Passive House (Passivhaus)

A modern building with glass walls and blue panels, yellow flowering bushes in front — Photo: Feist.

Offered as the book's clear example of a design-led shift away from fossil fuel dependency, the Passive House standard uses integrated principles like extreme insulation, airtightness and heat-recovery ventilation to cut heating and cooling energy needs by up to 90 percent.

Within the Technological Component's Energy variable, the book offers Passive House as its clear example of a design-led shift away from fossil fuels, following a critique of carbon-offset 'indulgences': 'A clear illustration of this design-led shift away from fossil fuel dependency can be found in the Passive House (Passivhaus) standard. This represents a fundamental rethinking of building construction.' It explains that 'the Passive House approach uses a set of integrated design principles—such as extreme insulation, airtight construction, high-performance windows, and heat-recovery ventilation—to create buildings that require up to 90% less energy for heating and cooling,' calling it 'a systems-based design solution where the building's form, orientation, and material assembly are meticulously designed to minimize energy demand' (Ch15 §152).