The Tavros Project.

Winner of the 1st NEB 2025 Rising Stars Award in the category ‘Prioritising the places and people who need it most’.

The Tavros Project is an innovative initiative that addresses energy poverty, urban sustainability and climate resilience through the Passive House (PH) standard. Led by Passivistas, a volunteer team of young engineers from the Hellenic Passive House Institute (HPHI), it focuses on the modernisation of a multi-family social housing building in Athens, demonstrating that existing structures can be transformed into low-energy, high-comfort homes without demolition.

Executed within the European Union-funded RINNO project, the renovation is funded entirely by corporate sponsorships, crowdfunding and volunteer labour. It benefits the building’s tenants while providing a replicable model for other neighbourhoods. Among its attributes, it features a small-scale renewable energy system using solar panels, which will enable the community to align with the EU’s carbon neutrality targets for 2050.