Awards for Passivhaus Project, York
A Passivhaus development featuring a Permarock Mineral Fibre External Wall Insulation (EWI) System has just added three new industry awards to its collection.
Duncombe Square in York was designed by architects Mikhail Riches on behalf of City of York Council, pursuing a brief to create 34 highly energy efficient homes. Work began in 2021 and, over the following years, the project won a series of awards. These included the Royal Town Planning Institute Yorkshire Award (2022), the 2022 Planning Awards, and the Housing Design Award (2023).
More recently, with strong, quantifiable evidence now available to prove the effectiveness of the design, the scheme has claimed three further awards. On 7 July 2026, it won the following categories in the York Design Awards:
- The Sustainability Award
- The Multi-residential Award
- The Lord Mayor’s Award
The project was praised in particular for its high-quality design, for embracing net-zero standards, for its use of green spaces and for helping to improve residents’ quality of life.
Commenting on the result, Sophie Coles, the architect who led the development, said: “We are thrilled to see Duncombe Square recognised with three wins… City of York Council’s Housing Delivery Programme has delivered some of the UK’s best and most sustainable homes. Congratulations to our clients and the entire project team, whose ambition, collaboration and dedication made these wonderful homes possible. Duncombe Square is a net-zero, child-friendly, green and biodiverse neighbourhood that sets a benchmark for sustainable development.”
Duncombe Square is one of a number of award-winning projects on which Mikhail Riches and Permarock have worked together. Our ‘New Build Passivhaus Scheme’ case study gives further information about the original project.
In recent years, Permarock systems have increasingly been used on residential schemes built to the Passivhaus standard. Recent examples include projects in North East England, the Midlands and the South East, as well as a number of others in Yorkshire.
