The THRIVE 2026 Australian Passivhaus Conference in Melbourne last week was great here are my highlights. Well worth nipping across the ditch for two days.
I’d set up (and Clare Parry organized) a get-together for most of the Australian Passivhaus Certifiers and a few other keen conference folks at the Melbourne Sun on Wednesday night. Chaotic and unplanned, in the good way. Some of these work friendships go back more than a decade at this point Clare and I were accidental flatmates on the Passivhaus designer course back in 2011, and we still enjoy retelling that story.
Here were the top three themes for me: Education, Scaling and EnerPHit!
Educational analogies Dr Barry McCarron (UK), Visiting Professor at University of Ulster. My favorite was his comparison between crocs and a proper snow boot exactly the right tool for the job. He shows how the right analogy cuts resistance across the whole team design, clients, construction. I’ve grabbed his slides to share with Jessica Winter for our SE teaching.
Scaling Passivhaus benefits into the volume market Frasers Property Australia + ARUP panel. Kate Nason, Kaylee Hussain and Sheldon Walters talking through what it actually takes to get Passive House beyond bespoke into volume housing. The developer + consultant take was useful I don’t often get that perspective in one room. Main point was that airtightness is the easiest Passivhaus feature to push into mainstream – lowest cost for the most benefit.
Scaling Passivhaus When To Push, When To Pivot David Ritter (Grimshaw) + Richard Stokes (ARUP). When to hold the line on performance, when to compromise for volume feasibility.
The EnerPHit-focused sessions were where I paid most attention. There’s a real push toward social housing and EnerPHit across the Australian Passive House community right now the work Marcus Strang presented on (EnerPHit) Adaptive Reuse, and the panel on the EnerPHIT transformation of a 1980s brick veneer project home with Cameron Munro, Matt Carland and homeowner Sarah Zhou.
The APA’s Retrofit Guide was on the programme to launch but wasn’t quite ready I was a bit disappointed, though I’m confident it’ll pair well with our Deep Energy Retrofit Handbook. The Guide is more sales and convincing; our Handbook is the technical core. I think they’ll go really well together rather than be competitive.
An unexpected bonus: how many folks wanted to take the class after I handed them Retrofit Expert course stickers. Each sticker has a QR code to the course page. It was really great to see that energy I look forward to having lots of these folks as students in our next Retrofit Expert class, starting Tuesday 25 August 2026 and held three times a week, Tuesday to Thursday: https://sustainableengineering.co.nz/education/retrofitexpert/
Finally, the conference felt like a community getting its energy back. The APA structure has changed, APA went out of their way to announce the PHINZ conference on 30 July, and old friends like Clare and Luc were visibly motivated again. I snuck out of the conference to throw a frisbee with a fellow Passivhaus Ultimate frisbee nut. I love the crazy synchronicity that happens. That energy is going to come back across the ditch with us.
All photos © 2026 Sustainable Engineering Ltd.
Details of the programme are available on the APA website but I’ve also stashed the presentation titles and speakers here in case the APA page disappears.
Day One
8:20am: Registration and Networking
8:50am: Acknowledgement of Country
9:00am: Welcome to THRIVE 2026 – Joe Karten, APA Chair
9:10am: Project Highlight: The Grove Ngunnawal – Australia’s first Passivhaus retirement village – Katie Fallowfield + Jason Fitzgerald, Keyton
9:50am: The Sustainable Homes of the Future – How Did We Get Here?
10:20am: Morning Tea
10:40am: Launch of Retrofit Guide (deferred)
11:25am: Keeping Priorities Straight with Airtightness – Sean Maxwell
11:55am: Retrofit, the only game in town – Andy Marlow, Director, Envirotecture
12:35pm: Lunch
1:20pm: [BREAKOUT] Airtightness in Practice with AirBossDan Training – Dan Jakobs, Proclima
1:20pm: [BREAKOUT] Making Passivhaus Mainstream: Bridging Design, Construction, and Supply Challenges – Sven Maxa
1:50pm: [BREAKOUT] A Step in the Right Direction: Adaptive Reuse & Passivhaus on Campus – Colin Brandt + Sean Earl, Williams Boag Architects
2:20pm: The Next Decade: From Niche to Necessity (panel) – Talina Edwards (Envirotecture), Clare Parry (Development Victoria), Burkhard Hansen (CarbonLite)
3:00pm: Bondor presentation – Elvis Pavlovski (Bondor) + Vaughan Bartleson
3:20pm: Afternoon tea
3:40pm: Lessons from delivering affordable (Passivhaus) housing blocks in London – Megan Ancliffe (UK), Delta Q
4:20pm: Story of the Kitchen – Gillian Manning
4:30pm: Using Analogies for Fun and Impactful Passivhaus Education and Delivery – Dr. Barry McCarron (UK), University of Ulster
6:00pm: Thriving & Jiving hosted at the award-winning studios of Hassell Architects
Day One Ends – THRIVING & JIVING Evening Event
Day Two
8:30am: Coffee and Networking
9:00am: Benefits and Frameworks for Incorporating (EnerPHit) Adaptive Reuse – Marcus Strang
9:30am: Scaling Passivhaus benefits into the volume housing market (panel) – Kate Nason + Kaylee Hussain (Frasers Property Australia), Sheldon Walters (ARUP)
10:00am: Panel: EnerPHIT transformation of a 1980’s brick veneer project home – Cameron Munro (Passive Analytics), Matt Carland (Carland Constructions), Sarah Zhou (homeowner)
10:45am: Morning Tea
10:50am: [BREAKOUT] Understanding High-Performance Window Systems and Their Impact on Thermal Performance – Kömmerling Australia
11:05am: Keynote (interview format) – Joe Karten (APA Chair) interviewing Michael Di Russo (Executive Director, CEFC)
11:50am: Making Passivhaus Walls Boring (Residential & Commercial) – Daniel Jakobs, Proclima
12:20pm: Advocacy Update – Joel Seagren (Fantech) + Ben Sinclair (Basehaus)
12:30pm: Lunch
1:00pm: Panel Discussion: Emerging Passivhaus Typologies: Lessons from Public and Commercial Projects – Kieran Leong (DesignInc), Roshani de Silva (Grimshaw), Arzu Mulayim, Joseph Cheung (Efficiency Matrix)
1:40pm: How Moisture-Safe Passivhaus Buildings Get Delivered: When Teams, Not Just Details, Understand Condensation Risk – Ivi Sims (Director, Indoor Air Quality Association)
2:00pm: Airtightness: Passivhaus, or not quite? – Linden Thorley + Trent Clark
2:40pm: Scaling Passivhaus – When To Push, When to Pivot – David Ritter (Grimshaw) + Richard Stokes (ARUP)
3:10pm: Afternoon Tea