Joseph Little graduated in 2008 from the Graduate School of the Environment in mid-Wales with an honours degree in ‘MSc Architecture – Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies’ and in 1996 graduated from UCD with a Bachelor of Architecture. He formed this practice in 2003 and has consistently worked to raise the bar in construction standards since. He has been a member of the Royal Institute of Architects since 2003 and was the first architect to join ÉASCA (the Environmental & Sustainable Construction Association) in 2007. He is also a founder member of Irish Green Building Council and the practice is a member of the Passive House Association of Ireland.
As part of this focus his practice has focused on low energy, environmental and healthy forms of construction. In 2012 his design for a deep retrofit of a semi-detached house in Monkstown was awarded EnerPHit certification (Ireland's first deep certified retrofit of any kind): this was awarded Green Residential Building of the year in 2013. His passion for raising standards led him to set up Building Life Consultancy within the Practice in 2009. This consultancy has gone on to advise homeowners, governments, housing associations, and product developers etc. He and his team have accomplished a number of firsts in promoting a culture of low energy, high quaity construction and retrofit in Ireland (see ).
He also lectures widely and has written repeatedly for several magazines ('Construct Ireland', 'Passive House +' and 'Architecture Ireland') on the issues of retrofit, compliance, appropriate materials, detailing and health in buildings. His article on the limits of partial-fill cavity walling, the 'Breaking the Mould' seres of articles (which explored in detail the issues of retrofitting solid walls) and 'Understanding thermal bridge heat loss' are frequently cited works. He has since gone on to complete 'Technical Paper 15' for Historic Scotland on the hygrothermal evaluation of Scottish solid walls, and in the Autumn of September 2013 is leading a consortium to write 'Built To Last - Energy Efficient Retrofit of Pre-1945 Dublin Dwellings for Dublin City Council.
Brendan O'Connor is a senior Project Architect and Certified European Passive House Designer with a broad range of expertise from master planning, feasibility studies, concept design through to full architectural construction design and construction contract management. He is experienced as design team leader coordinating and project managing large and small schemes delivering high quality projects on time and within budget.
He was project architect with Joseph Little for a deep retrofit of a semi-detached house in Monkstown that was awarded EnerPHit certification (Ireland's first deep certified retrofit of any kind): this was awarded Green Residential Building of the year in 2013. He has worked on numerous Passive House, and medium and deep energy efficinct retrofit-extension projects in Joseph Little Architects, besides a large portfolio of projects beforehand.
Beñat Arregi is a graduate architect from the Higher Technical School of San Sebastian with a strong engineering and technical component. He is passionate about using computer technology as a creative tool for designing and evaluating energy and hygrothermal performance in buildings.
As a core member of the Building Life Consultancy he has carried out countless studies focused on thermal bridging and its impact on energy and hygrothermal performance. It is not an exaggeration to say he is one of Ireland's foremost expers on thermal bridge and hygrpothermal analysis.
Together with Joseph Little, he has co-authored several papers (for instance for the 2013 International Passive House Conference), and co-created and lectured more than 600 professional architects on low energy domestic retrofit and best practice buidiong fabric design in two popular courses the Practice created for the RIAI.