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News
Air tightness training course to launch in Carlow this March
Irish energy consultancy 2eva is set to run a two-day professional training course for air tightness testers this spring, aimed at both newcomers to the discipline and experienced practitioners looking to formalise their skills, as well as timed to meet what the company sees as growing demand for qualified testers in Ireland.
#BuildingLife Series: Director at CORA Consulting Engineers, John Casey
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.
Green homes and finance join forces for growth
Certified green homes are becoming mainstream across Europe – boosted by collaboration from experts in green building and finance. Smarter Finance for EU (Smarter4EU), a pan-European initiative dedicated to the creation of a mainstream European green housing market, announced a range of new initiatives at the “Banking on Green Homes" event in Madrid, on 28 May.
Hotel demolition judicial review could set embodied carbon precedent
A Fingal county councillor has been granted leave to pursue a judicial review of the planning board's decision to allow demolition of the Deer Park Hotel on Howth Demesne.
ZEB Summit celebrates Irish passive progress
The rapid rise in the uptake of the passive house standard in Ireland in recent years was centre stage at ZEB Summit 2025 – with international visitors taken aback by Ireland’s progress.
Irish and British associations unite for conference as passive house explodes
The 2025 UK and Ireland Passivhaus Conference, themed Climate Emergency: The Passivhaus Solution, is set to bring together hundreds of sustainable building professionals in Belfast this October.
IGBC launches case studies to drive nature-led construction
The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) will unveil a groundbreaking collection of Irish case studies showcasing best practices for integrating biodiversity into building projects and infrastructure development.
Circular roadmap aims to reduce waste and create new markets
Ireland now has a roadmap aimed at transforming the construction industry from a linear to a circular economic model by 2040.
Enniscorthy to host ‘make or break’ sustainable building summit
As global temperatures soar, an Irish organisation is bringing experts together this month for a summit on the future of sustainable construction.
Banks turn to green housing courses as EU sustainability rules bite
Help is at hand for European financial institutions scrambling to train staff in sustainable housing finance as regulatory pressure intensifies and customer demand for green mortgages accelerates across the continent.
Ecocem executive John Reddy becomes the first Irish President of the Institute of Concrete Technology
Reddy is the first person from Ireland to hold the role of President of ICT, which has a term of two years, and follows his term of Vice President of…
#BuildingLife Series: RIAI CEO, Kathryn Meghen
In the #BuildingLife Ambassador Spotlight Series, Passive House Plus is profiling leaders who have endorsed the Irish Green Building Council’s call to address the environmental impacts of buildings across their…
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The PH+ guides
The PH+ guide to overheating
As awareness of the urgency of the climate crisis grows, efforts to kickstart en masse deep energy efficiency interventions are gathering apace. But poorly conceived low energy building efforts can lead to unintended consequences including overheating – a risk that’s bound to grow as the world warms up. Phi Architecture co-founder Claire Jamieson details the risks and offers some solutions on how to create low energy buildings that are comfortable in summer and winter.
09-04-2021 Guides
The PH+ guide to greener concrete - reducing the climate impact of cement and concrete in buildings
Cement is responsible for up to 8% of global carbon emissions, and in this guide, sustainable design expert Jay Stuart looks at ways to minimise its environmental impact through good design, and at some of the alternative, lower carbon cement and concrete products on the market.
30-07-2020 Guides
Timber frame & mass timber: the Passive House Plus guide to structural timber construction
Fuelled by the need to build quickly and to increasingly tight sustainability standards, the market for timber frame and mass timber construction is growing rapidly. This detailed guide covers many of the main established and emerging techniques, and looks at key issues to address if you’re considering a timber-based build.
05-07-2019 Guides
The PH+ guide to heat recovery ventilation
Heat recovery ventilation is an invaluable way to maintain indoor air quality in low energy buildings and minimise the loss of precious heat, but there are several issues to address to ensure optimal performance. Ventilation expert Ian Mawditt, a technical advisor on Part F of England’s building regulations, has decades of experience in field investigations of indoor air quality and ventilation effectiveness. His guide, which focuses on centralised or ducted whole house heat recovery systems, is essential reading to anyone considering such a system.
