Ceci n'est pas une Passivhaus – Mayo house update slideshow…

Remember the René Magritte painting of a pipe titled “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” or more formerly known as ‘The Treachery of Images (French: La trahison des images, 1928–29:

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Ceci n’est pas une pipe (image from Wikipedia)

His statement is taken to mean that the painting itself is not a pipe. The painting is merely an image of a pipe. Hence, the description, “this is not a pipe.”

So what’s this got to do with architecture? The title of this post is ‘Ceci n’est pas une Passivhaus’ and although the house has all the characteristics of a Passivhaus, it is not certified as one so can’t officially be called a Passivhaus.

The slideshow below shows the construction progress of the ultra low carbon rural house in County Mayo. The slideshow includes captions on the features that make this a Passivhaus and although it’s not a Passivhaus it’s pretty close. I’ll also include in the captions why this house adheres well to the Mayo rural house planning guidelines:

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The house incidentally is a self-build, direct labour project with a client doing a great job, wholeheartedly working towards a low energy buuilding.