Project Overview
This home was designed for Pete, a civil engineer, and Renate, an artist and paediatric occupational therapist with with Kids Thrive Therapy, https://www.kidsthrivetherapy.com.au/..
Their brief called for a calm, family-focused home that supports creative work, child-friendly living and genuine long-term sustainability on a suburban site in Thornbury.
The design is organised around a central fern courtyard that connects every part of the house while bringing natural light deep into the plan.
The single-storey layout ensures the home is accessible and practical for a young family, with every room enjoying views or glimpses of surrounding gardens. Mature pine trees in the rear garden were retained as part of the landscape strategy.
The home is built from Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) providing exceptional airtightness and insulation continuity.
It is fully all-electric with a 10.8 kW rooftop solar PV system, heat recovery ventilation and triple-glazed thermally broken windows. A hydronic manifold and pipes were installed in the polished concrete slab for future heating if ever needed; in practice, the home has proved so comfortable that they have never been used. It was designed to meet the Passive House Low Energy Building Standard. Â
Project Details
- Location: Thornbury, Melbourne
- Project Type: New Family Home
- Standard: Passive House Low-Energy Building
- Construction: Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)
- Energy: All-electric, 10.8 kW solar PV
- Ventilation: Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV)
- Windows: Double-glazed, thermally broken aluminium
- Hot Water: Heat pump
- Slab: Low-CO2 GGBS concrete with future-ready hydronic manifold
- Completed: 2019
- Builder: Tony Dwyer, Dwycon
- Architect: Niall O Healaithe, Sunpath Architects
- Building Services: Fantech
- Photography by Sunpath
Completed Project
Courtyard Living
The central fern courtyard is the organisational heart of the home, connecting the living room, rumpus, hallway, master suite and kitchen dining areas. It functions as a hub of movement and daylight, and as a sheltered play space for the children. The rumpus room sits across the courtyard from the main living zone so that children can play independently while remaining visible from the kitchen.
The kitchen, living and dining zone is sunny and open to both the garden and the courtyard, connecting out to a full-width deck that is partially covered for alfresco dining and outdoor living. Other bedrooms and bathrooms open to the front garden, while the central and rear living areas receive warm northern sunlight through the triple-glazed windows.
A Practical and Creative Family Home
A carport with built-in workbench and roller-shutter storage supports bike maintenance, woodworking and art projects. Electric bike charging and secure bike parking are integrated beside it, directly encouraging sustainable transport every day.
Inside, the pantry and laundry are generous and cleverly integrated, with ample bench and storage space for preserving, pickling and cooking. A shared study area supports flexible work-from-home arrangements, while Renate’s love of craft and Pete’s practical tinkering are both served by dedicated workbench space and storage for art materials and tools.
Construction Method
SIPs Construction
The home is built from prefabricated Structural Insulated Panels providing a continuous, highly insulated and airtight building envelope.
SIPs construction was chosen for its precision, speed of assembly and inherent compatibility with low-energy building performance.
The factory-manufactured panels ensure consistent quality and tight tolerances at every junction.
Read our full guide to SIPs and Prefab. Â
Low Carbon Considerations
The ground slab uses low-CO2 GGBS concrete, polished as the finished floor surface. A hydronic manifold and underfloor piping were cast into the slab as a precaution against future heating needs. In practice, the SIPs envelope and heat recovery ventilation system maintain such stable indoor temperatures that the hydronic system has never been commissioned.
Two small reverse-cycle heat pump units are installed for extreme conditions but are rarely needed for more than an hour a day, even at the height of summer or winter.
This is a telling demonstration of Passive House thinking: design the envelope to do the work, and the mechanical systems become a safety net rather than a necessity.
The project was built by Tony Dwyer of Dwycon.
Concepts and Design Process
Designing Around a Courtyard
The concept began with the desire to create a single-storey home where every space has a relationship with the garden or landscape. On a suburban block, this is difficult to achieve with a conventional linear floor plan because the middle of the house becomes dark and disconnected from the outdoors.
The courtyard solves this problem. By placing a planted fern garden at the centre of the plan, every room can borrow light and views from it. The courtyard also creates a sense of spaciousness that belies the compact footprint: you are always aware of the sky, of greenery and of changing light, even in the middle of the house.
Form and Character
The design draws on Bauhaus principles, mid-century modernism and architects like Hans Scharoun. Simple cubic forms, projecting bays and strong horizontal lines define the exterior, particularly evident in the low-slung carport set against the larger volume of the house.
A bold and refined colour palette adds real character: a bright red door set within a sheltered yellow entry bay provides a joyful counterpoint to the otherwise monochromatic concrete exterior and minimalist detailing. These moments of colour and personality were developed closely with Pete and Renate, reflecting their creative sensibility.
Interior Palette
We worked closely with Pete and Renate to develop a palette of warm, joyful materials. Plywood wall linings and deep window reveals are finished with crisp shadow gaps, giving the interiors texture and a clean, considered aesthetic. The material choices are robust and low-maintenance while feeling warm and domestic rather than clinical.
Sustainability Features
Passive House Low Energy Enevelope
This home is designed as a Passive House low-energy building, achieving exceptional comfort and energy efficiency through the quality of its building envelope and systems rather than relying on oversized mechanical equipment.
The performance measures include:
A prefabricated SIPs building envelope providing continuous high-performance insulation and factory-controlled airtightness. The sealed, insulated shell maintains stable indoor temperatures across all seasons with minimal energy input.
Double-glazed, thermally broken aluminium windows selected and positioned for optimal solar gain and daylight. Northern glazing captures winter warmth while the courtyard design and roof overhangs provide effective summer shading.
Smart Building Features
Building Systems
A heat recovery ventilation system providing constant filtered fresh air to every room, recovering warmth from exhaust air and maintaining healthy indoor air quality year-round without needing to open windows.
A fully all-electric design with a 10.8 kW rooftop solar PV system generating a substantial proportion of the home’s annual electricity needs. Heat pump hot water provides efficient domestic hot water without gas.
A polished low-CO2 GGBS concrete slab with embedded hydronic manifold providing thermal mass and future-ready supplementary heating capability. In practice, the building envelope performs so well that the hydronic system has never been needed.
Two small reverse-cycle heat pump units installed for supplementary heating and cooling during extreme weather. These are rarely operated for more than an hour a day, demonstrating how effectively the passive measures reduce mechanical energy demand.
The home demonstrates that Passive House performance is achievable on a standard suburban site in inner Melbourne using SIPs construction, and that a well-designed low-energy home can be simultaneously comfortable, practical, beautiful and genuinely affordable to run.
Read our full guide to Passive House / Passivhaus here.Â
“We love it!”
Renate and Pete, Thornbury
Project Videos
We have compiled detailed videos of the project from concept to completion. Â
Click to visit our youtube channel. Â
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