10-06-2019 Guides
Blogs
Retrofit redux: Catching up with A3
The upgrade of Ireland's retrofit target to A3 marks a critical step forward, bridging the gap between energy modelling and real-world performance, explains Dr. Marc Ó Riain.
Energy poverty and electric heating
As electricity decarbonises, the case for switching from fossil fuel boilers to efficient use of electricity to heat buildings via heat pumps has become overwhelming. But in markets like the UK where electricity is far more expensive than the European average, and people on low incomes may be chronically underheating poorly insulated homes, could a drive to electrify heating exacerbate energy poverty?
Three books and a taxi ride
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 transformative power of industrialised retrofit
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.
Tripling EU / UK Energy Efficiency Policy: the NZEB
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.
Passive house doesn't care about materials
One stubborn trope in some corners of green building is that passive house is so focused on energy performance that its advocates ignoring materials. Not so, argues Toby Cambray.
We need to talk about women and retrofit
Our efforts to retrofit homes across the UK and Ireland will be severely hampered unless we engage meaningfully with and empower women homeowners and professionals, writes Ellora Coupe, founder of Her Retrofit Space.
Energising Efficiency
In the latest piece in his series on the development of low energy building, Dr Marc Ó Riain describes the evolution and Impact of EPCs in Ireland and the UK.
If passive house is Everest, we’ve left base camp
The construction industry is moving in great numbers towards the passive house standard. In an adapted version of a speech at the Construction Industry Federation Conference in September, Passive House Association of Ireland chair Caroline Ashe Brady looks at the trek ahead.
In defense of fabric
As the grid gets greener and the case for heat pumps as a decarbonisation silver bullet becomes increasingly compelling, questions are starting to be asked about how far we need to go with retrofitting building fabric – or whether we need improve fabric at all. We ignore fabric at our peril, warns Toby Cambray.
Out of the blue - a passive revolution
Near the peak of the Celtic Tiger – at a time when developers were throwing up often sub-standard homes at a record pace, one self-build project pointed to a different approach, writes Dr Marc Ó Riain.
Buy, hold or sell
Recent analysis has suggested a slowdown in the property sector for 2024, but what impact might a drop in inflation have? Mel Reynolds runs the numbers.
An early green building in a changing Ireland
It’s fair to say that green building wasn’t a thing in early 90s Ireland, which makes one extraordinary Dublin project from 1994 all the more remarkable, as Dr. Marc O Riain writes.
Bedding sustainability into British buildings: Bioregional’s BedZed
Shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2003, BedZed was a prominent example of architecture starting to pay attention to sustainability. But how well did it work? In the latest part of his series on the history of low energy architecture, Dr. Marc O Riain looks back at a landmark project.
Is shared equity a bridge too far?
In the face of an affordability crisis, first time buyers of new homes are being offered a cocktail of incentives to help them get on the property ladder, including the government’s Help to Buy and First Home schemes. Mel Reynolds asks: are these the solution to the affordability crisis?
Awaab Ishak’s death shows that building physics are a life and death matter
Advances in building physics in recent years are leading to an ever-increasing understanding among experts of the risks that a litany of pollutants can pose to building occupants. But this has not stopped vulnerable people from living – and dying - in substandard buildings that exacerbate these risks. Urgent action is needed, Toby Cambray explains, to better communicate and decisively tackle the risks buildings can pose to their occupants.
Healthy Homes Ireland launches indoor environmental quality report
Healthy Homes Ireland (HHI) has published a series of recommendations for the improvement of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), including the creation of a cross-disciplinary national leadership body that will advocate for change and set goals.
Mainstreaming retrofit – a massive missed opportunity
The scale of the retrofit challenge facing the UK and Ireland will require an army of tradespeople to upgrade homes – leading many to the conclusion that a new retrofit industry needs to be built from scratch. But is a more realistic answer staring us in the face – a thriving existing industry of trusted local tradespeople, asks Dr Catrin Maby OBE.
Does nuclear have a role to play in decarbonising energy?
One zero carbon energy source has historically been vehemently opposed by environmentalists. But can nuclear power overcome the high-profile failures of its past, asks Dr. Marc O Riain, or has the technology missed the boat?
