Finalists announced for the Passive House Award 2014

In recent news for efficient and cost-effective design, the finalists of the Passive House Award 2014 were announced. Hosted by the Passive House Institute in Germany, the annual award recognizes projects that offer innovative passive house solutions.

The international jury selected finalists in six categories out of almost 100 submissions from 21 countries. Winners will be announced at the 2014 International Passive House Conference in Aachen, Germany on April 25.

Check out all finalist projects right below.

The jury selected seven buildings in the category Office and Special Use Buildings: the RHW.2 Passive House high rise in Vienna (ARGE Atelier Hayde / Architektur Maurer & Partner); the Natural Heritage Centre on the German island of Rügen (Architekt Stöger); an artist studio in Long Island, New York (Ryall Porter Sheridan Architects); an extension of the Maximilianeum in Munich (Léon Wohlhage Wernik); the Syd Energi headquarters in the Danish city of Esbjerg (GPP Arkitekter A/S); the Kunstmuseum in German historical town of Ravensburg (Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei Architekten); and the Correctional Centre in Korneuburg, Austria (Arge Dieter Mathoi Architekten & DIN A4 Architektur).

The finalists in the category of Single Family Homes hail from Auckland, New Zealand (Jessop Architects); Sint-Niklaas, Belgium (BLAF architects); Espoo, Finland (Kimmo Lylykangas Architects); and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, USA (Plumbob).

The Apartment Building category saw finalists located in Hamburg (Huke-Schubert Berge Architekten), Munich (Allmann Sattler Wappner Architekten), and Berlin (Deimel Oelschläger Architekten Partnerschaft), Germany.

Three projects in the Educational Buildings category made it into the finals: the Riedberg Secondary School in Frankfurt, Germany (Ackermann+Raff); a seminar and apartment building in Goesan, South Korea (ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin); and the Montessori School in Aufkirchen, Germany (ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin, R. Grotz, R. Loibl, H. Walbrunn).

The jury also selected three finalists from the retrofit projects submitted: a terraced house in London (Paul Davis+Partners), an office building in the French town of Saint-Étienne (Atelier d’architecture Rivat), and a terraced brownstone in Brooklyn, New York (Fabrica718 / Studio Cicett Architect).

"In addition to the 20 individual buildings that made it to the finals, a Passive House Region, favoured by the majority of the jurors, was directly chosen as a winner in the Urban Planning category. This project will also be honoured with the Passive House Award at the International Passive House Conference. An important aspect of this particular project, as with all the winners, was its emphasis on the Passive House Standard in conjunction with the use of renewable energies – an approach that fits with the 'Nearly Zero-Energy Building' of the European Building Directive."

Images courtesy of the Passive House Award 2014.