Bluegum: This conventional suburban style plan with an integral garage, living areas facing the street and a covered veranda across the rear is enhanced by the use of clerestory glazing.

This home breaks all the passivhaus rules; poor orientation, sprawling form, complex roofs, too much volume; yet it works like a charm! It is a demonstration of passivhaus at its best, performance driven design showing that, in the right hands, passivhaus is a flexible, adaptable standard that can deliver healthy, comfortable buildings on ‘imperfect’ sites.

Torrens Early Learning Centre is a daycare and kindergarten facility in Canberra ACT and is the only privately-owned Passivhaus educational facility in the world. The client’s goal was to build the healthiest and most sustainable childcare centre in Australia and meeting the Certified Passivhaus standard was a key performance requirement.

Large home in an inner city suburb with a good northerly aspect. Extensive glass to the north and south meant triple glazed windows and doors. Great home for entertaining with large operable expanses of glass onto a northern courtyard. Achieving the PH requirements were made more challenging by the decision to pursue certification after the planning was completed and 80% documented.