A systematic investigation into the adoption of the Passivhaus standard to support sustainable design teaching curriculum

Sustainable architecture is taught across architecture and engineering subjects as an interdisciplinary education. In this paper, the authors investigated the contribution of the Passivhaus standard to sustainable design education. The research was carried out using a questionnaire and focus group discussion to explore the experiences of a cohort of master's-level students at a Russell Group University who had been taught the theory and practice of the Passivhaus standard. Findings revealed that 73% of the students felt Passivhaus and its tool were beneficial instruments supporting sustainable design education. Results showed that the consideration of the Passivhaus standard in the design studio helped drive positive changes in the design and that it can be considered a scaffolding instrument for sustainable design education. The standard supported the utilisation of a student-oriented pedagogical approach, as students can critically evaluate their own work against principles and benchmarks.