
The ceremony for the 2021 Passive House Awards took place at last month’s 25th International Passive House Conference. Held online and in the Historic Town Hall of the city of Wuppertal by the Passive House Institute, the awards highlighted the work of Passive House practitioners from around the world with a total of 14 awards going to recipients from nine countries.
The awards were presented by Jan Steiger, one of the managing directors of the Passive House Institute, who explained why Passive House buildings are crucial in our efforts to reduce emissions and slow the effects of climate change. "Buildings constructed to the Passive House standard require much less energy and significantly lower emissions are produced over their life-cycle,” Steiger said. “This exactly is vital for effective climate protection. All winners are a perfect example of how an extremely sustainable building standard can be implemented with a high architectural quality and in completely diverse ways.
The 14 award winners were selected from a total of 87 submissions. All projects had been certified as Passive House buildings. The international jury panel judged each project on its architectural merits, as well as economic efficiency, innovative design, and capacity to utilize renewable energy.
The 14 Recipients of the 2021 Passive House Awards are:

Category: Retrofit
Administrative building of the Austrian social insurance companies in Vienna, Austria (ID 5918)
Awardee: Helmut Schöberl, Schöberl & Pöll GmbH
Architectural office: Chaix & Morel et Associés und Christian Anton Pichler ZT GmbH

Category: Multi-Unit Residential Building
Residential building of the building association StadtNatur in Munich, Germany (ID 6607)
Awardees: Gernot Vallentin & Rena Vallentin, ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin GmbH

Category: Non-Residential Building
Research Centre in Sino-German-Ecopark in Qingdao, China (ID 4674)
Awardees: Ludwig Rongen & Michael Tribus & Gernot Vallentin, RoA – RONGEN TRIBUS VALLENTIN GmbH & CABR Beijing

Category: Passive House and Renewables
School building in Madrid, Spain (ID 6418)
Awardees: Paloma Campo Ruano & José Maria de Lapuerta, De LaPuerta+Campo Arquitectos

Category: Single-Family Home
Single-family house in Aylesbury, UK (ID 5535)
Awardees: Justin Bere & Ifrah Ariff, bere:architects

Category: Educational Building
School with a sports hall in Huddinge, Sweden (ID 6071)
Awardee: Ingrid Westmann, Friendly Building AB
Architectural office: Street Monkey Architects

Special Award by Dr. Wolfgang Feist: "Sustainable Retrofit"
Administrative building in Strasbourg, France (ID 6408)
Awardee: Camille Bouchon, Solares Bauen SARL
Architectural office: Richter Architectes et Associés

Special Award: EnergieAgentur.NRW "Sonderpreis NRW"
Retrofit to Passive House Plus of a two-family house in Hamm/Westfalen, Germany (ID 6535)
Awardee: Dr. Bernd Steinmüller, BSMC
Architectural office: Igor Wispler, Paderborn

Special SIGA Award: "Airtightness"
Multifamily building in Fort St. John, Canada (ID 5724)
Awardee: Paul Hammond, Low Hammond Rowe Architecture

Special Swisspacer Award: "Living Comfort"
Retrofit of a semi-detached house to the EnerPHit Standard in Manchester, UK (ID 5807)
Awardees: Kit Knowles, Ecospheric & Chris Rodgers, Guy Taylor Associates
Architectural office: Ecospheric & Guy Taylor Associates

Special Recognition: Multi-Unit Residential Building
Students' hostel in Loeben, Austria (ID 4862)
Awardees. Alexandra Frankel, Martina Feirer of aap.architekten ZT-GmbH

Special Recognition: Single-Family Home
Single-family house in Pemberton, Canada (ID 6593)
Awardee: Cillian Collins, Perkins+Will Architects

Special Recognition: Non-Residential Building
Supermarket in Weer, Austria (ID 5390)
Awardees: LAAC Architekten zt-gmbh

Special Recognition: Retrofit
Factory building in Katunayake, Sri Lanka (ID 6030)
Awardee: Jordan Parnass, Digital Architecture