This ambitious and complicated project — a partial upgrade, partial rebuild of an old detached property in south Dublin — is on course to achieve the onerous Enerphit standard for retrofit.

This affordable housing scheme in Exeter not only embraces a suite of healthy and natural materials, but it has vindicated the local council’s embrace of the passive house standard, with many of the units requiring no additional heating whatsoever.

In April 2010, Geoff and Kate Tunstall moved into their pioneering house at Denby Dale. It was one of the UK’s first passive house projects, and the first to be built with a traditional British cavity wall system. Five years later, how are the Tunstalls finding life in a passive house?

This summer, work was completed on the Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia, which might just be the most sustainable large building ever constructed in Britain.

Despite some setbacks, this passive house in Roscommon managed to meet the passive house standard for fairly standard costs — all while emphasising natural materials like untreated timber, cellulose and sheep’s wool.

This striking new-build passive house combines a traditional farmhouse form with ultra-low energy performance and a spectacular location – using two different forms of masonry construction

This issue’s international selection features an embassy in Indonesia, an educational building in South Korea, an experimental solar-powered house in France, and social housing in Philadelphia.

As previously revealed in Passive House Plus, the evidence appears to indicate that natural ventilation systems don’t adequately ventilate our homes. But does mechanical ventilation perform any better?

Grosvenor’s upgrade of two historic properties in Belgravia brings high-end passive housing to Westminster.

This 1960s Galway home was turned into a passive house - and is costing just €55 per year to heat.

Twelve units in Great Yarmouth deliver low energy bills and comfort for new tenants using patented timber frame system.

PassivClass, a new passive-certified modular classroom in London, aims to end the days of cold and draughty school prefabs – including a structure made from reclaimed materials.

The team behind this Surrey home intended to use it as a test-bed for passive house design and construction, without necessarily expecting to achieve certification. But as the house neared completion, they realised that they were within touching distance of the coveted low energy standard.

This new home in Cumbria not only meets the passive house standard, it embraces natural and recycled materials and produces its own electricity — and achieved it all on a ‘shoestring’ budget.

This new Dungannon home shuns conventional passive house design and embraces the late 19th century Arts and Crafts movement.

A new research centre in Northern Ireland could stake a claim as being one of the greenest buildings on these islands. Not only is it passive, it boasts a whole suite of ecological features, and aims to be at the cutting edge in the research and development of new sustainable and renewable technologies.

With this passive house in Co Kildare, father-and-son building team Pat and Paul Doran of Pat Doran Construction Ltd prove that meeting the strict low energy standard can be done for even less than a ‘normal’ build – to the tune of a €20,000 reduction in build costs compared to the Department of the Environment’s suggested compliance approach.

This issue’s international selection features a developer-built passive house in Philadelphia, a big new research centre in Frankfurt, a sleek family home in Vienna, and a new low-energy factory in Canada where passive timber buildings will be prefabricated.

Six years after it was completed, Passive House Plus takes a look at a pioneering low energy upgrade that went on to become the UK’s first certified Enerphit project, to find out how it has performed — and what lessons have been learned.

Built in the 1970s, Rochestown House was a cramped, cold and damp social housing block in Sallynoggin, Co Dublin that has now been completely transformed, thanks to a deep energy retrofit inspired by passive house principles.

From a distance Steel Farm looks like a traditional Northumberland farmhouse, with its sandstone exterior and cluster of outbuildings. But inside, it is something very different.

When Mike Jacob of Trunk Low Energy Building started planning to build this unique Essex home, it seemed likely to run way over budget, and still fail to meet the passive house standard. But rethinking key details and making tough compromises got the house within touching distance of passive, while slashing costs.

Safeguarding historic documents and other artefacts requires stable building conditions. Until now this was usually achieved with the expensive and energy-hogging use of heating and cooling equipment, but a new approach by Herefordshire Council used the passive house approach to conserve energy, money — and the county’s precious historical archives.

Building this stylish south Dublin passive house, which recently picked up a Made in Germany energy efficiency award, demanded a steep learning curve, not least when it came to airtightness — but despite the struggles, it ultimately gave its owners their dream low energy home.
Words: Des Crabbe, architectural technologist, OA Studios