The Positives of Passive Design

It’s so much more than the insulation you line your roof and walls with. It’s the placement of your windows and doors to help promote natural airflow and light throughout your home. It’s the way your property is orientated on your block. It’s the kind of building materials and landscaping elements around your home. It’s the glazing of your windows. It’s the amount of volume in your home, which Brett holds in higher regard than how large a property is in square metres. “Passive design is about creating buildings, spaces and habitats that are much more meaningful and healthy for the individual," says Brett. 

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Passive design rails against the traditional “one-size-fits-all” approach to a building’s layout. Which is why, Brett explains, it’s so accommodating to Australian homes. “Australia is such a vast country,” he says. “We’ve got contrasting climate zones, from very cold to arid to subtropical.” So it’s important to consider deeply the surrounding climate environment when designing your home. When you design it with that in mind your home won’t need to rely on artificial heating and cooling.

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In the long run, living in a house that utilises passive design principals can have fantastic financial benefits. Not having to use heaters in the winter or air conditioners in the summer helps, but so too does using solar panels to offset any electricity used. It all adds up financially, which is how Brett gets converts to passive design.

While passive design can have a huge effect on the way we live, showing its value to new clients is not without its challenges. “Fundamentally, it’s got to be about the financial benefits. You have to be able to show them the investment for today,” he tells us. “It’s about working out how you can bring them along on the passive design journey.”

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Insulation is a major contributor to good passive design, and the comfort of your home. Whether you’re in the process of designing a new build or renovating, Brett suggests putting passive design principles before most other decisions. His advice? “If you’ve got a choice between a really fancy granite bench top or insulation, invest in good insulation, because you won’t be able to add that in later.”

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Passive design extends beyond physical infrastructure – it can even have a positive impact on our sense of community. Recipe On Crowley, a Sustainable project, is one of the best examples of how passive design can foster a diverse community. The trio of houses in Zillmere, Brisbane, have been created to encourage three demographics that already live around the area: families, retirees, and young professionals. This cluster of homes, each one unique, have been designed with community spaces as well as complimentary privacy. “If we’re really going to drive true sustainability, we have to look at our existing villages and city communities,” Brett says.

Image credit: Sustainable