The Cre8 Barn at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Stirley Community Farm in Huddersfield has recently been announced as the winner in the 'Retrofit Projects' category in the UK Passivhaus Awards 2015, at a ceremony on Tuesday 7th July in London organised by the Passivhaus Trust

The Cre8 barn retrofit was designed and developed by Passivhaus specialist firm Green Building Store, and involved the upgrading and refurbishment of a derelict cow barn into an eco-exemplar educational centre and space. The project was designed to the exacting EnerPHit standard (a variation of the low energy Passivhaus standard, specifically designed for retrofits).

A super-insulated timber frame structure was built inside the existing stone barn building (effectively a 'box within a box'), preserving the outward appearance of the barn, whilst ensuring high levels of airtightness and continuous insulation. The timber frame structure has the additional advantage of supporting and shoring up the original stone building.

Green Building Store Director Bill Butcher commented: "It is a great honour and privilege to receive the award, which is voted for by technical experts and practitioners within the UK Passivhaus community. We hope that the technical solutions we came up with at the project can offer a useful template for bringing historic and older buildings up to 21st century energy efficiency levels."

Rob Stoneman, Chief Executive, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust commented: "Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are delighted that Stirley Community Farm's Cre8 Barn has won the 'Retrofit Projects' UK Passivhaus Award 2015. The Farm was always intended to be an exemplar - a place to change thinking by demonstrating the possible. There is no greater challenge to humanity than the prospect of chaotic climate change. Passivhaus is leading the way in addressing that challenge and we are extremely chuffed we can demonstrate that at Stirley."

About Passivhaus: Developed in Germany in the 1990s, Passivhaus is a quality assured standard and methodology for low energy building, which can help create buildings which use around 90% less energy than standard UK buildings. Passivhaus design is based on the principle that reducing heating loss to the minimum is the most cost-effective way of creating a low carbon building. Passivhaus is the leading international low energy, design standard, with over 37,000 units of houses, schools, offices and other buildings designed, built and tested to the standard across the world.

About EnerPHit: EnerPHit is the Passivhaus Institut 's standard for retrofits, which was developed in recognition of the difficulty of achieving a full Passivhaus standard in existing buildings.

Link: http://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/enerphit