In the mids the low-energy building was already a legally required energy standard for new buildings in Sweden and Denmark. Even at that time, the further development of the principles of low-energy housing was being considered, i. Bo Adamson continued to further pursue this development with the author until his retirement.
The photograph shows the two together with Robert Hastings, one of the pioneering American architects, during an evening event at the 2nd International Passive House Conference in in Duesseldorf. In this paper, all the characteristics of building components which determine the energy consumption of buildings, were systematically varied and optimised in relation to efficiency, expense and living quality.
As an example, Fig. It was quickly realised that energy optimisation for buildings should not be limited solely to heating energy; in fact, all household energy consumption had to be minimised. To prepare the construction of the first Passive Houses in Hessen a scientific research group was formed, financed by the Hessian Ministry for economics and technology HMWT.
The minister of economics at that time, Alfred Schmidt, showed great interest in the development. The Research Group monitored eight research projects , the results of which were incorporated directly into the construction of the first Passive House at Kranichstein; among other things:. For this first prototype of a Passive House, a series of building components were further developed, the forerunners of which had already been successfully used in low-energy houses [Feist ].
Only by combining all of these measures it was possible to achieve the ambitious objective of an exceedingly small heating load - however, this combination was not very economical at the time because these components had to be manufactured individually and therefore they were expensive. During construction in , the house was equipped with highly precise data monitoring devices in order to check the achievement of the objectives.
