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7 November 2018 ArchitectureNow Editorial Desk: The eco-ethical house: part two

I’ve had the great pleasure of staying overnight in this Passive House with some friends. It was beautifully warm and quiet inside. Although it was cold outside that night one...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2018

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05 November 2018 Chris Lewis, Federated Farmers Opinion: Farmers deserve honest discussion about the future of housing

More and more folks are realizing that housing contributes to their health. Federated Farmers steps up to looking after their members and their children’s health. Talk about blunt quotes ‘asthma-inducing...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2018

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31 October 2018 Architecture Now’s Justine Harvey and Camille Khouri: The Eco-Ethical House: Shotover House Case Study

We’d like to congratulate Certified Passive House Fesigner Guy Shaw on his elegant design of this passive house. This elegant design easily met the certification criteria. We are particularly fond...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2018

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20181026_PassiveHouse+SustainableBuilding_PassiveShelteredScheme500yearsInTheMaking

2019 October 26 Passive House + Sustainable Building: Passive Sheltered Scheme 500 Years in the Making

Beautiful English Passive House social housing apartments for the elderly: “18 apartments split into three blocks totalling 1057 sqm treated floor area. The larger block is comprised of 14 one-bedroom...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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25 October 2018 HVAC&R News’ Marc Vender: Mould Inquiry Calls for Tighter Building Standards

Surprise! Australian buildings have very similar problems to New Zealand buildings. They’re finding that mould is prevalent throughout their buildings because they don’t require designing to prevent mould in their...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2018

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26 October 2018 Passive House Plus Jeff Colley: Study: extreme overheating not reflected in building simulations

Dangerous overheating in buildings may not be showing up in desktop studies, new research suggests.”   “Monitored operative temperatures of up to 47.5C recorded in a highly glazed apartment building...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2018

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26 October 2018 Passive House Plus’ Kate de Selincourt: Performance gap much smaller for passive homes, research finds

This report reviewed detailed test measurements for air tightness and heating loads for passive houses and non-passive houses designed to meet an energy target. From this data the Passive Houses...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2018

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10 October 2018 Crux Kerrie Waterworth: Why do we still build the wrong houses?

“I like to build for people, not for profit”. Quote from Isaac Davidson “If we’ve got a subdivision of 1600 new homes to build, you have to ask is it...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2019

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11 October 2018 Now To Love: Congratulations Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman – NEXT Woman of the Year 2018!

Our congratulations to Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman as well. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and hear her important research on the direct relation between really bad housing and bad health in...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2018

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9 October 2017 AIRAH: Improving the energy efficiency of residential climate control systems

Newly released standard AS/NZS 5141:2018 Residential heating and cooling systems – Minimum applications and requirements for energy efficiency, performance and comfort criteria Specifies requirements for the design, selection, installation, commissioning...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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The Four Control Layers – Fundamentals of Building Science

The Building Enclosure and the Four Control Layers   Understanding of the building enclosure and the four control layers that make up the building enclosure is vital to understanding how...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2021

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Passive House social housing at no extra cost – that’s the plan for Melbourne project

Recently came across the great article on Passive House social housing planned at no extra cost in Melbourne, Australia from early last year. I’m looking forward to hearing about this...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2018

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SE Certification Platform Checklist

Sustainable Engineering Ltd. provides client certification resources to help them with their certification process. The attached link to the PDF is a list of all the different entries of the...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2021

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Calling All Passive House Builders

I’m helping to set up a session of hands on builders to each speak for 5 minutes at the next Passive House Conference in Wellington (9th and 10th of February). The concept...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2018

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20 September 2018 Passivhaus is affordable and effective, why isn’t it legislated?

This well written article reminds us that buildings in Australia (and NZ as well) are a large contribution to our CO2 emissions and we have the skills needed to significantly...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2018

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14 June 2018 BRANZ Transition to Low Carbon Built Environment by 2050

I was a bit disappointed reading this brief workshop report as the conclusions are very cautious. It started strong by reviewed some epic keynote points like ice free summers at...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2018

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06 September 2018 David Hargreaves argues that what is missing from the Government’s Healthy Homes initiative is a long-term plan to modernise all of New Zealand’s housing stock

This article is great. The author actually gets the obvious limitations built into this government act. Even if NZ chose the top option of all those offered we wouldn’t have...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2018

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04 September 2018 SunLive: Healthy Homes Proposals Made Public

I’m glad to see that this is finally out for public comment. Although this article focuses on Rental Housing I see these issues with owner occupied and brand new housing...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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