Seven projects receive international Passive House Award

Building with an eye to energy efficiency is not only cost-effective, it can also augment architectural design. This has been proven by the winners of the 2014 Passive House Award. Six buildings and one region were recognised today at the opening of the International Passive House Conference in Aachen: an apartment block in Berlin; a New York retrofit; a seminar building in Goesan, South Korea; an art museum in Ravensburg, Germany; a building complex in Espoo, Finland; a terraced house in Philadelphia; and an entire passive house district in Heidelberg.

Better Building conference hears commercial property warning

Last week's Better Building conference in Dublin heard from experts speaker on the present and future of the construction industry in Ireland. Topics at this year’s conference pushed the building industry to think beyond energy efficiency and consider full life cycle costs of materials, transportation issues, and living buildings.

Component Award proves passive house windows are profitable

The winners of the first ever Passive House Component Award, with a total of twelve passive house windows set to receive recognition at the International Passive House Conference later this month. The real winners, however, are the building owners, as the results of this international competition demonstrate that it's possible to save money with highly efficient building components. Manufacturers offered their products at retail prices including installation for an example building. For each of the four categories - PVC, wood, wood/aluminium, and aluminium - the overall investment and energy costs saved in comparison with standard windows were the decisive factor. The awards will be presented at the International Passive House Conference taking place from 25 to 26 April in Aachen, Germany.