PASSIVE HOUSE

EXPERIENCE EXCEEDING THE STANDARD

When it comes to building multi-unit residential, commercial and institutional Passive House projects, you won’t find a more experienced construction team in Ontario than Schilthuis. We’re proactive, positive participants at every stage of the project, ensuring you achieve all your targets: budget, construction timeline, and air changes per hour.

We’ll suggest the best window supplier for a particular application. Figure out a way to achieve the straightest run of ducting in a complicated retrofit. Offer an alternative to a design detail that would add hundreds of thousands of dollars to a project. All without sacrificing energy efficiency.

It takes a team working together from the beginning to achieve Passive House certification. We’d love to be on yours.

WHAT IS PASSIVE HOUSE?

Passive House is an internationally accepted standard for energy efficient building that can be used for new builds and retrofit projects in residential, institutional and commercial settings. Achieving the standard requires careful, disciplined design and construction, with everyone from the architect to the tradesperson paying attention to every detail. Testing is done during construction to ensure the building is on track to achieve targets. The end result is a very comfortable and long-lasting building that costs 80 per cent less to heat and cool. Theoretically, a 200 sq. ft. room could be heated by 10 tea lights in the dead of an Ontario winter.

Learn more about Passive House

“We would’ve been okay with 0.6 air changes per hour (tested at 50 Pa), which is the Passive House standard. But we were out to crush it. And we did—on our last test we achieved 0.3.”

- Beth Schilthuis, Project Manager on Parkdale Landing

Our Passive House projects

Indwell - Parkdale Landing

multi-use units + food centre
Retrofit + new build

Parkdale Landing is one of the only multi-unit Passive House projects in Ontario. We first toured the former tavern, rooming house and banquet hall in winter, and inside the building it was colder than outside. When the project is completed in fall 2018, it will achieve the highest standard of comfort and cost savings for its tenants.

YWCA

50 residential units + programming space
New build

Ask ‘Y’ we got this 5-storey, 47,500 sq. ft. Passive House building project and we’ll give three reasons: our Passive House experience, our full-time Passive House consultant, and the fact that our PM was a woman. We’re scheduled to break ground in fall 2018. It’s a new build project, but we’ll be incorporating as many visual elements of the old YWCA building as we can.

Indwell - Hughson Street Baptist Church

45 residential units + church
New build

This beautiful multi-unit residential building and church is being built to Passive House standards on the site of a now-demolished unattractive office building. The church portion of the building includes a combination gym and worship space, featuring a gorgeous timber-beamed ceiling. Offices, a kitchen and classrooms are on the lower level. The residential portion of the building is four storeys high. The entire project is scheduled to be complete in fall 2019.

“It’s important to get it right the first time.”

- Josie Costantini, Passive House Consultant, Schilthuis

Our Passive House people

Taking a Passive House project from plan to finished building takes experience, enthusiasm and ingenuity. We’ve got all three on our team.

Josie Costantini Passive House Consultant

A certified Passive House consultant with a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Science and a Master’s degree in Building Science (almost) under her belt, Josie enjoys the creative problem solving of Passive House projects. Fluent in both architect-speak and builder-talk, Josie makes sure everyone is speaking the same language in the interests of timeline, budget and Passive House standards.

Phil Schilthuis Estimator

When you work with Phil, you’re working with one of Ontario’s most experienced commercial and institutional Passive House estimators. He thrives on the challenge of Passive House projects, ensuring he knows every drawing by heart so he’s aware of what needs to be done at each step of the project.

Bill Kerkhof Superintendent

It’s Bill who makes the Passive House architect’s vision come to life on site. From dealing with suppliers to mentoring trades who are new to Passive House techniques, Bill is quick to identify potential issues and always comes with a solution. His three decades of experience is complemented by training in multi-residential Passive House construction.

Beth Schilthuis Project Manager

To Beth, every Schilthuis project is built to the best standard possible, but she enjoys the challenge of achieving Passive House targets—give her a number to hit and she’ll swing for the fences. Passive House projects become even more rewarding for Beth when they benefit lower income families who may have never lived in healthy, comfortable housing with low energy bills.