Passivehoos, John Gilbert Architects

Housing will have a huge role to play in enabling the UK to be carbon neutral, and these homes offer tenants affordable energy bills, and comfort, in addition to reducing harmful levels of emissions with ‘in-use’ energy consumption reduced by up to 75% from traditional housing types. John Gilbert Architects have developed a housing model for both urban and rural settings to push forward with innovation in social housing, prioritising high standards of insulation, and air quality in homes that meet the ‘Passivhaus’ standards – a benchmark that puts comfort, affordability and environmental responsibility at the heart of design.

These photographs show the housing model in 2 schemes in rural Scotland in St Boswells, in the Borders, and the village of Closeburn in Dumfies and Galloway. Developed with contractor Stewart and Shields, Eildon Housing Association (St Boswells) and Nith Valley Leaf Trust,(Closeburn community development Trust), the design offers a model to scale up for larger social housing projects, and to include more environmental measures such as limiting embodied energy and toxicity of materials into future proofing homes. The Dumfries and Galloway project has picked up the 2020 SURF Award for Housing and Regeneration. The Passive House project has also been shortlisted for the buildings for common good RIBAJ 2021 Macewan Award.