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The Hawea Flat Passive House in the middle of the South Island is a very special home. It boasts a number of ‘firsts’ for New Zealand and the journey of its creation has arguably changed more than just the way Jonathan Holmes lives.
Jonathan used to work for Contact Energy, where among other things, he sold solar photovoltaic systems. He reflects that it felt strange sometimes to not be doing efficiency first, instead of “bolting on a power station”.
Passive House Introduction
When he first attended some early Passive House events Jonathan explains that he felt a bit strange walking into a room or architects and designers. Jonathan is not one. He was an accountant and an auditor and then had some IT experience. In all this previous work he did what he describes as “process improvement”, something that’s sorely needed in the building industry.
Build a Great Team
Jonathan also attributes his previous career successes to the assembling of great teams. This is directly transferable to any building project, but particularly relevant to a Passive House project.
By virtue of living in Central Otago, Jonathan says he was blessed with a good selection of experienced Passive House Designers and Consultants. Many of them have featured on the Home Style Green podcast. He took advantage of this skill to assemble his own great team for his passive house project. Among them were the architect and Passive House Designer, Rafe McLean and one of New Zealand’s most experienced airtightness testers, Denise Martin.
For a photographic journal of suppliers and consultants, be sure to check out Jonathan’s impressive Hawea Flat Passivhaus Facebook Page.
Research
Jonathan taught himself a lot for this project, largely using resources he found online. One of his favourites is the 30×40 Design Workshop YouTube Channel. He got a lot of information for little or no cost. For example, one company in the UK sent reams of documents explaining the complexity of working with green oak timber. He reached out to people who have done similar work and he brought these ideas together to make something truly special.
Working with Timber
Timberworks is a small company that Rafe Mclean had worked with previously. They helped a lot with the design of the oak frame, which was pretty much all done in Sketchup in a single forty eight hour period.
Hawea Flat Passive House
The Hawea Flat Passive House is New Zealand’s First Passive House Premium building and the first oak frame building in the country. Jonathan Holmes now works as a Passive House Consultant with Elrond Burrell at Via Architecture. He has provided a huge amount of information and inspiration on the Hawea Flat Passivhaus Facebook page.
“Why does anyone build a house any other way?”
Jonathan Holmes
