Tomás O’Leary

Tomás is one of the Principal Trainers in all course offered and will be present through the 10 day course. He is a co-founder of the Irish Passive House Academy, an accredited Certified European Passive House Course Provider and Trainer and a Director of MosArt Architects. Whilst he began his professional career as a Landscape Architect, he developed a keen interest in Passive House in 2002, culminating in building and living in Ireland’s first Certified Passive House since 2004.

Tomás co-authored the SEI new-build Passive House Guidlines (along with UCD ERG) and drafted the SEI retrofit Passive House Guidelines. He is accredited by the Passivhaus Institut to certify Passive House projects, is a member of the (extended) European PASS-Net project and is also a representative on the European Passive House Database project. He is a founding member of the Irish Passive House Association and has been promoting Passive House not just in Ireland but also in the U.S. as well as China.

Tomás has extensive and practical knowledge of the Passive House standard and looks forward to sharing his experiences with all course participants.

Dipl.Ing. Franz Freundorfer (Germany, 45):

Franz has been a leader in Passive House training for almost a decade and is very familiar with the construction situation in Ireland. He was involved in the design of Tomas O’Leary’s Passive House in Wicklow and has contributed towards a number of Irish PHPP training sessions. Franz is one of the top European experts in Passive House windows and is responsible for R&D in the window group Optiwin and other window producers. He has developed a strong reputation as a well informed and entertaining trainer. He lives in his own Passive House in Bavaria, with his three children (Maria 20, Johannes 19 and Kathi 16) and his wife Josefa. His home is used as a sample building in the CEPH course.

Art McCormack

Art is a Director and Chief Architect of MosArt Architects.  His interest in sustainable design began in the late 1980's and has culminated in a focus on the Passive House standards and building techniques. Over recent years he has played a central role in the practice in producing architectural design to this standard, involving primarily residential, but also mixed use, development.

Art had undertaken the first English language based Certified Passive House Designers course run provided by Strathclyde University. He has also embraced the adaptation of the Passive House standard to the retrofitting of existing buildings, including participation in the Retrofit for the Future programme in the UK concerning social housing, as well as to the broader urban scale, involving his training and practice as an urban designer.

Mariana Moreira

Mariana is an Architect and has been actively working with the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) for over two years on a variety of projects both at design stage and during construction. She has participated in Passive House training courses in Ireland. She also works closely with Tomás O’Leary on certification of Passive House projects. Mariana is a qualified Building Energy Rating (BER) adviser and is currently undertaking a Masters in Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies from CAT (University of East London).

Trans-European Panel of Trainers

A Panel of highly experienced Accredited CEPH Trainers is developing throughout Europe. The Directors of the Irish passive House Academy have an excellent working relationship with many of these trainers and they will be commissioned to contribute specialist knowledge as required throughout the courses. 

It is envisaged that there will be a minimum of four distinct trainers sharing the delivery of the course throughout the 10 day course, co-hosted at all times by Tomás O’Leary. The names and profiles of the trainers contributing to each course will be notified to course participants ahead of commencement.