Builder creates his family’s Passive House from scratch
Passive house, or Passivhaus, is a rigorous voluntary standard designed to create highly efficient, healthy, and sustainable buildings. G-LUX Builders director Jesse Glascott, a certified Passive House tradesman and founder of the Sustainable Builders Alliance, has taken this ethos to heart in his own home in Warrandyte. With no existing dwelling on the block, Jesse and his wife Monica were free to design from scratch, prioritizing both the strict principles of Passivhaus and a strong connection to nature. Their vision included superb insulation, airtight construction, high-performance windows and doors and a mechanical ventilation system, combined with natural light, exposed timbers and entertaining spaces like a pool with a repurposed shipping container pool house.
The result, refined in collaboration with architect David Halford, is Panel House, one of only a handful of certified Passivhaus Premium projects in Australia, the highest level of accreditation. Built with mass timber to minimize waste and time, and finished with Monica’s interior design choices, the home generates more energy than it consumes. Its northern orientation, eaves designed for seasonal solar control, a 41,000-litre rainwater harvesting and filtration system, and a 20kW solar PV array make it nearly self-sufficient. Visually striking yet highly livable, Panel House serves as a model for sustainable design and proof of what is possible when creativity meets rigorous energy standards.
