About Passivhaus HUB
Everyone deserves a healthy, comfortable home they can afford to live in.
At Passivhaus HUB, we teach designers and tradespeople how to turn that belief into better building decisions. Our work brings together experience from the building site, architecture and building science, with a shared determination to make a difference.
Our ambition
Housing is asking more and more of people's lives, earnings and futures. We refuse to accept that the answer is to lower expectations of comfort, health or safety.
We need to rethink how homes are designed and delivered. Better planning, intelligent prefabrication and more efficient construction should help make quality housing accessible to more people.
“We didn't develop cars by improving horses.”
That is how we think about the change our industry needs.
For us, Passivhaus provides the building-science foundation: understanding how to create buildings that protect comfort and health while keeping energy demand low. Smarter design and delivery must help make that quality more affordable.
Our part is to give building professionals the knowledge and confidence to move this forward, project by project.
The people behind the teaching
Different experience. Shared determination to make better buildings possible.
Founder & Head Trainer
Daniel's experience spans carpentry, prefabrication, civil and structural engineering, and sustainable-building research. He brings a practical question to everything he teaches: how does this work when someone actually has to build it?
His belief that we can always do better is the starting point for Passivhaus HUB.
Senior Trainer & Certified Passivhaus Designer
Julia brings architectural experience from Melbourne, Perth and Darwin, connecting Passivhaus principles with the climates and design challenges professionals face in Australia.
A Certified Passivhaus Designer since 2018, she joined the teaching team in 2020. Her teaching helps students understand how design decisions connect to building performance and everyday comfort.
Daniel's journey
From childhood shelters in Germany to construction sites in Ireland and Passivhaus research for Perth, Daniel has kept asking how buildings could work better.
01 · Germany
At six, I was already building shelters. One experiment with electric lighting nearly set one on fire. My curiosity was clearly ahead of my electrical knowledge.
By ten, I was helping turn an old farmhouse into our family home, getting involved in demolition, mixing concrete and installing plasterboard.
02 · Germany & Ireland
Carpentry took me from Germany to construction work in Ireland, including large-scale modular building.
A decade in construction taught me to look beyond the drawing. Someone has to put the building together, and the decisions made on site stay with it for years.
03 · Engineering & research
I wanted to understand more of the science behind what I was building. That led to master's degrees in civil and structural engineering and work on a European sustainable-building research project.
Practical experience and building physics started answering each other's questions.
04 · Perth research · 2015
My thesis investigated Passivhaus design for Perth, Western Australia. More than 600 PHPP variations helped me explore how design decisions affected the reference home's performance.
It brought the science back to a practical question: what would work here, and why?
05 · The classroom
Teaching brought those experiences together. Through Smart Plus Academy, now Passivhaus HUB, I could share what I had learnt with people who would take it into their own projects.
Julia brought her architectural experience to the teaching team in 2020. Together, we keep refining how the ideas are explained, practised and connected.
06 · Still asking
That question still drives me. Better explanations. Better building decisions. Better ways of making quality housing possible.
Every student brings another opportunity for that knowledge to reach the next project.
Built with care
We have poured our experience, energy and a fair bit of ourselves into these courses.
The drawings, explanations, exercises and reference materials have been developed with care, then revisited as students show us what helps, what needs explaining differently and where people get stuck.
Our approach is constant, never-ending improvement. Clearer explanations. Better examples. Stronger connections between ideas.
We want the next person learning with us to benefit from everything the previous students have taught us.
Enlarge course material
A qualification matters. What you can do with the knowledge matters long after the exam.
That is why you work through drawings, calculations and decisions yourself. The recorded teaching introduces the ideas; the homework gives you the opportunity to put them to work. Later, the retrofit module brings those ideas together in a different context.
The aim is understanding you can carry into your next project, whether or not it seeks Passivhaus certification.
What we stand for
“We've always done it this way” deserves a better conversation. We look at the evidence and stay willing to change our minds.
Buildings shape people's lives for decades. Health, comfort, affordability and environmental responsibility belong in the same decision.
Designers and tradespeople bring different experience. We value both, welcome questions and learn from the people we teach.
A viable business can keep doing useful work. We also care about what its success makes possible for others.
What we do
Passivhaus HUB provides PHI-accredited Designer and Tradesperson training, with certification packages for those preparing for the official exam.
You can start with a free course preview or Passivhaus 101, then keep learning through Passivhaus Weekly.
Our full Designer and Tradesperson courses combine recorded teaching, practical exercises, downloadable resources and teacher support.
For architects, building designers, engineers and other professionals making design decisions.
Explore the Designer course
For builders, carpenters, installers and site supervisors putting the details into practice.
Explore the Tradesperson courseBeyond our courses
Teaching is our everyday contribution. We have also supported organisations working to improve access to education and strengthen community wellbeing.
Past contribution · 2020
In 2020, Smart Plus Academy donated A$5,040.52 to Bright Futures of Bardia, supporting its work to improve educational opportunities for children in Nepal.
Learn about Bright Futures of BardiaPast contribution · 2020
In 2020, Smart Plus Academy donated A$4,496.54 to Red Dust, supporting its work alongside Aboriginal communities to strengthen the health and wellbeing of young people and families.
Learn about Red DustYour next step
Explore a free Designer or Tradesperson course preview and get a feel for our materials, learning platform and approach.