Developed in Germany in the 1990’s – The Passivhaus Standard (Passive House) is the fastest growing energy performance standard in the world – and, above all, the standard promotes a robust approach to building design – to create a dwelling that has an excellent thermal performance, coupled with exceptional air tightness and heating which can be recovered and circulated by a Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery (MVHR) Unit.

Essentially, when designing a Passive House the prime objective is to minimise heating and cooling loads as much as possible and develop an airtight building which has a continuous supply of low volume filtered fresh air that provides balanced and controlled ventilation with high-efficiency heat exchange. Passive Houses are exceptionally comfortable, healthy and affordable to occupy – yet there are no prescriptive construction methods, thereby leaving the appearance of the Passive House to be determined by the client and architects.