Passive House – or Passivhaus as it is often known – is a building standard which sets the energy demand required to heat a building or provide hot water and which can be calculated at design stage and not just once the building is constructed. This rigour eliminates what is known as the ‘performance gap’, where predicted heating and hot water systems do not deliver what they were designed to achieve.

With soaring energy prices, there is a real drive towards energy efficiency in our homes. Here at Lomas and Mitchell Architects we are finding more and more clients asking about sustainability measures which they can implement to reduce their energy demands.

In recent years, improving energy efficiency and reducing energy bills have started to vie with wood-burners and bi-fold doors on many home-owner’s project wish lists. If you are thinking of making other significant changes to your house, such as extending and or remodelling for instance, it could be the perfect time to consider a retrofit.

There is no doubt that living in the countryside can bring many benefits, including being more in touch with the seasons and living closer to nature. Building a new home in the countryside, however, can be tricky to achieve as the planning policies are often much more strictly controlled than building within an established settlement.

A ‘paragraph 84 house’ refers to a specific policy of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which allows for planning approval to be achieved for one-off, isolated homes in the countryside, provided the criteria are met. Previously known as Para 80 / Para 79 / Para55 / PPS7 the policy is heavily geared towards design quality and improving design standards in rural areas

Whilst the process of designing any new home requires an experienced professional and a clear Brief, a Paragraph 84 home requires much more intensive design input, usually from a range of professionals and not just a good architect.