Teaching the Sustainable Design Skills Needed to Make Passivhaus the New Standard for Irish Construction
Mosart Group has led the way in Passivhaus design and sustainable construction for close to 30 years, embracing Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) well before many. But the specialist design firm goes beyond just designing buildings to Passivhaus standards – mosart also equips architects, engineers, and tradespeople with the specialised skills needed for a carbon-free building sector.
Passivhaus (also known as Passive House) is a building standard with high thermal efficiency performance integral to the architectural design, rather than optional. Projects designed to Passivhaus standards have a substantially lower carbon footprint and typically require little energy for heating or cooling after construction is complete.
While the first Passivhaus project was delivered in Germany in the 1990s and soon after became popular in Scandinavia, Passivhaus has been around in Ireland since the early 2000s – thanks to Tomás O'Leary and mosart.
Tomás set up the firm in 1993, pivoting to Passivhaus design and consulting in 2002 as he saw the standard as adding “further layers of quality assurance for the homeowner”.
His show of faith to this modern method of construction? Tomás built his own house in Co. Wicklow just two years later. And this was the first residential unit built to Passivhaus standards in the English-speaking world.
“Passivhaus is an exacting standard to work towards, but when executed well the thermal performance of the structure pays off in the long term. MMC is well suited to this standard of design as the building systems and processes require precision, minimal waste of materials, and controlled production conditions.”
Managing Director of mosart
As an architecture firm, mosart delivers sustainable building solutions, from full turnkey designs to integrating with existing architecture teams. Mosart does this using Building Information Modelling (BIM) to optimise workflows and client collaboration while managing projects to on-time, on-budget and high-quality delivery. It also helps that every designer hired by mosart completes Certified Passive House Designer (CPHD) training, ensuring they are fully immersed in sustainable design concepts.
Mariana Moreira is one such designer, a registered Architect with more than 20 years’ experience in Passivhaus alone. She trained in architecture in her native Portugal, working there and in Switzerland for years. In 2006, a friend living in Ireland connected her to mosart with a recommendation of both the firm and working in Irish construction. Although she had no experience with Passivhaus, Mariana embraced the opportunity.
“Working with mosart has opened my eyes to the Passivhaus standard and the cultural and social factors, worldwide, that flow from that. The Certifier course I did when I joined mosart is the most valuable training I have done in my career.”
Architect at mosart
This was key after the 2008 Recession, with Mariana using her new knowledge to link with the City of Dublin ETB in delivering Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) and Passivhaus training. This expertise was furthered with a Master’s of Science in Urban & Building Conservation at University College Dublin completed in 2012. Mariana was drawn to this area of study by the challenge of retrofitting or conservation works to achieve higher energy performance in existing buildings while preserving heritage value.
Indeed, to this day sharing expertise in sustainable construction remains a feature of her current position at mosart. A usual week for Mariana is split between consulting on Passivhaus design for other architects, alongside developers and building contractors, and certifying external developments to Passivhaus standards. These responsibilities draw on elements of her profession and the Passivhaus designer certification and upskilling done through office seminars and CPDs undertaken on MMC systems.
Mosart provides CPD programmes on Zero Energy Building (ZEB), NZEB and MMC, as well as the CPHD course, equipping construction professionals with the learning and development needed to meet modern low-carbon building standards. Learning combines academic content with hands-on onsite training for a through look at more sustainable construction. This goes for staff and other learners, with mosart delivering private training and programmes through the Waterford & Wexford ETB (WWETB).
Emer Doyle, Architectural Technologist & ZEB Trainer for mosart, is one such trainer.
Emer joined mosart in 2020 after years practicing as an architectural technologist in construction companies – but with a greater career focus on training. She first studied a Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Architectural Technology at the Carlow Institute of Technology, before completing a Master’s of Science in Architecture, Advanced Environment & Energy Studies remotely. A few years later she furthered her education at Technological University Dublin by studying Digital Analysis & Energy Retrofit.
Alongside this considerable undertaking in professional development, she tutored at the Irish Architecture Foundation and completed a ‘Train the Trainer’ course.
This all brought her to mosart, where she was hired as a ZEB Trainer working between her home, mosart’s offices in Rathnew, Co. Wicklow, and the WWETB’s NZEB Centre of Excellence in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, where mosart are contracted trainers.
“When the mosart opportunity came up, I knew I wanted to refocus on teaching. I had been working for construction companies for several years, but none had the sustainability focus I was interested in. I have done a lot of adult education in my life, so I know the value it offers, and I wanted to be involved in that again.”
Architectural Technologist & ZEB Trainer for mosart
Emer teaches ZEB and other sustainable construction topics both online and in-person. She also designs and updates courses on demand, particularly mosart’s CPHD Tradesperson course. Emer also points to recent updates made to the WWETB Site Supervisor training course to “add a greater focus on MMC practices and systems.”
Emer and Mariana share the view that Passivhaus and MMC can contribute to bettering the Irish construction sector and enriching the careers of building professionals.
“We can increase interest in Passivhaus by showing people, at a Euros and cents value, what you stand to gain by building more sustainably. When people do our training, they often come out exclaiming this focus on factors such as vapour control or airtightness—and the MMC technologies that can make achieving these factors easier—should be mandatory for all builders!”
Architectural Technologist & ZEB Trainer at mosart
“In my experience, architects are very open and keen to adopt ZEB, Passivhaus, and MMC because it gives them a more accurate system for controlling and executing their design vision. But architects need greater awareness and specific training around these factors at degree and then professional level.”
Architect at mosart
According to Tomás, Passivhaus projects currently account for 7% of all construction in Ireland, with around 4,000 apartments being finished or finished recently. As Tomás puts it, Passivhaus is “still niche but is becoming much more popular with time”.
Today, mosart is one of the world’s leading Passivhaus trainers. To date, the agency has trained 5,000+ architects, engineers, and tradespeople. They have also offered Passivhaus design and consultancy services to hundreds of projects, contributing to delivering 13,000 high-quality apartments to the global housing market. From Co. Wicklow to the world – Irish expertise influencing Modern Methods of Construction.
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