The winners have been announced for the 2013 UK Passivhaus Awards. The top prize for Private Housing was won by the Totnes Passivhaus, the main Non-domestic category winner was Canolfan Hyddgen, and Lancaster Cohousing Project won the gold Social/Group Housing award. The winners of the awards scheme, which recognises the design and performance of buildings constructed to the Passivhaus standard, were announced at a ceremony hosted by the Austrian Embassy.

11 July 2013 – A bed and breakfast in Totnes, a Cohousing scheme in Lancaster and a Local Council Learning facility have scooped up the top prize for Passivhaus in the UK for 2013:

Private Housing (sponsored by Ecology Building Society)

- Totnes Passivhaus, Passivhaus Homes Ltd.

Social/Group Housing (sponsored by Kingspan Insulation Ltd.)

- Lancaster Cohousing Project, Eco Arc Architects

Non-domestic (sponsored by Munster Joinery)

- Canolfan Hyddgen, JPW Construction

The UK Passivhaus Award winners were announced on 4th July at the Awards ceremony which was hosted by the Austrian Embassy and took place at the Residence of the Austrian Ambassador in London. The winning projects were decided on the basis of a vote by and members of the audience at the Awards ceremony and PHT members online.

The UK Passivhaus Awards now in its second year, is not your regular glitzy Awards gala, and celebrates the design and real time performance of Passivhaus in the UK. Organised by the Passivhaus Trust (PHT), it aims to highlight the achievements of the Passivhaus pioneers and show that Passivhaus can be applied to any building type and context to create beautiful buildings.

Janet Cotterell of CTT Sustainable Architecture and Passivhaus Homes Ltd., winner of the Private Housing Award said: “We are especially pleased to be acknowledged by the Passivhaus Awards which include measured performance along with the other usual competition criteria. We desperately need good built models across the UK demonstrating the Passivhaus methodology and this is exactly what this competition champions.”

Andrew Yeats of Ecoarc Architects, winner of the Social/Group Housing Award said: “We trust our winning project will inspire others to have confidence to deliver owner occupied Passivhaus housing projects in the UK on a larger scale at affordable prices in accord with current market values. We hope the completed Lancaster Cohousing 41 Passivhaus project can be a catalyst for future sustainable neighbourhood developments across the country and provide a stepping stone to deliver many more high volume Passivhaus housing projects to communities throughout the UK.”

John Williamson of JPW Construction, winner of the Non-domestic Award said: “We would to thank the UK Passivhaus Trust for creating this unique award combining Architectural Aesthetics and measured in use energy consumption. We hope such successful examples of Passivhaus will inspire others to adopt and engage with this proven approach to low energy buildings.”

This year’s Awards have seen a variety of projects from different and challenging contexts successfully achieving the Passivhaus standard and enhancing the internal environments of the occupiers. Projects from this year’s shortlist have broken the Passivhaus stereotype and include schemes designed in Conservation areas, using innovative construction techniques such as Brettstapel Construction, and a social Cohousing project, one of the very few in the UK. All projects report outstanding indoor environments, significant energy savings and positive feedback from occupants and demonstrate that:

- Passivhaus can be delivered successfully in the UK (including Conservation areas and adjacent to historic buildings) using traditional UK construction skills, methods and materials; and can respond to local vernacular.

- Passivhaus can be delivered in conjunction with all other UK housing standards such as Code for Sustainable Homes, Lifetime Homes, Secure by Design, and Building for Life etc.

- Passivhaus can be delivered at affordable costs and does not necessarily demand high premium costs. Passivhaus is also the most effective response to address issues of fuel poverty, particularly relevant in social housing.

Phase I of the Awards was judged by Hattie Hartman (Sustainability Editor, The Architects’ Journal); Jon Bootland (Chief Executive, Passivhaus Trust); Lynne Sullivan, OBE (Co- founding Partner, Sustainable by Design) and Nick Grant (Technical Director, Passivhaus Trust).

Jon Bootland said: “The UK Passivhaus Awards are all about proving performance and the main criteria for entry into the Awards is measured performance data. Should we not receive sufficient data for a current year, we will consider postponing the Awards to the following year to allow for sufficient time for the projects to gather data.”

A summary of the predicted and measured performance data and short films capturing the success stories of all the shortlisted projects is available on the Passivhaus Trust website.

Shortlist:

Private Housing

- Crossway, Richard Hawkes Architecture

- Plummerswood, Gaia Architects

Social/Group Housing (sponsored by Kingspan Insulation Ltd.)

- Ditchingham Passivhaus, Parsons & Whittley

- Racecourse Passivhaus Bungalows, Gentoo

Non-domestic (sponsored by Munster Joinery)

- Green Base, Simmonds Mills Architects

- Interserve Office, Interserve

For further information, please visit www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/uk_passivhaus_awards/2013