Matthew Wilkins
Architect & Sustainability Consultant
Kendall Kingscott
Course attended: Certified Passivhaus Designer - Jan 2025
What did you think of the course?
I enjoyed the broad nature of the course. The breadth of learning was fantastic and have an overview of services design, construction practices and economics that I never expected.
What was the key learning outcome for you?
I think the most important thing I learnt is how fine the lines are with a high performing building when you increase air tightness and insulation levels. The MVHR performance becomes critical as do the solar gains and the mitigation of other gains that might cause over heating. We have had clients assume that just by increasing u-values to walls and windows your heating demand problems are solved. This course has helped me better understand these implications and that PHPP is a fantastic tool to test these adjustments.
How will you apply what you learned?
It has really sharpened my technical knowledge and an appreciation of what good looks like for low energy, low impact sustainable homes. I have always felt that this is the building performance benchmark that I must have a sound understanding of prior to being able to offer clients advice on sound environmental design matters. The course was everything I expected and much more and really built on knowledge I had gained from an earlier masters in Environmental Design.
The breadth of learning was fantastic and have an overview of services design, construction practices and economics that I never expected. I would recommend it to anyone interested in sustainable architecture.
