5 Minutes with Ann-Marie Fallon

I’ve recently managed several leadership assignments for building product manufacturers whose main vision is to drive a more sustainable offering into the built environment.

Therefore, I jumped at the chance to hold a discussion with Ann-Marie Fallon, who is a leading voice in sustainable architecture and the newly appointed Co-Director of the Passivhaus Trust.

With some 15 years’ experience in low-energy building design, she has played a pivotal role in delivering some of the UK’s most ambitious Passivhaus projects, including Agar Grove and Hackbridge Primary School. Working with Architype over the last decade as an Associate Director and Passivhaus Designer, Ann-Marie combines deep technical expertise with a passion for educating the next generation.

Here’s what we discussed:

Collingwood: You’ve joined the Passivhaus Trust at a pivotal moment. What does this “new era” of leadership mean for the Trust, and how do you expect to accelerate Passivhaus adoption across the UK?

Ann-Marie: The Trust has 3 main ambitions over the next 10 years:

• to have trained 50% of the construction industry,
• to have 10% of buildings built to the Passivhaus standard,
• to have 1% of retrofit projects built to the Passivhaus retrofit standard.

We aim to deliver this via awareness campaigns, increased training and access to materials, and continuing to  influence policy, and develop our growing community of experts from all areas of the construction supply chain to facilitate the delivery at scale.

I’m really excited to join the excellent team at the Trust and be part of the leadership going forward. To advocate for something so impactful for our building performance, but more importantly people’s health and well-being. That is what Passivhaus is for me: a quality assured approach delivering exemplar healthy buildings for people and enhancing lives. Why should we settle for anything less?

Collingwood: What are the biggest misconceptions about Passivhaus in the UK, and how is the Trust working to shift public and industry perception?

Ann-Marie:  The main misconception is around Passivhaus buildings being expensive to build. We will be updating the industry on this in 2026 with research showing how the uplift costs of Passivhaus are coming down all the time (building on an earlier paper from 2019). Optimising and simplifying the design from early stages is really important in this process. We have evidence of many building types now costing the same as industry norms and, in certain examples, even less!

Passivhaus is a quality assurance standard, which seeks robust processes through design and construction stages of buildings. We know from recent reporting in the construction industry (Cole report, Hackett report) that robust, evidence-led, quality assured processes are desperately needed to ensure our buildings and our communities are safe, comfortable and enhance communities and livelihoods.

Collingwood: You’ve led some of the UK’s most ambitious Passivhaus projects – Agar Grove and Hackbridge Primary being prime examples. What lessons have you learned that could help scale Passivhaus?

Ann-Marie:  There are a few things I’ve learned, having delivered Passivhaus projects since my first certified Passivhaus retrofit in Dublin, Ireland in 2011

It’s important to work really hard to avoid working in industry silos as a client contractor and design team: true collaboration is a must, particularly within the design team at the early stages where most of the optimisation and process is set.

An informed client, who creates certainty, and mitigates risk for the contractor, is important. We support a lot of local authority, private developers and homeowner clients through membership benefits such as exclusive events, site visits, access to experts and knowledge-sharing through the Passivhaus Trust’s Learning Hub.

There are now a wide range of training opportunities available for Passivhaus all over the UK offering in-person and online options, including Passivhaus Consultant and Tradesperson training https://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/certified_training_events.php.  We are working with universities, FE colleges and and innovation hubs across the UK, giving great accessibility to courses. This has supported contractors and their supply chains in gearing up to deliver quality buildings.

Collingwood: You’ve been heavily involved in architectural education. What role do universities and training programs play in preparing the next generation of Passivhaus designers?

Ann-Marie: Really there are three streams to the Trust’s focus, undergraduate/graduate curriculum at Universities, apprenticeships (some of the most important people in the quality assurance process are the people installing on site!), and the present cohort of professionals working right now on live projects.  We are working hard to bring awareness, learning, and opportunity to these three education target streams. https://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/competitions_and_campaigns/passivhaus-training-education/

Collingwood: What strategies are being developed to attract and retain talent in the Passivhaus sector?

Ann-Marie: We have heard anecdotal evidence from contractors that the workforce is reporting improved mental health from working on Passivhaus projects that pride quality and high performance execution of work compared to ‘business as usual’. This was an unintended but really important consequence, that will help with retention and also attract new recruits into building trades.

We also know that Passivhaus projects tend to have minimal defects over the building life. A recently completed Passivhaus school commented that it was the first building in 25 years that they delivered that did not have a leaking roof. Again, why do we settle for less when if built properly in the first place we minimise the extra cost disruption and risks that defects like this cause?

People who want to deliver quality building whether it’s design or construction will be attracted to the benefits Passivhaus brings. A more detailed overview of those benefits can be found here.

Collingwood: Is there a skills gap in the UK construction sector when it comes to delivering low-energy buildings, and how can recruitment help bridge that?

Ann-Marie: All the strategies outlined are aiming to help address the Passivhaus skills gap. Come and find out what Passivhaus is all about! You can join the Passivhaus Trust as a member to help understand more about the leading international low energy and comfort standard We have a lot of free resources on our website, including a  ‘Introduction to Passivhaus’ online training series  accessible to everyone. Thanks for listening!

If you are interested in doing a “5 minutes with” with us then please do drop me a note and get in touch today…