The Origins of Passive House: From Darmstadt to Global High-Performance Homes

This blog post sets out to provide a brief history of Passive House. Specifically, Passive House is an energy standard also known as Passivhaus (the German spelling).

Bo Adamson of Lund University in Sweden and Wolfgang Feist of the Institute for Housing and the Environment in Darmstadt, Germany, first discussed the idea that later became Passive House. Through a series of research projects, they refined the concept with funding from the central German state of Hessen.

In 1990, architects Bott, Ridder and Westermeyer designed and completed four Passivhaus terrace houses in Darmstadt. In 1996, Wolfgang Feist founded the Passivhaus-Institut to support further research, education and certification. By 2010, designers and builders had completed more than 25,000 Passivhaus buildings, primarily in Germany and Austria.

The Darmstadt terrace houses demonstrated that the approach worked, reducing space-heating energy demand by approximately 90 per cent compared to a standard new build at the time. As a result, researchers formed the Economical Passive Houses Working Group in 1996. The group developed the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) and drove innovation in building components such as high-performance windows and high-efficiency ventilation systems.

Between 1993 and 1997, architects and builders delivered additional Passive House projects in Stuttgart, Naumburg, Hesse and Cologne. Today, designers apply Passivhaus principles to projects around the world. I am a certified Passive House Designer.

If you’d like to build a Passivhaus or high-performance home, start planning with our studio.