Case Studies

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 …

Woodford Grace is a remarkable house, in every way. The owners bought a gracious old bungalow written off after the Canterbury earthquakes, won over by the large land area and proximity to the city. They then, with audacious ambition, decided to repair and restore the villa, while adding a modern extension to suit their family of five—and to aim for …

It’s confirmed: New Zealand’s first non-residential building has won PHI-certification. Hutt City Council’s facilities building at Silverstream landfill is a Low Energy Building. The climate (30km north of Wellington) doesn’t present undue difficulties but the small building does face some intrinsic challenges. Its footprint is a simple shape, but the form factor sits at a very high 4.1 due to …

This striking home is perched on a steep lifestyle block above the Kapiti Coast, designed to take in expansive views to the west. On the clear day the ocean views stretch from the South Island to Mt Taranaki. The clients specified Passive House in their brief to their architect. The house’s excellent performance despite less than optimal solar access illustrates …

New Zealand’s newest certified Passive House is the first in Hawkes Bay and it’s doing a great job of promoting high-performance building to homeowners in the region. This handsome three bedroom, two bathroom home plus office was designed by Vlada Acimovic and completed a year ago by eHaus licensee Welch Builders & Construction Ltd. It initially served capably as a …

Building this stunning home presented several challenges, overcome by an experienced Passive House builder who understood what he was working with. As with many projects in Christchurch, ground conditions were difficult and increased costs. Liquefaction risk was not the issue here, rather very rocky conditions and a “big nasty rock” right in the middle of the site. Part of the …