Isover opens international competition

This year’s task for students of architecture, design and construction engineering is to design an office building, ostensibly a new headquarters for Isover, to Passive House or Isover Multi-Comfort House standards.Last year it was a school.



The competition is in two stages – the first to judge three winners in each country and the second to judge three international winners from the three winners in each country at an all-expenses-paid final in Slovenia in April 2009. The deadline for entries to the UK stage of the competition is 6th March 2009.

This will be the fifth annual competition which typically attracts entries from the European, Asian and African continents but it is only the second year the UK has been involved. Last year’s national stage was won by The University of Nottingham’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment.

Entries are invited from individuals or teams of up to three people and are judged mostly on their design capability although 30% of the marks are awarded based on their technical understanding of the Passive House or (Isover’s) Multi-Comfort House concept.



This promotes the ideal that appropriately constructed with additional insulation, a Multi-Comfort House can run on approximately 10% of the energy of a traditional house – an ideal that is proven with thousands of homes in Europe.



A full brief on the competition’s requirements is available on request.