Why did you start commentating as Eco-architecture?
Working in a local authority architecture department I started commenting on articles I found interesting in the architectural press, principally concerned with local government adopting MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) for energy efficient social housing, only to find nobody else had read them. The LABM (Local Authority Building and Maintenance) my main source, for obvious reasons. I was motivated after reading about forwarding thinking in architecture and the direction I thought my local authority should be heading, particularly in reducing fuel poverty. Asked to write a summery of the articles to keep the group updated with current trends, I started an email list, soon word got around and others began asking to be included.
An ever increasing number of councils began adopting Passivhaus to tackle fuel poverty in their local areas, along with local housing associations, increasing from an estimated 10.8% in 2021 to 31.15% in 2024, a number of 40 authorities growing to 119 (UK Passive Social Up 2025). It became clear my particular authority had no interest in this thinking, so my internal reviews stopped and instead I formed Eco-Architective to move my commentary to social media.
To truly live sustainably we must return to an ecological architecture. Juhani Pallasmaa the Finnish architect and exponent of Ecological Functionalism, developed the theory which informs how a building responds directly to the environment in which it is placed. The name Eco-Architective represents my own interest inspired by this theory, and ŒcoPrime Architectonics is the nature of architecture and the ecology of building, which proposes an analogy with past settlements and the present landscape, to create regional ecological buildings that re-connect with our past using natural materials, and we really do possess the ingenuity and technology to make it possible.
The current take-up of social housing Passivhaus development is currently 34.5% at 132 local authorities (November 2025). I have created a list of all local authorities delivering Passivhaus.