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The Passive Hive aims to increase community awareness about the importance to build sustainable and healthy buildings and to support local Government in the decision-making process to include Passive House design principles into their guidelines.

Passive Hive apart from typical architectural design and documentation services, offers consultancy and educational seminars and presentations about the key principles of the Passive House concept. We are an indoor generation and we need a sustainable, healthy and comfortable living environment to avoid common illnesses, and we know how this can be achieved in built environment.

We all live in a house or apartment, but most are not aware how unhealthy the indoor environment can be. Polluted air or mould and mildew can lead to asthma and other serious health problems.

Within our buildings we also use a lot more energy than necessary to keep them warm or cool because of poor building standards.

In Australia, buildings account for more than 23% of carbon emissions. Due to the lack of awareness of the problem standardised building methods are not sustainable, energy efficient and healthy. While building codes are slowly changing towards this direction, the possible solutions for both, professionals and community can bring the awareness of the world-wide adopted standards locally.

What is Passive House?

The Passive House is a rigorous, voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building’s ecological footprint. It results in ultralow energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.
Passive Houses deliver a healthy indoor environment that is comfortable in temperature and humidity, while using very little energy.
The technical definition is a building that can achieve thermal comfort by heating or cooling only the fresh air required to maintain a healthy indoor air quality.
If the decision makers and community understand the importance of the Passive design principles, the benefits will be manifold: local Government will be able to make informed decisions when investing in projects and can be leaders in the process of change.
By implementing this project, we could have a big positive impact on our environment and help the pursuit of the Act against climate change, bearing in mind that in Australia buildings are responsible for 23% of the total carbon emissions.

Presentations 

Presentation 1: Passive House Seminar – the Basics

Presentation 2: Healthy homes – Sustainable Building Assessment

Presentation 3: Building a sustainable House – Design Improvement Workshop

Presentation 4: Heart-based Home Design Seminar

Description of Presentations for Design Professionals, Sustainability Officers and wide community

Presentation 1: Passive House Seminar – the Basics

Learn more about the basics of Passive House and the Importance of building a sustainable house for our future.

The three main driving forces we are promoting are health, sustainability and comfort. It is of great importance to have these in mind when designing or upgrading our homes.  This educational session includes information about the impact of bad air quality, energy waste, air leakages and lack of comfort we and we are presenting the main 5 principles of Passive House standard as a solution to the problems we face in a typical Australian home.

Presentation 2: Healthy Homes – Sustainable Building Assessment

This seminar focuses on the houses we currently live in and gives an overview of the health risks you might be exposed to like bad indoor air or mould.

After explaining how buildings work and what contributes to a comfortable home you will be able to identify the cause of the problems.

We will then present solutions for every budget on how to improve your indoor environment and make positive changes to your life.

Presentation 3: Building a sustainable House – Design Improvement Workshop

For those looking at building a sustainable house but not sure where to start, this is a great workshop.

We will go through the 5 basic Passive House Principles and explain how they will make a positive impact on your new building, your health and the environment.

We will also talk about important factors like orientation, shading and compactness.

There will be an opportunity to bring your own plans if you already have any and get some initial ideas from us.

Further 1 on 1 consultation sessions can then be booked if required.

Presentation 4: Heart-based Home Design Seminar

The house we live in is a gift and we should use it to retreat from the demanding world outside and the fast pace of living.

We believe that a home is a sanctuary that we need to connect with.

By doing so, we can increase the quality of our lives, our enjoyment in the present moment and reconnect with ourselves in a space which shapes our daily reality.

In this seminar we will introduce you to the center of peace, calmness and joy you can always access and present solutions to build not only sustainable but also healthy homes for your mind and body.

We look forward to hearing from you!