From niche to necessity? The changing conversation around Passivhaus

Engaged audiences, lively debate and a growing sense of urgency defined the Passivhaus discussions at Futurebuild 2026 this May (2026). The clearest takeaway: the wider conversation around Passivhaus is changing.

Futurebuild 2026

For years, Passivhaus has often been viewed as an ambitious sustainability standard associated with exemplar projects and early adopters. At Futurebuild, discussions increasingly focused on something quite different: healthy homes, energy security, performance certainty, de-risking compliance and large-scale delivery. In other words, Passivhaus is no longer being discussed purely as an environmental aspiration. It is increasingly being recognised as a practical route to delivering healthier, more resilient and future-ready buildings.

Across multiple sessions curated by the Passivhaus Trust, speakers explored what it will take to move better building standards from niche projects into mainstream delivery across the UK.

The recurring conclusion? If we are serious about fuel security, public health, building performance and responding to the climate emergency, Passivhaus offers a proven route we can deliver now.

Healthy homes are moving centre stage

A strong emerging theme was the growing alignment between Passivhaus and the wider healthy homes agenda. As the UK grapples with damp homes, overheating risks, fuel poverty and increasing scrutiny around indoor air quality, conversations are shifting beyond operational energy alone towards occupant health and wellbeing. The introduction of Awaab’s Law and ongoing discussions around the Healthy Homes Standard are accelerating that shift.

Public health emergency

During the session Healthy homes by design: Can Passivhaus deliver?, speakers explored how Passivhaus principles align closely with emerging expectations around comfort, ventilation, moisture control and building safety. All the panel highlighted the central role ventilation must play in improving housing quality:

Ventilation needs to become far more prominent in the minds of everyone involved in construction and retrofit. It sits at the heart of so many of the problems we currently face in our homes, including damp, mould, overheating, poor air quality and discomfort.

We often focus on energy and carbon, but the human side of comfort, stable temperatures, fresh air, quietness and wellbeing can be transformative for both occupants and those working within these environments every day."

Marion Baeli, 10 Design

The discussion also moved beyond technical compliance into the wider human impact of building performance. Drawing on experiences from Passivhaus care home projects, Dinka Izetbegovic - architect for Central Bedfordshire Council, reflected on how stable temperatures, good air quality and quieter indoor environments can positively affect not only residents, but also care staff and wider wellbeing outcomes.

Importantly, the conversation increasingly framed Passivhaus not simply as an energy standard, but as a potential public health intervention.

Futurebuild 202: Healthy homes by design: Panel

Healthy buildings by design panelists L-R: Marion Baeli -10 Design, Dinka Izetbegovic - Central Bedfordshire Council, Gwilym Still - Max Fordham, Sarah Price - Passivhaus Trust & Spruce Consulting

From performance gaps to performance certainty

Another theme throughout Futurebuild was frustration around the performance gap between design intent and operational reality. As regulation tightens and scrutiny increases around building safety, overheating, moisture risk and energy performance, speakers repeatedly questioned whether the industry can continue relying on compliance models that fail to guarantee outcomes in use.

This is where Passivhaus certification and verification were increasingly discussed not as additional complexity, but as mechanisms for reducing risk and improving confidence. Is Passivhaus the simplest route to delivering buildings that actually perform as intended? That reframing sparked interesting discussion across the event. Building services engineer Gwilym Still reflected on the value of comparing published research with real-world post-occupancy evaluation from completed projects:

It was interesting comparing both what we've seen in the published literature for indoor air quality and relative humidity with what’s come out of our post-occupancy evaluation work.

Gwilym Still, Max Fordham

Meanwhile, discussions around procurement and delivery repeatedly returned to the importance of accountability, collaboration and early-stage understanding across entire project teams. Sally Godber stressed the importance of involving clients much earlier in the process.

As concerns grow around compliance risk, remediation costs and future regulation, Passivhaus is increasingly being viewed as a route to greater performance certainty rather than simply a higher specification.

Clients need to be held to account, bring them to the CPDs, help them to understand enough to make good decisions. Good design is no more expensive than bad design, it just requires good designers. We must get investors, clients, & project managers to procure on considerations that are more than costs and just immediate returns.