Whole life carbon of buildings: a pathway emerges
While significant progress continues to be made on reducing the carbon emissions associated with heating and powering buildings, the other part of whole life carbon calculation, embodied carbon, has proved more elusive. But that may be about to change, and quickly, as Stephen Barrett of the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) explains.
Is it okay to retrofit heat pumps before building fabric?
How flexible can heat pumps be to handle what may be inexactly defined heating demands, asks Toby Cambray?
Mass timber consultation: have your say by 21 April to change the rules
Mass timber comes into its own in terms of decarbonising tall buildings, which tend to rely on high embodied carbon materials such as steel and reinforced concrete. But regulatory change is needed to enable mass timber to fulfil its potential, as IGBC head of policy and advocacy Marion Jammet explains.
Enniskillen passive house camp attracts international audience
The passive house camp recently took place from 26-29 September at South West College's passive house premium-certified Erne Campus and the Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST).
Paul Doran remembered
Editor Jeff Colley remembers Paul Doran, one of Ireland's foremost builders, who has tragically passed away.
From the magazine
Flat earth
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.
Material matters - A palette for a vulnerable planet
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
Derelict to dream home
A couple breathes new life into a set of historic barns, creating an Enerphit dream home in the Gloucestershire countryside.
Big picture - Points of access to resilient living
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.
Storm breaker
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.
Reimagining the architect
It’s a radical idea: that to negate the environmental damage of construction, we don’t just need to build sustainably, we need to build less. However, most architects and building designers earn a living by doing exactly the opposite: by building stuff. So how can the design practice be reinvented for a world in which we need to do more with much, much less?
Pump up the volume
Forgive the 80s hip hop house reference in the headline, but the volume of the walls in this volumetric modular school building in Birr was literally pumped up – with recycled newspaper insulation. Built to passive house principles, it’s a story of one Roscommon manufacturer reimagining the role that offsite methods can play in the delivery of highly sustainable permanent accommodation for schools – while delivering exceptionally low embodied carbon results. Additional words - Jeff Colley
Just what the doctor ordered
What do you get when a clinician couple decide to build their dream family home? In the skilled hands of leading Scottish architects Paper Igloo, you get a forensically detailed, highly ecological, cosy home that wraps up low embodied carbon and passive house into a beautiful design.
Bay window
Designing a passive house is one thing. Designing a scheme of passive houses to make the most of the views on an extraordinary coastal site is another. And designing that…
Big picture - Passive towers protect vulnerable Bronx seniors
How do you serve the needs of senior citizens who have fallen on hard times in the Big Apple? In Betances Residence, CookFox Architects have cooked up an extraordinary response, integrating the…
Hot topic
The penny has yet to drop for many clients and designers about the risks posed by overheating in an Irish context. With the climate hotting up and building design typically uninformed…
Green shoots for green building
While tokenistic or poorly conceived attempts at supporting the decarbonisation and greening of buildings still abound in the finance sector, there are signs of structural changes on the horizon -…
Pathway to passive or road to ruin?
As governments come under increasing pressure to make real and significant reductions in energy use and carbon emissions while tackling energy poverty, interest in passive house has never been higher…
Living proof
Sometimes a building comes along that does almost too much. Passive house stalwarts Kirsty Maguire Architects’ latest opus is an award-winning architectural, engineering, and sustainability feat – which asks questions…
Ace of Herts
Fancy owning an energy positive, timber-based passive house in one of the most desirable locations in England, without the hassle of having to build it yourself? A new three-house development…
Passive breakthrough
In September Cairn Homes lit the fuse on a passive house explosion, publishing a position paper on passive house and announcing the construction of nearly 1,800 apartments to the standard…
Airtight delight
The proof in the pudding with a notionally low energy building is in the eating. Since moving into their new passive house a little under two years ago, the Murray…
Emma Stone show puts passive house up in lights
Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. And sometimes strange but breathtaking fiction subverts reality. In issue 47 we took a break from our normal approach to Big Picture, with good reason:…
Carbon first, fabric second
Rapidly decarbonising our cold, leaky dwellings is the greatest challenge facing the building industry, one fraught with complexity and risk. Given that the UK faces similar challenges to Ireland – in a…
Much ado about nothing
As the world edges ever closer to the precipice of runaway climate change, some sustainability terms have moved from relative obscurity towards the mainstream of marketing and public discourse –…
Play to win
A site with a dilapidated building in Bristol has been transformed into a crucial social space by a husband and wife team of environmentally and socially engaged architects, aided by a polymath sustainability…
Handled with care
If thermal comfort is important for people of all ages, it’s even more so for elderly people, for whom the right living conditions can be a matter of life or…
Home from home
Few architects are tasked with knocking their old family home, but for John Morehead, once this difficult decision was made, it was a chance to create a future-proofed new passive…
Bungalow Bills
What does it feel like to suffer the cold, mould and discomfort of a 1960s bungalow, and experience its rebirth as a passive house? The owner of one award-winning project…
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Marketplace
Build Homes Better updates Isoquick certification to tackle brick support challenge
Build Homes Better has secured an updated KIWA Agrément certificate for its Isoquick insulated foundation system, adding a brick support detail that solves a critical structural requirement set by leading warranty providers including the National House Building Council (NHBC).
