Nation’s First Passivhaus Townhouses Completed

In a leafy corner of a sought-after inner Melbourne suburb, eight townhouses have become part of the evolution of Australia’s housing market. At least that’s what C.Street Projects hopes as it delivers the nation’s first turnkey Passivhaus-certified townhouses at 360 Auburn Road, Hawthorn, 7km east of the Melbourne CBD. C.Street Projects, led by directors Kin Seng Choo and Michael Robertson, collaborated with Neil Architecture to create ECHO.1, bringing what the developers said was the world’s highest standard for energy efficiency to the local market. Designed to maintain 23C comfort year-round while drastically reducing energy use by 70 per cent, the townhouses would recoup their premium construction costs within a decade through dramatic energy savings, Kin Seng Choo told The Urban Developer. The properties feature continuous ventilation with fresh, filtered air to reduce allergens and pollutants, and will be notably quiet due to triple-glazed windows, which, along with straw panel insulation and airtight membranes, are part of the townhouses’ energy-efficiency features. Each home has EV chargers, and PV solar and battery storage, operating as net-zero energy buildings. The development was five years of work to scale certified Passivhaus projects for Australian conditions. “Passivhaus certification is the exemplary benchmark for high-performance building, recognised globally. While relatively new in Australia, this model is well established in Europe, the US and Canada,” Kin Seng Choo said. “Great architecture and material finishes must be paired with energy-efficient design and quality of execution. Building your own certified Passivhaus is daunting but ECHO provides a turnkey solution.” Kin Seng Choo said living in a Passivhaus “ will change your perspective on what’s important in a home—away from surface finishes to focusing on what’s under the hood and what true comfort really means.” ▲ Inside one of the ECHO.1 townhouses developer C.Street projects said were the first of their kind in Australia. Robertson estimated the Passivhaus premium on construction costs would be recouped in 8-10 years through energy savings and self-sufficiency from solar and battery systems. C. Street Projects is already planning future developments. “We have plans to construct another townhouse project, in Abbotsford commencing around May, targeting Passivhaus certification, and more projects are in planning,” Kin Seng Choo said. Meanwhile, build-to-rent developer MODEL has launched a $250-million Regenerative Decarbonisation Fund for sustainable projects , with plans to transform Abbotsford’s historic Schweppes Cordial factory into 180 Passivhaus-certified apartments. The $110-million development would use mass timber construction to halve embodied carbon and would reserve 10 per cent of units for affordable housing. “Our projects appeal to investors seeking higher returns alongside higher impact,” MODEL chief executive Rory Hunter said.

Nation’s First Passivhaus Townhouses Completed

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