If you’re project is exciting, and it ticks our boxes, we are happy to have a chat. We work mainly but not limited to) in and around Melbournes inner suburbs, particularly the Inner West and North. But if you’re project fits into the list of areas below, and if you’re an awesome person and keen to add another member to your family (yep, we really do become part of your family), then reach out and say hi.

Abbotsford, Aberfeldie, Alphington, Altona, Altona North, Ascot Vale, Braybrook, Brooklyn, Brunswick, Brunswick East, Brunswick West, Carlton, Carlton North, Clifton Hill, Coburg, Collingwood, Essendon, Fairfield, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North, Flemington, Footscray, Keilor, Kensington, Kingsville, Maidstone, Maribyrnong, Moonee Ponds, Newport, North Melbourne, Northcote, Parkville, Pascoe Vale, Preston, Princes Hill, Richmond, Seddon, Spotswood, Strathmore, Thornbury, Tottenham, West Footscray, Williamstown, Yarraville.

But we are also keen to start venturing to areas around the Macedon Ranges Gisborne, Kyneton, Lancefield, Macedon, Malmsbury, Mount Macedon, New Gisborne, Riddells Creek, Sunbury, Romsey, and Woodend.

magine a house that's basically a giant thermos. It keeps you super warm in winter and lovely and cool in summer, all without cranking up the heater or air conditioner. That's a Passive House.

It’s not magic—it's just really, really smart building. Here’s how it works, using just five simple tricks:

• Super Insulation: The whole house is wrapped in a thick, cozy blanket of insulation. This blanket covers the walls, the roof, and even the floor, so no heat can sneak out or in.

• No Air Leaks: Builders seal every tiny crack and hole, making the house as airtight as a balloon. This stops drafts and makes sure all the warm or cool air stays exactly where it should be.

• Special Windows: The windows are extra thick, usually with three layers of glass. They're like little insulated sandwiches that stop heat from escaping on a cold day or getting in on a hot one.

• No Cold Spots: Builders are super careful to make sure there are no "cold bridges." These are spots where a tiny bit of material might let heat escape, like a metal nail or a bit of concrete. A Passive House has none of those.

• Clever Breathing: The house has a special machine called a Heat Recovery Ventilator. It's like the house's lungs. It constantly pulls in fresh, clean air from outside and breathes out the old, stale air. But here's the clever part: it catches all the warmth from the air leaving the house and uses it to warm up the fresh air coming in!

The result is a house that’s incredibly comfortable, always has fresh air, and costs almost nothing to heat or cool. It's the most high-tech, environmentally friendly blanket fort you could ever live in!

We have finished 4 projects that are offically certified passive house projects in Melbourne.

These are

Forrest Passive House - Spotswood, Melbourne

Champion Passive House - Williamsotwn, Melbourne

Rifle Range Retrofit - Williamstown, Melbourne (first ever passive house turning an old volume built project into a certified passive house) - Retrofit

Parade Passive House - Ascot Vale, Melbourne

We also have two other projects on site, currently seeking certification in Yarraville and Flemington.

We are experts not just because we did the Certified Passivhaus Tradesperson Course back in 2019, but because we have real onsite experience. We have learnt through mistakes, readings and collaborating with the industri’s best.

Thats why we are real Passive House Experts in Melbourne.

We have a huge amount of experience in New Builds, Renovations, Extensions and Retrofits!

We do it all

Building science is a field of knowledge that explains why buildings work, or why they fail. It applies principles from physics, chemistry, and engineering to a building as a single, complex system. The goal is to design and construct high-performance buildings that are durable, comfortable, and energy-efficient.

High-performance construction is a holistic approach to building that surpasses standard regulations. It's not about a single feature, but rather the seamless integration of many attributes to create a structure that is more efficient, durable, and comfortable.

A truly high-performance home must meet two critical criteria:

1. Modeled Performance: The home must be modeled during the design phase to optimize its performance before construction begins.

2. Verified Performance: The home's performance must be tested and verified both during and after the project, with a blower door test to confirm that what was designed was actually built.

3. It must built to be durable

4. It must be energy efficienct

5. It must be a healthy and comfortable place to live (ie thermally, air quality, sound, smells)

This is the hardest question we have to answer. Let’s be honest here, building isn’t cheap, but building a. healthy, comfortable and durable home, one that is optimised does not need to cost more than the standard “normal home”.

There are many things we need to consider when we talk about building costs - what is the location, the size, what foundations, what fit out details, what is the complexities of the design… there are more questions like this.

The only way to know what a home costs to build is to

1. Get your builder involved early

2. Engage them to run some rough pricing at a concept stage

3. Get them to run some numbers once you have settled on a design

4. Continue to keep them involved.

This is the best way to work, to bring your dream to reality. We are able to have conversations around budget and brief, which is a tough conversation, but we have one goal.

To build you a comfortable, healthy, durable home, one that fits your budget!

Want to know the secret to a smooth and successful build? Don't get stuck with a bad process. We've fine-tuned our approach over 10 years to ensure every project runs like a well-oiled machine, and it all starts with our pre-construction guide.

Here's our 10-step guide to our pre-construction process:

1. Hola amigo! It all starts with you, or your designer, reaching out to us. We'll have an initial chat on the phone to get to know each other and discuss your project.

2. Early contractor involvement: We believe in bringing everyone together early. We'll set up a preliminary agreement contract to officially get started and ensure everyone is on the same page from the very beginning.

3. Project Price Validation - We use industry tools and data to give you an idea as to what your home might cost

4. Explore: We'll visit your site to understand its feasibility and discuss any potential issues we might see. This is where we also explain our fee schedule and its importance.

5. Project review: We'll review all your relevant documentation for the project.

6. Preliminary estimate: We can give you a ballpark figure for your build cost using our industry tool, which has over 10,000 data points and is 93% accurate. This will provide a real indicative budget with a low, medium, and high range.

7. Grow: This is where we work with you and your designer to develop your plans and bring in external consultants.

8. Buildability: We investigate and discuss factors contributing to the buildability of your project.

9. Final cost: We'll produce your final cost estimate, which usually takes 6–8 weeks.

10. Contract: Your construction contract is finalised and signed, and we're ready to build!

We don’t look at size, we look to make sure we are the right people for the project. If we are not the best fit, we will pass you onto someone that is!

We are looking to enter this space, so please reach out and we might be able to help

The short answer is yes, by how much, who knows but our guess is between 1-20% - each project is really different.

Sometimes, it might be cheaper to build a passive house if you had a huge heating and cooling load, but we need to remember you’re getting a premium product, and just like everything else that is premium, they usually cost more.

1. You’re an awesome person

2. We just click, you know, it’s like that first date where theres a bit of love at first site!

3. Your project has sustainability targets - ie low energy, high performance, passive house

4. Your project location works for us

5. You’re happy to get us involved early and work to collaborate to build you a dream home.

No way! While we're proud to be leaders in Melbourne's Passive House movement, we're not one-trick ponies. We love bringing those high-performance principles to all our projects—big or small, certified or not. In fact, we've even talked a few clients out of certification because we knew a different approach was a better fit for their goals. We have built more high performance projects than passive houses, so we know where the perfect line can be drawn!