By
SYLVIA THOMPSON
Getting active on passive houses
Ireland’s first training centre for the design and construction of passive houses has just opened at Wicklow County Campus in Rathnew, Co Wicklow. Deemed to be the dwellings of the future, passive houses are highly insulated, heated almost entirely by sun through windows and the internal circulation of warm air.
The Passive House Academy has been set up by Tomás O’Leary, a former landscape architect who built and, since 2004, has lived in Ireland’s first passive house. O’Leary also co-authored the Sustainable Energy Ireland guidelines for building passive houses. The Passive House Academy’s first courses begin in March. See passivehouseacademy.com.
Designs for schooling
More than 1,500 students in 90 schools throughout Ireland are currently working with 120 architects on new school designs. The project, A Space for Learning, is an initiative of the Irish Architecture Foundation. The winning teams will receive funding to develop their designs for a national exhibition tour in the autumn.
Peter Timmins, teacher at Dublin’s Sutton Park School, says: “In the 20 years I’ve been teaching, I’ve been looking for a project like this to do with transition-year students. It ticks all the boxes. Their blog gives an indication of their commitment to the project.” See architecturefoundation.ie.
Window on to conservation
A leading English conservation architect, John Fidler, will give a lecture on the conservation of buildings and archaeological sites in Dublin later this month. Fidler was the first historic buildings architect for the City of London and the UK's first conservation officer for buildings at risk. His talk, Journeys in Time: From Emperor Hadrian to Frank Lloyd Wright, will draw on examples of conservation from the US to Syria. Organised by the Follies Trust and the International Council on Monuments and Sites, it will take place in the Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin, on Thursday, February 25th at 7.30pm. Admission €10. Advanced booking: primrose@f2s.com.
Ecoweb
Biketowork.ie
The owner of this company, James Leahy, was one of the voices welcoming the 30kph speed limit in parts of Dublin City centre. The company was created to help employers and employees avail of the Cycle to Work scheme and has supplied firms and organisations with hundreds of bikes through a nationwide network of shops.