The Passive House of the Year 2017 is a wooden structure from Jílové near Prague

Prague - The Passive House of the Year 2017 is the timber construction House on Windy Hill from Jílové near Prague by Archcon atelier. In the category of Other Energy-Efficient Buildings, the jury awarded the educational and consulting center Open Garden in Brno, designed by Projektil architects. The election results were announced today by the Passive House Center at the opening of the For Pasiv, The Way of Wood, and Roofs Prague fairs at the Letňany exhibition center.

The winning house is a two-story wooden building with a floor area of 176 m². "We were impressed by the architecture of civil expression with the sober use and combination of natural materials, a moderately shaped volume, an attractive interior space, and a well-designed roof," said jury chairman Josef Smola.

This year, 44 energy-saving buildings registered for the competition. A nine-member jury selected the winners in the categories of Passive House and Other Energy-Efficient Buildings.

A building can be classified as a passive house if it has a very low energy consumption for heating. Crucial is the recovery of heat, so-called recuperation, where a system of ducts exchanges air while heat remains inside.

The share of new passive houses in the total number of built family houses in the Czech Republic increased by two percentage points last year to 6.5 percent. About one thousand were built. The total number of passive houses in the Czech Republic is approximately 5,000.