Sally Godber, Coaction Training CIC

Mainstreaming Passivhaus at scale

Perhaps the biggest shift was the growing focus on mainstream delivery. Passivhaus discussions are no longer confined to isolated exemplar buildings. Increasingly, large developers, local authorities, manufacturers and housing providers are exploring how high-performance standards can be delivered consistently across significant portfolios.

That changing landscape was reflected strongly during the Trust's currated session From niche to norm: Scaling Passivhaus. Speakers explored the barriers and opportunities around workforce skills, supply chains, procurement and commercial viability. Importantly, several contributors challenged the long-standing assumption that Passivhaus is inherently too expensive or difficult to deliver at scale. Lorna Taverner reflected on the importance of open industry dialogue in helping simplify delivery challenges:

Futurebuild 202: from Niche to norm - panel

Delivering Passivhaus at scale is a complex challenge, and it is through these kinds of conversations that we can begin to simplify it and make it more accessible.

Lorna Taverner, Willmott Dixon

Throughout the discussion, collaboration repeatedly emerged as one of the biggest enablers for scaling delivery. Vasilis Giannopoulos of Internorm stressed the importance of bringing together the full supply chain, from designers and certifiers to manufacturers and contractors. He called for more practical, experience-led training across the sector. Training which is focused on practical, successful solutions based on lessons learnt and on-site experience is needed.

Futurebuild 2026: From Niche to norm - Panel

From niche to norm panelists L-R: Sally Godber -Coaction Training CIC, Lorna Traverner - Willmott Dixon, Vasilis Giannopoulos - Internorm, Ann-Marie Fallon - Passivhaus Trust.

The role of shared learning and industry confidence became another recurring theme throughout the event. Giannopoulos reflected on the need to better communicate successful outcomes and lived experience from completed projects:

How could we collaborate more, sharing all our knowledge and experience, to emphasise all the successful projects that are supported by the positive experience of occupants and numbers that justify the investment?

Vasilis Giannopoulos - Internorm

At the same time, discussion increasingly shifted beyond upfront capital costs towards whole-life value, operational resilience and reduced remediation risk. This was reinforced by comments from Attzaz Rashid of Barratt London during Futurebuild’s wider discussions on sustainable housing delivery. Barrat's recognise that Passivhaus is a methodology with in-built qualtiy assurance.

Passivhaus is not a badge – it is changing how we build homes..... Barratt London would not be doing it if it was not economically viable.

Attzaz Rashid, Barratt London

That point resonated strongly across the event. As energy costs, grid pressures and fuel security concerns intensify, reducing demand is increasingly being recognised not only as a carbon issue, but as a resilience issue too. The conversation is shifting from “why build better?” towards “how can we afford not to?”

Policy momentum and the road ahead

There is growing alignment between Passivhaus principles and the wider direction of travel in UK policy and regulation. From Awaab’s Law and the Healthy Homes agenda to the Future Homes Standard, building safety reforms and emerging discussions around the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, there is increasing recognition that performance outcomes matter.

Speakers also discussed how organisations such as Homes England and large housing providers are beginning to place greater emphasis on quality assurance, operational outcomes and long-term value. In that context, Passivhaus is increasingly being viewed not as an outlier, but as a robust framework for delivering healthy, compliant and future-ready buildings.

Futurebuild 2026

Collaboration

Perhaps most encouragingly, the event demonstrated a strong appetite for collaboration across policy, design, delivery, manufacturing and client teams. The launch of the new joint ACAN PHPP Thematic Workgroup, developed jointly with the Passivhaus Trust, reinforced the growing momentum to widen access to Passivhaus knowledge, networks and tools for a new generation of practitioners.

Scaling from niche to norm is a task that requires all of us - certifiers, designers and component manufacturers - to be involved in. We all have our role to fulfil.”

Vasilis Giannopoulos, Internorm Windows UK

The transition to better buildings is already underway. The challenge now is no longer whether Passivhaus works. It is how quickly we choose to scale it. Join us at an upcoming site visit or event this summer to continue the discussions. Better yet, secure your Passivhaus Conference early bird discounted ticket.