Douglas Passive House breaks ground

Douglas Passive House breaks ground.

This development is progressing well in Douglas, Cork, consisting of 5 houses which includes our Douglas Passive House project. The client’s own two storey detached passive house will replace their original existing family dwelling, and be completed to Certified PassivHaus standard. We originally looked at the potential to refurbish and extend the dwelling, and established that this would be prohibitively expensive. We developed this alternative approach, which sells off a portion of the site for development, in order to make a completely new-build passive house viable. 

Critics no doubt will point to the up-front carbon emissions of demolition and new build, versus a refurbishment and extension of the existing dwelling, which is a valid consideration.

However, when you take into account the intensification of the density of this city-centre site, in an area that is well serviced by public transport, schools, shops and all the existing infrastructure that goes with it, then the new-build argument is self-evident.

Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis and a climate crisis. It is imperative that we use under-developed brown-field sites in central locations for additional well-designed homes, rather than the alternative of expanding city edges and increasing car-based transport reliance. This Douglas Passive House will help alleviate that housing pressure on the city, whilst making use of the existing infrastructure and public services.

The Douglas Passive House design features shading incorporated into the glazing, overhanging roofs to protect external spaces, and beautifully laid out open plan living.

THANK YOU FOR READING OUR BLOG POST ON 5 HOUSES BREAKING GROUND IN CORK CITY.

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