passivehouse+ | Issue 3
News
Passivhaus Trust reveals awards shortlist
Nine projects have been shortlisted for the second UK Passivhaus Awards, the only UK awards dedicated to the passive house standard, with a focus on as-built performance. The UK Passivhaus Awards, now in their second year, celebrate the design and performance of certified passive buildings in the UK. Organised by the Passivhaus Trust, the awards aim to highlight the achievements of passive house pioneers and show that the standard can be applied to any building type and context to create beautiful buildings. This year’s three award categories feature a variety of projects from different and challenging contexts that successfully achieved the standard. Projects on this year’s shortlist have broken passive house stereotypes, and the list includes schemes designed in conservation areas, a house that uses the innovative Brettstapel timber construction technique, and one of the UK's first social cohousing projects.
The shortlisted projects are:
Nick Grant (technical director, Passivhaus Trust).
Private Housing (sponsored by Ecology Building Society): Crossway, Richard Hawkes Architecture; Plummerswood, Gaia Architects; Totnes Passivhaus, Passivhaus Homes Ltd;
“The Passivhaus Trust is to be commended for its awards programme which requires performance data with every entry,” Hattie Hartmann said. “This year’s shortlist includes some excellent residential exemplars both in affordable housing and individual homes. The pipeline of non-domestic passive house projects is slower, and we hope to see an increased number of projects next year."
Social Housing (sponsored by Kingspan): Ditchingham Passivhaus, Parsons & Whittley; Lancaster Cohousing Project, Eco Arc Architects; Racecourse Passivhaus Bungalows, Gentoo; Non-domestic (sponsored by Munster Joinery): Green Base, Simmonds Mills Architects; Canolfan Hyddgen, JPW Construction; Interserve Leicester offices, Interserve. Phase one of the awards was judged by Hattie Hartman (sustainability editor, The Architects’ Journal); Jon Bootland (chief executive, Passivhaus Trust); Lynne Sullivan, OBE (cofounding partner, Sustainable by Design) and
The winning projects will be decided on the basis of a vote by Passivhaus Trust members and members of the audience at the awards ceremony, which will take place on 4 July at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador in London.
(clockwise from left) the nine shortlisted projects include Green Base, Racecourse Passivhaus bungalows and the brettstapel-built Plummerswood dwelling
Ecology offers 1.25% passive house mortgage discount The C-Change sustainable homes discounts also apply to Enerphit, the Passive House Institute’s standard for retrofits. The society has also increased its maximum loan-to-value on residential and shared ownership properties to 90%, to enable it to support more people to build, buy or renovate sustainably.
counts Ecology chief executive Paul Ellis said: "Our C-Change sustainable homes discounts have shown that mortgage lenders have a vital role to play in improving the energy efficiency of our homes. Five years since we first launched this scheme, the challenges of cutting the carbon footprint of our housing stock are even clearer, and it’s the right time for us to acknowledge the proven effectiveness of the passive house and Enerphit standards in achieving warm, comfortable, healthy homes that are affordable to heat."
Commenting on the launch of the new dis-
Chris Herring, director of Green Building Store
Ecology Building Society has launched an updated C-Change sustainable homes scheme, offering interest rate discounts of up to 1.25% on mortgages for homes that meet the passive house standard.
and chair of the Passivhaus Trust, commented: "We congratulate Ecology Building Society for this forward-thinking and progressive step. By giving buildings built to passive house and Enerphit standards their highest level of mortgage discount, they will help support the development of genuine low energy construction in the UK." C-Change sustainable homes also offers discounts for properties achieving an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of B or above, EcoHomes 'very good' or 'excellent', Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 and above, and AECB silver or gold standard.
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