My Why?
My Motivation
​​I am determined to effect some positive change in the world. If my work can improve the quality of life for others, I will be content.
Buildings should support our health and happiness. They can do this when they are comfortable and healthy to live in. When buildings are designed with these outcomes, they also use less energy, are more resilient to extreme weather and are more durable. We can build better for us and the planet.
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I am passionate about helping others to use building science to build better buildings. I do this using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) modelling tool. This is designed to ensure the building will be comfortable and healthy. It is independent of government (political) and industry influence and importantly it has been refined and verified with over 30 years of real-world data that the tool accurately predicts how building will work: this is unique in the world of building design.
By comparison the regulatory Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), simply provides a comparative performance benchmark with the regulatory star rating of the thermal performance of homes. It has many questionable assumptions built into the modelling (and many less well-known compromises) that mean whilst it fulfils the regulatory role it is compromised in its ability to predict real world outcomes. There is no real-world verification of this modelling.
I love to work with owners, designers and builders, anyone who wants to build better. I offer access to the world's best building science tools and knowledge to achieve the optimal design balance for your goals.
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My Who
​​I have worked as a Physiotherapist for over 20 years, largely in public health working with older persons in their homes after being in hospital. I have seen how our new and existing buildings are inadequate to support people when they have less capacity to cope with both poor indoor air quality (dampness, cold and mould) and poor thermal comfort (too cold and too hot). Even when young and healthy we suffer more asthma than most of the rest of the developed world; increasingly this is being understood to be linked to the poor standard of our buildings. When the world shifted to working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic we all understood just how poor our buildings are in supporting us.
In 2017 my family and I lived in Sweden for six months and in visiting my wife's relatives throughout Scandinavia understood just how comfortable (and healthy) buildings could be. I became aware of the Passivhaus approach to building comfortable, healthy buildings and in 2020 ended up studying and gaining certification as a Passive House Consultant.
In 2023 I decided to change course and follow my curiosity to be involved in making buildings work better and completed a Diploma of Building Design. I was aghast as the absence of any building science that I had been exposed to in the Passivhaus world in this training. Building science is new to Australian design and construction.
I have consulted on Passivhaus buildings and can compare this to building to meet the minimum regulatory requirements and the two are utterly different. Passivhaus is based on building science that is designed to achieve a healthy and comfortable building, NatHERS 7 star that meets the requirements of the National Construction Code (NCC) is not and is unlikely to ever achieve this outcome.
I have been advocating for the use of building science (knowledge and tools that the rest of the world use) to be used to inform our regulatory system (the National Construction Code) and will continue to do so as it matters for all of us and the planet we live on.
We can't keep doing business as usual.