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PASSIVE HOUSING FOR QUEENSTOWN

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October, 2021

Queenstowner Josh Atkins didnt just want to build a home using passive
house principles, he wanted to share it with the world.
As a result, Atkins co-director of building company Compound is
producing a YouTube video series on building a sustainable home on a
480 square metre hillside section at Arthurs Point he and his brothers
bought last year.
The first 20-minute episode landed late last month with another four to
come every six weeks or so.
Atkins says the series, inspired by the Grand Designs TV show and shot
by local filmmaker Paul Rayner, is aimed at educating builders/tradies,
architects and designers and home owners and real estate agents.
Hes passionate about building healthy homes, not just for humans but
also for the environment.
It can be more expensive to build a healthier home, however there is a
payback in terms of operating costs and efficiencies in design that can
also balance out the equation.
The key is to have a knowledgeable builder involved in the process as
early as possible.
Atkins says every corner of the home, Moonlight Tui, designed by local
Team Green Architects, will be 20 degrees 24/7, and in winter Ill need
to put a 2-kilowatt panel heater on for maybe an hour when its minus
10 outside.
He maintains its about employing the five passive house principles
which come back to basic science.
Hoping to educate: Josh Atkins is illustrating his sustainable build of an
Arthurs Point house through a video series
Though over-investing in the build, it just falls short of passive
certification due to budget constraints.
Noting the current New Zealand building code is shocking in terms of
its low minimum
threshold, he says one of his dreams would be to pull down some of
the older housing stock in central Queenstown thats cold and
unhealthy, then do duplexes and townhouses where you can have the
people that fuel the city in hospo, and that, living in healthy
environments.
You dont walk out in winter in a jacket with holes all through it, but
thats what our houses are like.

Source: Mountain Scene