Passive House is a building standard
originally developed by
Dr. Wolfgang Feist
in Germany, where it's known as
Passivhaus. The
Passive House Institute
promotes the standard and certifies buildings.
The artchitectural concept focuses on optimally using a building's design
and structure to keep naturally generated (passive) heat—from the sun,
cooking, body heat, etc.—inside the house and minimize the amount of
artificial (active) heating needed.
This should be thick and high quality.
These should be at least double or triple paned. They should also be positioned well in order to maximize solar gains—and have the right shading to prevent overheating.
Thermal bridges are pathways that allow heat to escape from inside a house to outside and should be avoided.
This prevents heat from leaving and cold air from coming in and minimizes moisture issues.
This ensures high indoor air quality.
Passive House architecture has come a long way. Click the photo below of the first ever Passive House building (in Darmstadt, Germany; image: ecohabitat.gr) to see a recently built Passive House tower (in Bilbao, Spain; image: AITIM), currently the world's largest.
