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Clare Parry, who will be a panellist at The Fifth Estate’s Flick the Switch event on 5 August, is a director of the Australian Passive House Association (and founding chair). She’s been weathering the lockdown periods in her recently built Passive House in Melbourne, and is thrilled not to be in the “dumb” double brick house she lived in before.
It takes precision and care to construct an airtight building that’s good enough to pass the tough blower door test for Passive House certification. None of it cheap.
Passive House Certification is edging closer to Australia’s mass market, with Frasers Property Australia locking in a builder for its first pilot of the energy-efficient certification scheme.
The European Union has mandated that all new buildings be NZEBs from the 31st of December 2020. But look at how Aussie’s energy consumption compares. Here’s a hint: not good.
Every Australian (and many people beyond) are now feeling the fear that Greta enunciated just one year ago in her speech at Davos. Much to the surprise of the hopeful, hope has not delivered so let’s assume we need to actually do something now. After all, if not now, then when?
Architect and developer Oliver Steele has sold his Passive House apartment development in Redfern to a private investor who will run the premises as an Airbnb under the Hometime property management brand.
OXYGEN FILES: In recent weeks, air quality in Sydney and Brisbane, and in many regional areas, has ranged from bad to extremely hazardous because of bushfire smoke. With health experts telling people to stay indoors because no amount of exposure to the smoke is safe, a deeper issue is emerging: most of our buildings can’t block the pollution.
Garden towns and cities are an idea from the past that could help us in the present prepare for the climate-changed future. A new one is rising from green fields near Oxford, England, that is about creating not just homes but a healthy, low carbon community. Last month, delegates from 15 councils across England converged […]
A modest Passivehaus social housing estate has scooped up the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize, one of the most important architectural prizes in the UK.
Passive House certified accommodation for Monash University students has taken out the Built Environment category at this year’s Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards held in Melbourne last week.
Thirty years after its inception, Passivhaus design, which results in high-performing buildings that use hardly any energy, looks set to hit the mainstream.
Open the doors to the future of housing this Sunday to discover how designers, builders and home owners are increasingly turning to low-carbon, non-toxic materials to create home-sweet-homes.
New South Wales now has two Passive House certified buildings. The experience of the designers and builders behind these projects shows that the building standard isn’t easy to follow but it’s worth it to get ultra-low energy homes that are comfortable, quiet and secure.
New recommendations to build NSW schools to passive house standards could see students breathing cleaner air.
Sustainability architects have for many years specified concrete for its thermal qualities, and it’s clearly an essential part of construction – especially in mid to high rise buildings and infrastructure. In recent times it’s attracted the attention of the Passive House movement.
The Passive House Standard for low-energy buildings is being put through its paces in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market.
Last week’s Spinifex calling for Passive House to become a new standard for the National Construction Code certainly struck a nerve.
The energy policies and building standards that govern our homes need to keep us comfortable and limit global warming. Passive house, a rigorous building standard for ultra-low energy buildings, ticks these boxes.
Passive House as a methodology of construction is about to break out of its boutique box in residential and hit the broader market sectors.
The Australian Passive House Association’s first chief executive appointment is a signal that this particular way of building highly sustainable houses is about to move to a wider patch, beyond residential. The association has recently appointed Paul Wall who hails from Dexus where he’s been head of group sustainability and energy for several years and […]
A new Passive House build and design company in Melbourne has snapped up the opportunity to promote equity investment to smaller or so called “retail” investors.
Daniel Kress of Smart Plus Homes is offering readers of The Fifth Estate $200 off his Certified Passive House Designer full course package running in Perth from 26 November and in Sydney from 11 March.
The Australian Passive House Association (APHA) seeks an enthusiastic candidate with excellent leadership and management skills and strong knowledge of Passive House Certification to perform a range of duties that will grow our organisation.
A Passive House in Toorak that the client wanted built in Mt Gambier Limestone was an interesting challenge for John Wardle Architects
Huge savings in energy are available from Passivhaus design, and the cost premium is generally as low as 0-3 per cent in Australia. So what’s stopping a full scale transition? Nick Lane explains some of the issues he will flag as a panel moderator at the Australian Passive House Association’s Sydney Symposium on 26 September […]
Architect Kylie Mills on why she wants to live in a passive house in Sydney that she “would not have to heat or cool pretty much year-round”.
Norwich, a city of over 200,000 people in the east of England, has set its sights on becoming the Passivhaus capital of the UK.
The South Pacific Passive House Conference wrapped up late on Sunday 6 May following a packed day of site tours that included the presentation of a certification plaque for a recently completed house by Maxa Design.
Passive House is bursting out from its European roots and making a big impact in China, a move that promises to further accelerate the adoption of Passive House in warmer climates.
Passive House wrote its air tightness standards in terms of air changes per hour at 50 pascals of pressure (ACH50). Is it possible that they picked the wrong metric?