Joseph Little Architects

This long-held principle led to Joseph Little leaving a mainstream practice in 2003, doing an environmental masters at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales and setting up an environmentally-focused practice in 2004.

We believe natural building materials used with a good knowledge of building physics make the most healthy, durable buildings with lowest environmental impact. A low energy building that is not also a healthy place to be serves no one.

For this reason we also look at the most appropriate whole-building ventilation solution for each project. There are solutions to suit each building, each occupant and each budget.

We look at a building as a kind of organism; it consumes energy, it continually develops, it even ‘sweats’! Like a human body it needs to be respected and allowed to breathe.

Joseph Little Architects firmly believes the maxim that if something isn’t measured it’s not valued. This is why we are delighted with the new emphasis on building energy rating and on the Passive House Standard in Ireland. Both are pushing Society and the Construction Industry to measure energy use and carbon emissions more clearly than ever before. The danger is that in this rush to reduce the energy needed to fuel these buildings that the industry and architects could lose a focus on health. This is why Joseph Little Architects also emphasise the measurement of moisture and vapour in walls or floors (through simulation) and the measurement of how well the installed ventilation system replaces stale air (and contaminants such as CO2 and VOCs) with fresh air. Energy and health must be valued equally.