This time last year was a very peculiar time to say the least. I was still trying to find my feet after a business failure 8 months earlier. I was the proud father of a three week old girl that had a life threatening heart condition. We also had three boisterous boys all under the age of 7 that had to be fed and found. My ever patient and supportive wife grimaced from the sidelines at my attempts to get my professional life back on the rails. I was willfully holding on to the hope that I could sustain a career in the construction industry or more specifically the elusive Passive House niche. Always one to spot an opportunity, I realised that the UK Passive House Conference 2016 would be taking place practically across the road from my brother’s house in London. Cue some artful negotiations with my wife, the temporary kidnapping of my eldest son from school and a pair of Ryanair tickets. Two weeks later I found myself at the Business Design Centre in Islington for #UKPHC16.
I won’t bore you with all the detail of what was a fantastically planned and executed conference, and notwithstanding the tardiness of my account, I felt that there were some points worth relaying even at this remove.
Equal representation of the sexes, at the keynotes and closing panels. This wasn’t a case of nominal balancing of the books. In Jessica Grove-Smith and Emma Osmundsen we were presented with two compelling individuals who are making a impact on global and national stages. I strongly believe that the construction industry needs more female engineers, architects and professionals to accelerate its development. I find it fascinating that we are seeing it happen in one of the most cutting edge niches of the industry.
Quality and education are the key to successful delivery of Passive House. I was pleasantly surprised by the emergence of this philosophy from Passive House practitioners. The message kept on being repeated throughout the day. You couldn’t ignore it. I was so intrigued by the emphasis of Exeter City Council on these issues that I had the boldness to query Emma Osmundsen about it in between conference slots. Emma practised what she preached. Exeter City Council committed to educating their design team and main contractors on Passive House ahead of their projects. I asked, incredulously, why do they incur such a cost. Her answer was compelling, ‘the cost of getting it wrong is multiples of our investment’.
Mechanical ventilation is a ticking time bomb if we don’t get it right – but follow Passive House standards and you’re ok. They were billed as mini-masterclasses but I would most definitely recategorise the MVHR session as a world class whirlwind vivisection of mechanical ventilation by Michael Swainson & Alan Clarke. Okay, it was all a bit technical but you couldn’t avoid the conclusions which were derived entirely from first principles. The manufacturers data is overly simplistic and not representative of real world scenarios, designers are not specifying correctly and installers compound both (assuming that they commission). The risk is future respiratory health problems for occupants but adhering to the Passive House standard avoids all this – Phew !!
Exposing the matrix of the English construction industry with Janet Cotterell. I was riveted to Janet’s presentation. She detailed, using compelling data, the meagre level of house construction in the UK. She explained that there are only 6 house builders delivering more than 2,000 houses per year which is effectively an oligopoly of volume house builders and that there is a dearth of low volume house builders. Self-Build in Europe represents 50% of all housing activity while in the UK it only represents 7-8%. It had me thinking that while we are all wooed by the allure of Grand Designs it is only a privileged few that realise their self-build dream. Thankfully Janet has some good news at the conclusion identifying how current legislation can be leveraged to force local authorities to make more plots available self builders. (On a personal note I was thrilled to meet Janet whose book ‘The Passivhaus Handbook’ sits on the bookshelf behind me).
Even the big guys make rookie mistakes. Just over 10 years ago I built the first certified A-rated house in Ireland. It was a real adventure and I am embarrassed to think of some of the mistakes that my experimental approach led me to make. I find it heartening to see that even the big guys, like the Lend Lease team at Elephant & Castle, had to do a share of crawling and stumbling before they could run with the Passive House standard. That’s the great thing about the Passive House community, even the mistakes are shared such that the wider community learns together. So thank you to Lend Lease for not being afraid to be vulnerable.
EnerPHit is a viable option for the refurbishing of tower blocks. Rupert Daly of Collective Architecture recounted his practice’s experience in Glasgow with refurbishing a tower block complex. I loved the humanity of their approach combined with their methodical assessment of refurbishment options. Fun fact; it was only the people who lived next to the tower blocks that didn’t like their appearance, the tower block occupants were quite proud of them. It was inspiring to see what Collective Architecture are delivering at Cedar Court especially in the context of what we have seen happen recently in Grenfell Tower.
John Palmer of Enhabit articulated why I loved doing this insane job for 10 years. It made sense when I found out that John used to be in the navy. You need the steely determination, resourcefulness and discipline that these guys have in abundance in order to make Passive House happen on site. It was great to see him assemble the framework that is needed on site to deliver a high quality project but especially that which is targeting the Passive House performance standard. Thank you John sharing how it is done, how you bring the entire team with you and for weaving the word KUDOS into your presentation. This is something that is richly deserved for those who reach the Passive House performance standard.
Epilogue
Barely a month after returning from #UKPHC16 my professional life did get back on track. While I did fail to extend my career in construction I was incredibly fortunate to become involved (again !) in a cutting edge industry. I am thrilled to be working with an extremely talented team at Electricity Exchange in Limerick. Electricity Exchange is developing world class technology that will help to increase the levels of renewable electricity on our power grids.
The 12 month hiatus in writing blogs/articles was due to a combination of our little girl becoming seriously ill and requiring two open heart surgeries as well as the steep learning curve of my new role. It is only in the past few weeks that what passes for normal life has returned. I genuinely think that Passive House has reached a tipping point. I was privileged to be a part of the Passive House community during such a transformative time and I look forward to watching the positive impact it is going to have on people’s lives in to the future.
