The Challenge

An unconventional lot. An exceptional standard.

The client had two things working against a simple build: an odd-shaped lot and a meaningful slope. The lot's irregular geometry meant a conventional footprint would waste usable square footage, so the house had to be designed around the land, not the other way around. The slope required careful grading work to make the lot fully functional as a living and outdoor space.


On top of that was the goal of Passive House certification, one of the most rigorous energy performance standards in residential construction. The certification requires airtightness of 0.6 air changes per hour or less. Getting there demands zero shortcuts in the building envelope, vapour barrier, insulation, and window selection.

Our Approach

Built from the inside out. Sealed to the standard and then some.

We designed the house shape to maximize every square inch of the site, working with the lot's angles rather than against them. The foundation was poured as ICF (Insulated Concrete Form), giving an immediately high-performing thermal base to build from.


From there, the entire building envelope was constructed as a double wall system, two independent wall layers with continuous insulation between them, eliminating thermal bridging. Vapour and air barriers were installed with meticulous care throughout: not just to pass the blower door test, but to be genuinely airtight. Grading around the structure was engineered to ensure the lot functioned as a proper, level outdoor living space despite the natural slope.

THE RESULT

We did not just hit the standard. We nearly doubled it.

The blower door test is the definitive measure of a building's airtightness. Passive House certification requires 0.6 air changes per hour or less. We scored 0.37 ACH, well below both the certification threshold and our own internal target of 0.75 ACH. This puts the home in the top tier of any residential construction in the country for airtightness.

Beyond the numbers, the home features a loft staircase with open treads cut from a maple tree that had to come down during site preparation. Milled into slabs and fitted into a steel-string stringer, it is the kind of detail that only happens when a builder is paying attention to more than just the spec sheet.