Case Studies

New Zealand’s newest Passive House Plus is home to a couple—and their two electric cars. Their latest monthly power bill was about $50, of which fully $30 was line and other fixed charges. And that’s in Dunedin, still chilly in October! It will be equally as comfortable and still miserly on energy even during heatwaves in summer. External blinds will …

The owners of this large landholding on the western shores of Lake Wanaka have an ambition to build a luxury lodge, as previewed in Jason Quinn’s book on Passive House in New Zealand. Meanwhile they have built a striking three-bedroom Passive House home—no small achievement given the highly demanding constraints on building in this designated significant natural landscape zone. The …

Lower Saddle House is the family home for Auckland architect Joe Lyth, who qualified as a Passive House designer during the planning phase. It’s had lots of press. In particular Joe’s essay for Architecture Now was widely discussed, because he described how this certified, high-performance build was completed within their $502K budget. It is true that Lower Saddle House achieved …

History has been made: the Toiora co-housing project in Dunedin has met all its targets and both buildings have received their Passive House certification. The development is home to 21 units and is both the largest Passive House project in New Zealand to date and the first multi-unit Passive House residential dwelling.  The success of Toiora is testament to the …

It’s been a long road to their “forever home” but the wait for this newly certified Passive House just north of Wellington has been worth it. Work began in 2016, but the subdivision and gaining title dragged on and then Covid created unforeseen delays. But all’s well that ends well. The four-bedroom 187m2 home shelters multiple generations. It sits on …

Sometimes serendipity produces the sweetest results. Brett Martin and Weihong Wang were in the early stages of designing a new energy efficient house when Brett happened to hear an interview on Radio NZ featuring Jason Quinn. Sustainable Engineering’s director was talking about the book he had just published, Passive House for New Zealand: The warm healthy homes we need. Passive …

Siân Taylor had a vexing situation. After a day of designing Passive House and other high-performance homes for clients, she’d return to the ordinary 1980s house she shared with her husband (and fellow architect) Mark Read and their baby, which was freezing cold and took all evening to warm up even the living areas. From the UK and used to …

This dramatic Christchurch home, nicknamed ‘The Lighthouse’ by neighbours, has just been certified as a PHI Low Energy Building. It’s a stand-out for many reasons; on a technical level, it’s notable for its use of panellisation on a challenging site with a 35% slope.  A house on the site was extensively damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes and had already been …

Sole by name, sole by nature; this Christchurch Passive House was built around the unique vision and values of the clients. The result is an appealing home full of surprises and perfectly suited to the needs of its family. It’s a refreshing point of difference, when so much house design in New Zealand is driven by notions of maximising resale …