ABSTRACT
This chapter is primarily an analysis of case studies from around the world, but it starts with a short review of some of the UK’s first Passive Houses. In 2009, John Williamson – who combines the skills of qualified architect, services engineer and carpenter – delivered the first building in the UK to be certified as a Passive House. All of the City of Frankfurt’s public buildings have for some years been built to the Passive House standard. This is mature Passive House design, in which the Passivhaus Institut helped the design team overcome a number of technical challenges without compromising the architectural vision. Building to the Minergie-P-ECO standard requires that the architecture is conceived as a whole building system. In addition to its operational energy efficiency, the primary-energy consumption of the construction process was reduced by 50% compared to that of “standard” Passive Houses. Gernot Vallentin’s priority was to achieve affordability in conjunction with the Passive House standard.
