Meet Matt Carland, Passive House builder in Melbourne
Hola. I'm Matt, but Mum would probably prefer you call me Matthew.
I build homes for people who are done with being told the minimum is good enough, and that includes my own family.
Every family deserves a home that makes them healthier, not sicker, and I'm going to keep proving it can be done in Melbourne, one home at a time.
How a uni dropout ended up building Passive Houses
I didn't take the straight road here, and I wasn't always good at it. That's kind of the point.
- 2010
Stuck, for the first time
I did the whole uni thing first, a Bachelor of Science and Nutrition, and it wasn't for me. I'm the type who's always thinking three steps ahead, so feeling stuck was new and uncomfortable. Dad's an electrician and my brother was starting his plumbing apprenticeship, so at 20 I started a carpentry apprenticeship.
- The honest bit
I wasn't a great carpenter
I'll be honest, I wasn't the greatest on the tools. I worked out early that my real strength was building and running jobs, so I did night school for my Certificate IV while still an apprentice, then a Diploma in Building and Construction at Victoria University while working on the tools.
- 2017
I thought I'd made it
I passed my VBA licence interview with flying colours and figured that was it. It turned out to be just the start, and for a while I knew something was still missing.
- 2019
The course that questioned everything
I'd first read about Passive House as an apprentice, but as a young bloke a trip overseas won out over a building course. When I finally did the training in 2019 it challenged everything I'd ever built, and I walked out knowing it was the way forward.
- Late 2019
We went cold turkey
I changed the whole direction of the business. From then on we only took on Passive House and high performance projects and turned away everything that didn't fit. Saying no to paying work when you run a small business is scary and full of unknowns, but I knew it would work. It did.
The standards are not good enough, but we are
My science background never left me. It's why I look at a house the way a doctor looks at a body: what's the air doing to you, what's growing inside the walls, and what does living there do to your family over twenty years?
A home should make you healthier. Most Australian homes don't, because they're glorified tents built to a minimum standard that's years out of date, and somewhere along the way we all just accepted it. I haven't.
I also don't see durability and energy efficiency as two different things. A home that doesn't rot, leak or fail is a home that doesn't have to work hard to stay warm.
What I'm against, so you know exactly what I'm for
Runs on the board
I didn't just build one for a client. I built one for my family.
I have asthma and allergies to dust, pollen and grass, and we live in Yarraville, where independent monitoring recorded fine particle pollution at more than double the World Health Organisation's safe annual limit. Plenty of people would take that as a reason to move. We built Pigeon Passive House instead.
At 5am on a winter morning it's 3 degrees outside and 21 inside, without me touching a thing, and the air my family breathes is filtered all day, every day. So when a client asks what a Passive House actually feels like to live in, I don't reach for someone else's story. I tell them mine.
You'll fit right in if...
- You've lived in a cold, draughty house and sworn never again
- You'd rather hear the truth than be sold a dream
- You read the fine print and you ask why
- You care what your home does to your family's health, your power bills and the planet
- You want a builder who's a mate by handover, not just a name on an invoice
Work isn't my whole life
I grew up in Williamstown and I've got a close network of family and friends who keep me grounded. My wife is my best friend and the marketing brains behind most of what we do, and we're dog parents to Charli, our cheeky bernedoodle, who you'll spot in half our photos, usually chewing on a leftover roll of Pro Clima tape.
I try to get somewhere new every year, I still stupidly play footy, and I've suffered as a Carlton supporter for as long as I can remember (please don't hold it against me). I'll also never say no to a good whisky, especially a Tasmanian one.
The plan from here
I want every home we build to be at or close to a certified Passive House, and I want clients to be able to design and build with us under one roof without ever dropping below that standard.
Outside our own jobs, I'll keep pushing the industry through The Mindful Builder podcast and everything we share on Instagram, until building this way is normal rather than niche. The promise is simple: I'll be better with every project, and I'll keep working out what sustainable really means in this industry.
You're not buying a house. You're trusting a person.
I live in what I sell
My family's health is riding on the same building science I'll use on your home.
I'll tell you when not to spend
If something adds cost without adding performance, I'll tell you to delete it, even when it's money in my pocket.
I test it, I don't guess it
Every certified home we build is blower door tested and independently certified, so you get a number, not a promise.
I'm in the room early
I'm the estimator and I sit alongside your architect from the start, so the budget and the design grow up together.
That's enough from me
I'd rather tell you the rest over a coffee.