Leading figures from the Passivhaus community joined major housebuilders, architects and manufacturers this week to break down some of the misconceptions on delivering Passivhaus at scale to help grow takeup across the sector. The Building Insights LIVE round table, sponsored by Ubbink, Aeroseal and Technal, heard evidence from projects and shared experience and insights to inform the industry about the economies of scale and design strategies that can and do make large Passivhaus projects stack up.
The event focused on the health, wellbeing and financial benefits to users of Passivhaus in a warming climate, and how more concerted Government backing could achieve returns on a variety of metrics, including housebuilding targets. However, delegates also looked at how design and product innovation – from streamlining MVHR to innovative air-tightness methods – was part of best practice in achieving cost-efficient Passivhaus projects at larger scales, and discussed recent examples built at a cost per square metre on a par with standard offerings.
The relative merits of ‘carrot’ versus ‘stick’ approaches to growing Passivhaus adoption at scale were debated, with many delegates thinking that a combination was needed, including potentially mandating MVHR which would catalyse Passivhaus as a necessary design approach. Also supported were more post-occupancy evaluation to demonstrate cost savings and user benefit, partial standardisation of build and facade types, and de-risking approaches for more contractors to embrace Passivhaus. In addition, there was consensus that ‘Passivhaus-lite’ approaches, or projects ‘designed to Passivhaus principles’ rather than being fully Passivhaus certified, could lead to unintended poor outcomes.
The lessons from these crucial shared insights will be reported in-depth in ADF and Housebuilder & Developer in order to inform the industry as it pursues Passivhaus in a wider range of projects, tackling the attendant increases in quality and attention to detail required.
James Parker, chair and editor of ADF and Housebuilder & Developer commented: “Our event showed that misunderstandings and wrong assumptions still exist out there around the true cost of Passivhaus, and delegates’ insights were valuable in terms of growing wider awareness that Passivhaus at scale can be cheaper, simpler and more beautiful than some clients and suppliers expect. However, our delegates also showed how industry skills in terms of delivering on the possible demand remain the pervasive issue. In order to enable at-scale adoption national skills initiatives are required to provide the balanced design thought and comprehensive installation nous that complex large schemes need; but this is a long-term issue while we need climate-resilient Passivhaus buildings at scale now.”
The full list of attendees was as follows:
Mark Slater Managing Director, WWA Studios
Michael Brett Founder, By Milestone
Jean Dib Senior Building Physics Consultant, SRE
Ann-Marie Fallon Co-Director, Passivhaus Trust / Associate Director, Architype
Dr Joel Callow Founder Director, Beyond Carbon
Attzaz Rashid Head of Design, Barratt London
Mike Roe Passivhaus Certifier and Director, WARM
Hannah Dixon Passivhaus Designer, Progress In Practice Architects
Daniel Levey Director, Serenity Projects
Lorna Taverner Head of Architecture and Technical Design, Willmott Dixon
Aaron McCarthy Director ‑ Sustainability Lead, Hive Group
Evette Prout Business Development Manager, Kind & Co Builders
Dr Sara Mohamed Assistant Professor in Building Physics, University of Nottingham
Sponsors’ Attendees:
Craig Cundey Ventilation Product Lead, Ubbink
Hugh Franklin Head of Operations, Aeroseal UK
Craig Simms National Specification Manager, TECHNAL
A Building Insights podcast capturing highlights and recommendations from the discussion, will be available soon at: insights.netmagmedia.co.uk