Passive House Experience and building physics support at Joseph Little Architects

There is a growing Passive House movement in Ireland with 83 registered Certified Passive House Designers and Consultants (as of April 2012). This is great news but we’re also aware many are not registered architects and many of those certified haven’t had the chance to put their qualification into practice (in the current economic context). The number of architects designing and building to this Standard is therefore a small subset of this. We at Joseph Little Architects are part of that small group. However we not only build to the standards of the Institute, but give consultancy to other architects, builders and homeowners who need support reaching the standard as well. For more on the latter visit here.

We are unaware of any other architectural practice that can match the building fabric evaluation experience, skills and software that we have inhouse which can further underpin your Passive House project, especially if the project has compromises that must be understood and overcome (such as a retrofit that must be internally insulated, a poorly oriented site, or zoning conditions for new build etc.). Our consultancy wing, Building Life Consultancy, is Ireland’s leading thermal bridge evaluator and the national co-operation partner of the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics for the WUFI suite of hygrothermal software. These allow us carry-out sophisticated inter-stitial condensation, mould and rot analysis using numerical simulation software (WUFI Pro and WUFI 2D) under IS EN 15026. You therefore get a weight of building physics and low energy expertise that goes beyond a Certified Passive House Designer when working with this Practice.