My Passivhaus Journey – Katrina Attwood

Katrina Attwood is a Chartered Architect with over 25 years of experience in the industry. She recently became a Certified Passivhaus Designer, a significant professional milestone that enhances her ability to design low energy buildings. Katrina reflects on why she decided to attain the certification, how the Standard differs from more conventional approaches, and the future of Passivhaus.

What inspired you to take the course and how did you find it?

“My daughter’s primary school friend never invited my daughter over for a playdate. Eventually, her mother told me she was embarrassed about the black mould in her home. I persuaded her to let me look at it, it was clear that her home was unhealthy with damp, cold draughts, and poor ventilation issues. She and her daughter, who had been regularly ill (which I believe was caused by her unhealthy home) soon moved out. The image of the black mould in the bedroom remains with me and I believe that as a profession, we should be doing our best to rectify the current situation.  With the knowledge we have, people living in poor quality homes that impacts their health and wellbeing is unacceptable.

I completed the course through Coaction, which offers a program led by interactive and experienced trainers who provided thorough guidance throughout my Passivhaus Designer Qualification journey. I also learnt more about the wonderful Passivhaus community, a collective of like-minded individuals who care about the quality of their designs. From experience, people have been more than happy to share their knowledge about what works, what doesn’t work, what obstacles they have come across, and provide tips about detailing, material selection, etc.”

What does being a Certified Passivhaus Designer mean?

“Being a Passivhaus designer means that the team can assess the design energy performance of a building accurately and assess each design decision or material selection to understand its impact and value to the overall performance.  This is an essential pathway to building a future to net zero carbon emission targets, tackling energy poverty, climate resilience, and creating healthy living conditions. It allows us to make informed decisions and justify those decisions with data. This can be applied to all projects, even if we are not aiming to achieve Passivhaus standards but wanting to incorporate low energy standards and high-quality design.”

How does designing to Passivhaus standards differ from more conventional approaches?

“Passivhaus standards and principles of design are based on science, by which I mean many Passivhaus buildings are monitored to ensure their actual energy performance aligns with the designed performance.  Information from this monitoring is studied and fed back into the Passivhaus assessment procedure to ensure the assessments are as accurate as they can be.

This contrasts with buildings designed to building regulation standards, which have been assessed post-occupancy to perform as much as ten times worse than anticipated at design stage. Passivhaus considers every aspect of the building from the shape and form, the fabric, the services, the ventilation, the junctions, and the way in which the occupants will use the building.”

How are you incorporating Sustainable/Passivhaus principles into your designs?

“In every detail and every material choice I make, I consider the performance and design impact. I am currently working on a refurbishment of a house which offers the unique opportunity to assess the building performance and despite some resistance towards adopting Passivhaus principles, I am continuing to push the boundaries.”

Do you foresee Passivhaus becoming more mainstream or have you already noticed a shift?

“The Passivhaus Institute are actively promoting that Passivhaus Standards are to be accepted by Building Control and be adopted by central Government as mainstream. This approach has gained some momentum in Ireland and Scotland and is gradually gaining more respect and understanding elsewhere.

There is a lot of resistance by people who prefer a ‘business as usual’ approach or believe it will cost more. However, there are multiple examples of Passivhaus buildings that have not cost more than traditional build or are only marginally more with operational cost and healthy living benefits outweighing the initial output within a short period of time.  It is vital that we progress in the era of climate emergency.  The Passivhaus community is inspiring as everyone cares and wants to deliver quality designed, good performing, and healthy living homes.”

What advice would you give to other Architects or Designers looking to become Passivhaus certified?

“If you have any doubts about taking the course, I would thoroughly recommend going through with it. Don’t delay!”

For more information on the projects Katrina and our Architects are currently working on, please visit here.