AFTER A DECADE under the title Construct Ireland, the most widely read building magazine in Ireland has rebranded as Passive House Plus as part of a “market shift” away from the ghosts of the construction sector’s past.

The magazine, which is published by Temple Media Ltd, will also launch a separate UK edition in December in a bid to target advertisers that have moved away from the Irish market, according to editor and publisher Jeff Colley.

The new name for the magazine, which hits shelves in Ireland this week, reflects the company’s decision to back the passive house-building standard. Buildings that meet this standard are designed to be so energy- efficient they don’t need conventional heating systems – relying instead on “passive” sources such as sunlight and heat from appliances.

Construct Ireland’s special edition on the passive house standard in September 2011 was its most successful ever issue at a time when other construction trade titles were going to the wall.

“We had our highest ever advertising and magazine sales totals and double the number of reader enquiries,” says Colley.

Although the magazine will focus on sustainable building even more than it did under its previous incarnation, Colley decided against an “overtly green name” for the title.

“A prefix like eco or green has lost a lot of its meaning,” he says. “And some people will be turned off by it, won’t they?”

Passive House Plus is priced at €4.75 in the Republic and £3.95 in the UK, while digital versions will also be launched.

The October edition has an extended print run of 12,000 – significantly higher than Construct Ireland’s last audited circulation of 7,400 – and copies will be split 50-50 between retail and the industry.

“We have a problem in Ireland in that we are culturally used to putting up with rubbish buildings,” says Colley.

“The construction industry brand is so damaged by the mad rush to build quickly and cheaply during the boom – Priory Hall, the pyrites, and everything else that’s come out – that it needs to prove that it’s capable of excellence.”