Once the air tightness strategy was established, we could work towards finalising the design ready to submit for planning approval. You...

To work properly, a Passive House needs continuous insulation together with a continuous air tight membrane. No gaps. Gaps allow heat...

Retrofitting a home to Passive House principles needs a special kind of builder. One who is committed to the idea, pays attention to...

Before starting design, we needed to understand my existing bungalow. How is it currently performing in terms of energy efficiency? How...

The starting point for the architectural design was to develop and agree the brief with Russel Hayden. There were two halves to this:...

I'm an architect. So this should be easy for me, right? Well, I can design 10,000 homes (the last project I worked on before I retired...

I must have been the only person prioritising a simple box-like form as I looked at places to buy in Kendal. Whilst it's possible to retrofit any type of home to make it more energy efficient, there are some features that will make the project easier. The first is a simple form, so that the overall surface area to floor area ratio is as small as possible. A bungalow isn't ideal - a two storey 'box' would be a lot more efficient. But I wanted to be on one level to 'future proo