Duro A1 and Exoperm Mono Duro A2.