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Passive House
FROM PASSIVE VILLAGE
TO PASSIVE HOUSE
What was meant to become a ‘village’ of passive houses in the eco-village of
Cloughjordan in County Tipperary is currently the home of one such house.
T
he house was designed by Architect Paul McNally and the
passive house in question is the home of Fiona Nolan.
“With this passive house, I set out to prove that energy
efficiency and good architecture go hand-in-hand and for me
there was a strong wish with this house to produce a design that
would demonstrate that achieving the passive house standard was not an
impediment to good architecture,’’ explained Mr McNally.
“This project was completed in late 2010 and early 2011 and as I
reacquaint myself with the project file for the purpose of researching this
article, I see that most of the companies and personalities involved are no
longer in business. Some got into difficulty during this project and others
have wound up since its completion.
“Fiona Nolan, the client and owner of this house is one of the members of
the eco-village at Cloughjordan in County Tipperary,’’ he said.
“I met Fiona at the Cultivate Sustainability Centre in Dublin 2007 where
she attended a planning day for the eco-village members. At the time, I was
considering becoming a member myself and had started attending some
events to get a feel for what was being planned.
“I also took the opportunity to set up a stall at the event describing my
professional services. From that event, I was lucky enough to pick up three
clients in the eco-village for whom I would go on to design homes,’’ said
Paul.
“Ms Nolan’s home is the only one constructed to date, as changing
circumstances in those turbulent times prevented the others from going
Home & Build Winter 2016
Winter 2016.indd 34
08/01/2016 4:29 p.m.