Passivhaus Design
Your health is worth the investment
Do you want your dream home to last, be healthy, AND cost very little to run? Passivhaus is for you!
As a Certified Passivhaus Designer, we saw the significant flaws in contemporary Australian construction. Homes are full of mould, draughty, full of toxic building materials and finishes, and cost of fortune in utility bills! Passivhaus buildings are done right - they have a much higher standard to save you money and stand the test of time.
We service Toowoomba, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and Byron Bay regions.
Quality Passivhaus Design
Offering complete Passivhaus design services in Toowoomba, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, and Byron Bay regions, plus remote services throughout Australia.
Here’s a secret - the Australia Standards and Building Code are minimums… the bare minimum we have to meet to comply! So you’re paying around a million for a new home in Australian cities (or more!), for home that just passes. It’s expensive to run, leaky, probably contains mould, and you shouldn’t settle for this.
That’s where Passivhaus design comes in. It offers the high standard and quality you deserve, with long-term benefits, all while slashing up to 90% of your heating and cooling bills.
The architectural details revolve around the core passive house principles:
Air tightness - draughts are no more when we meet under 0.6 air changes an hour (the average house has 10-20 air changes per hour, that’s a lot of wasted heating and cooling!).
Insulation - the correct type and amount of insulation is incorporated.
Thermal Bridge Free - these are weak spots where draughts still come in. These are eliminated architecturally.
Mechanical Ventilation - air is filtered to maintain a healthy environment.
Quality Doors and Windows - as the weakest element of a wall, these are specified and installed to suit your home’s design.
One step at a time
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We schedule an Initial Consultation with you to discuss your vision and the specifics of your site. We will learn and understand your priorities and desires, and discuss the ins and outs of Passivhaus design. This Consultation is a fixed fee, paid in advance to the meeting.
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Following the Initial Consultation, we take all of the information learnt back to our studio and formulate a formal Fee Proposal for you. This includes the proposed scope, deliverable, and fee. If you choose to proceed with the Fee Proposal, the Initial Consultation’s fee is 100% credited back within the project’s fees.
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Upon accepting your Fee Proposal, the Concept Design Phase commences. This typically includes preliminary sketch planning, ‘look and feel’ direction, and deeper investigation in the site opportunities and constraints. We look into the preliminary requirements for Passivhaus, including the climate, site, layout and orientation specific to your project. We then present this to you for your feedback and thoughts.
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The Design Development phase then commences. This is where we start to incorporate the previous Concept Design into our BIM and Passivhaus software. Preliminary drawings, finishes and selections are presented to you.
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If a Development Application is required for your project, we’ll develop all the required documentation for submission to council.
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We then further develop and finalise the required drawings and schedules for your project come to life, including quality assurance, inspections, and project admin. All final calculations are made with our Passivhaus software and detailing. It can be helpful to have a Passivhaus builder on board throughout the project to guide with costing and the like. But don’t worry! If you don’t have a builder selected, we can help with that.
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We open the door to your brand-new healthy home sanctuary, yours to enjoy!
Strategic Passivhaus architecture and design saves your time, money, and sets you at ease, knowing you’re making the best decision for your family home.
We don’t ‘green-wash’ low toxin and sustainable design. More commonly today, low tox and environmentally-friendly are buzzwords thrown around because they’re trendy.
But here’s the truth. Sustainability focuses on the environment, not your health. And ‘low tox’ interiors rarely encompasses more than ‘low VOC.’ So we’ve made it our mission to do better, to provide you with better.
Our unique but integrated services (and collaborations) allow us to offer holistic:
Architectural design
Interior design
Passivhaus design
True low toxin and sustainable design
All of which provide you with a home that supports your wellbeing and stands the test of time.
Here’s what people say about our interior design services:
“Working with Sam was an absolute pleasure. She took the time to understand what we were hoping to achieve and provided a great insight into home design. The multiple design options all had a unique touch and we were able to combine ideas from all to finalise our future renovations. Highly recommended and will return for any future projects.”
Will H.
“Dealing with Sam was a pleasure, understood my needs, provided invaluable advice on my kitchen design, prompt, reliable and innovating approach to aspects I would never of thought of. even though all meeting conducted online Sam always knew what I wanted, incredibly happy with my plans. Highly recommend The Paradigm Room.”
Kerstin M.
Does your health and wellbeing matter to you?
Let’s create a paradigm shift together.
Call us now to discuss your project ideas. Next, we’ll arrange a formal consultation to see how we can combine interior design, creativity, and holistic health, to deliver an interior design project that will improve your life.