News & Articles

Kāinga Ora’s announcement of its first Passive House pilot project, the 18-unit Bader Ventura apartment building in Mangere, Auckland, is receiving a lot of attention with stories running across national...

Kāinga Ora will drive Passive House uptake across the whole building sector

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Here’s an excellent resource on planning, training, mocking-up and doing QA on an airtight building project. It’s very graphical and has great links to even more resources. There’s video as...

Airtight building resources

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2021

The just-released Homestar V5 tool is going to lift the performance of homes using the NZ Green Building Council (NZGBC) rating system because the PHPP software is now the engine...

Homestar V5 a huge improvement

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

I spend most of my waking hours focused on improving the performance of the buildings: for the sake of the humans who live, work and play within them and for...

‘Worlds Apart’ graphic depicts future pathways

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2021

This recent Stuff story was a pretty well-considered look at whether improvements in thermal performance influence sale prices. I’ve covered this ground before, in my book and in this blog...

Breaking news: Warmer, healthier homes are worth more

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2021

New Zealand got underway with Passive House before our Aussie mates but sadly we’ve been thoroughly surpassed in the last couple of years. We have no Passive House projects to...

Leadership needed in NZ educational sector

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

In this high-profile recent opinion piece, Marcus Hogan (professional practice director at Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects), points out that even new homes built to meet the...

NZIA adds weight to call for better Building Code

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2021

Folks are illogical. Including me. I think a fizzy drink should cost about $1 and don’t want to pay more—but $5 for a coffee is alright. Weird. Well it turns...

The take-back effect

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

I’m often asked for data on the price premium a certified Passive House would command compared to the same house built to the legal minimum requirements of the New Zealand...

Energy-efficient builds increase sales price: Aus study

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

The stumbling block to a fully renewable energy grid in New Zealand is what to do in a dry winter, when electrical demand peaks but there’s not enough water in...

Passive House performance would fix the dry winter energy problem

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2021

As of 13 December 2017 there are six additional PHI certified climate files for NZ. These now cover all of NZ including the Chatham Islands. It is important to note...

Passive House Climate Files for NZ

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Certification Guidance

Generic slab edges default should be B’/2=2m

A slab edge is one of the most common thermal bridges we see in New Zealand. In a traditional timber framed building on a concrete slab, the perimeter thermal bridge...

by Toby Brooke

Updated: May 2021

I’ve often wondered in the past exactly what percentage of New Zealand’s health burden is due to our damp and cold homes. Well I obviously didn’t look in the right...

Health burden of cold damp houses costs millions every year

by Jason Quinn

Updated: May 2021

This excellent top-level round-up of multiple UK retrofit programmes sadly reveals how many were really poorly done. The most recent was a politically driven voucher system that lasted less than...

Lessons from failed UK retrofit programmes

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

They won’t win points for style, but these semi-detached, two-storey Irish homes fit seamlessly amongst their neighbours. This is a very familiar UK building style, now made better: both Passive...

Ireland nails affordable Passive House

by Jason Quinn

Updated: May 2021

MBIE has provided its initial feedback based on consultation with industry on its “Building for climate change”. There are some promising signs from industry as the snapshot below indicates. We...

MBIE responds to climate change consultation

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

I’m looking forward to this seminar on how to effectively market Passive House and encourage those working on and designing Passive Houses to attend. This Zoom seminar is hosted by...

Join US expert on marketing PH to homeowners

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026