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Certified construction system for Passive Houses

The construction system certification is possibly the least known certification offered by the Passivhaus Institut, and yet it can help spreading passive buildings all over the world.

We worked on the first system certification for passive houses in a warm climate: we try and explain what it's all about.

Living Future unConference 2015 Recap and REGENERATION Italy

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Living Future unConference in Seattle, Washington, USA, organized by the International Living Future Institute, the managing body for one of the most ambitious and visionary environmental building certifications available in the world - the Living Building Challenge. Two weeks later, I was again fortunate enough to attend the introduction of this certification here in Italy at the REGENERATION competition and conference hosted by Macro Design Studio in Rovereto, Italy. Here are my impressions from both events...

The potential benefit of an early ‘Blower Door Test’.

In December we ran a 'Type B' Blower Door Test on our CasaClima Class A project, "Conte Re", under construction near Albinea (in the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy). Many of our colleagues wondered why we decided to run the test so early in the construction process. Here is a brief overview of the benefits...

Why an Italian regional energy certification is not enough to guarantee the quality of a building.

From a purely commercial point of view, the Italian real estate market seems to now understand the concept of the energy certification of buildings. However, the certificate itself is not sufficient to ensure the comfort and quality of the building.…

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The Main Difference Between a Passive House and a Near or Net Zero Energy House

Given the recent developments in European legislation on energy efficiency, the theme of near or Net Zero energy buildings has become a hot topic. In a market that tends to interchange names, definitions, and standards of construction, we propose a…

Emu Architects with furnishings by Grozni 5 - Casa&Tavola expo 2012 Reggio Emilia

Emu Architects at Casa e Tavola 2012 (‘Home and Table’ expo) in Reggio Emilia

After the success of our collaborative stand with Octopus Lab Project at the 'Salone del Mobile' (furniture expo) in Parma last winter, we decided to repeat the experience at the 2012 edition of Casa&Tavola (Home&Table) expo in Reggio Emilia. From…