Ecological Building Systems expands UK and Irish straw panel construction with EcoCocon deal
EcoCocon, a leading European manufacturer of prefabricated straw wall panels, has announced a new, exclusive partnership with Ecological Building Systems, making EcoCocon's innovative straw-based wall system more accessible to professionals across the UK and Irish construction markets.
Grant’s Aerona R290: A next-gen heat pump designed for the Irish climate
A high-performance heating solution designed for local climate conditions is set to answer the growing need for low energy solutions that deliver in real world conditions.
Historic Dublin building retrofitted with cutting edge insulation
A landmark Georgian building on St Stephen’s Green has become the latest showcase for innovative sustainable building technology, as the Office of Public Works completes a major retrofit using Firetite aerated clay cavity wall insulation, supplied by Econ Building Products.
Proctor gains ground with Scottish passive schools
A. Proctor Group’s Wraptite airtightness membrane is being specified in a number of Scottish passive schools – including an award-winning school in Perth and Kinross.Riverside Primary, Scotland’s inaugural primary school…
Heat pump and EV charger combo promises smart energy use
A Dublin-based technology company has partnered with Japanese electronics giant Mitsubishi Electric to launch what they claim is the world’s first integrated heat pump and electric vehicle charger system.
Unipipe celebrates 25-year NIBE partnership with new high-efficiency heat pumps
Irish renewable heating specialist Unipipe IRL Ltd has unveiled NIBE’s latest ground source heat pump models, the S1156 and S1256, marking 25 years of partnership between the companies.
Full EPD Certification for Pro Clima airtightness and windtightness products
Pioneering airtightness and windtightness solutions manufacturer Pro Clima has secured environmental product declaration (EPD) certification for its range of membranes, tapes, and glues—one of the most extensive assessments of its kind.
Final opportunity for construction professionals to secure 80 per cent training subsidies
Time is running out for Irish construction professionals to secure places on heavily subsidised sustainability training courses, with applications for the September 2025 intake closing soon.
Unipipe celebrates 25 years as NIBE heat pump partner
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.
Irish ICF manufacturer attains EPD
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.
Coastal self-build benefits from Grant integrated heating 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.
Ecocem venture may speed up EU cement decarbonisation by a decade
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.
Exports open to Irish insulated foundation system
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…
Passive EcoWall cuts whole life carbon
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…
Grant launches new generation “game-changer” heat pump
Leading heating technology manufacturer Grant has announced the launch of its next generation air source heat pump – the Grant Aerona 290, which is now available to order.
Mitsubishi Electric supports WiBSE chapter launch
Since hosting their first women’s day event in 2022, Mitsubishi Electric Ireland have established themselves as leaders in creating a platform for women to come together, connect and bond.
Proctor creates head of global sales for modular offsite sector
A. Proctor Group has announced the promotion of Adam Salt to the position of head of global sales modular offsite, effective immediately.
Why airtightness, moisture and ventilation matter for passive house
Ecological Building Systems technical specification advisor Dave Judd looks at airtightness, active moisture control and effective ventilation in passive house properties.
ProAir MVHR unit achieves up to 95% efficiency
Galway-based mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) manufacturer ProAir has achieved best in class energy performance levels on a new MVHR system.
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