NEWS
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BUILDING OR UPGRADING? Passive House Plus is here to help make your project more sustainable.
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COMMENT
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INTERNATIONAL 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.
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NEW BUILD 32
Is this the UK's greenest building? 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.
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5 years in a passive house — the occupants’ view 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?
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Warm & healthy Devon flats that need no heating 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.
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West Cork passive farmhouse mixes build methods 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.
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Ecological passive house built on tight budget 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.
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contents
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UPGRADE 64
Manchester social housing gets passive regeneration The upgrade of two social housing blocks in Manchester to the Enerphit standard demonstrates how deep energy retrofit can play a part in turning old, run-down estates into vibrant, comfortable, low energy communities.
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Enerphit upgrade breathes new life into Dublin home 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.
INSIGHT Could the death of zero carbon help passive house bloom? The Tory government's decision to scrap the proposed zero carbon standard for new dwellings might appear to be a kick in the teeth for green building — but could the move present an opportunity for a better standard to step in?
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