Passivhaus
Cooks Hill
Agathē brings certified Passivhaus performance to Cooks Hill — terrace renovations that keep the character and lose the cold.
Agathē brings certified Passivhaus performance to Cooks Hill — terrace renovations that keep the character and lose the cold.
A certified Passivhaus is measured, not promised. An airtight, highly insulated envelope with continuous filtered fresh air keeps the whole home within a few degrees year-round — without leaning on air conditioning. The result is a home that is quiet, free of draughts and condensation, dramatically cheaper to run, and independently certified to perform exactly as designed.
Cooks Hill is Newcastle's terrace suburb — Darby Street at its centre, galleries and pubs on the corners, and street after street of Victorian terraces that professionals have been lovingly restoring for decades. Terraces have a particular physics problem: single-skin walls, chimneys in every room, unsealed floors over damp subfloor voids, and a long, narrow footprint that daylight and fresh air struggle to reach. Charm, with draughts fitted as standard. A Passivhaus-principled renovation works with the terrace rather than against it — seal and insulate the envelope, ventilate every room continuously with filtered heat-recovery air, upgrade the glazing in the right order rather than first. The transformation is disproportionate: warm hallways, dry walls, quiet rooms, small bills. The terrace stays a terrace — it just stops behaving like one.
Builder-led delivery of custom homes and Passivhaus builds, managed end to end.
Start the right way with our PAC-certified process — aligning design, budget and timeline before you build.
We work alongside your architect from the first sketch, so Passivhaus performance is designed in, not bolted on.
Scandinavian-inspired homes and cabins built to a healthy, high-performance standard.
Partial to full-scale renovations that transform your existing spaces into healthy, beautiful family living environments.
From design to delivery, we manage every detail for a smooth, on-time, on-budget build.
Yes. AGATHĒ builds architectural custom homes and Passivhaus projects across Newcastle and the Hunter, including Cooks Hill. Our team includes a Certified Passivhaus Tradesperson, we are members of the Australian Passivhaus Association, and every project starts with our structured pre-construction process so design, budget and performance targets are resolved before construction begins.
Often, yes. Older homes in Cooks Hill typically leak through chimneys, wall vents, floor boards and door gaps — the character came with draughts fitted as standard. The encouraging news is that airtightness, insulation and ventilation can be improved dramatically while keeping the fabric that makes these homes worth owning.
The order of works matters more than the budget: seal and insulate first, ventilate deliberately second, upgrade glazing third. We plan that sequence properly before any work starts.
Only as part of a sequence. New glazing in a wall that still leaks air around it delivers a fraction of its promise — the envelope works as a system, and the weakest layer sets the result.
Done in the right order — seal, insulate, ventilate, then glaze — high-performance windows transform an older home: warmer, quieter, condensation-free. Done as a standalone purchase, they mostly transfer money to a window company. This is why we assess the whole envelope before recommending anything.
The same physics that keeps heat in keeps noise out. Sound rides on air leaks — every gap around a window or door is an open channel for the street — and single glazing is barely a barrier at all.
A Passivhaus envelope is sealed and heavily insulated, with thick multi-layer glazing, so the acoustic result is striking: the outside world drops to a murmur. It is the benefit Cooks Hill clients mention first after moving in, even though almost nobody asks for it up front.
It is the exam a Passivhaus has to pass. A fan pressurises the home and measures exactly how much air leaks through the envelope — certification requires no more than 0.6 air changes per hour, one of the strictest airtight construction standards in the world.
The point is proof. Anyone can claim a home is well sealed; a blower-door result is measured by an independent tester. It is the difference between a promise and a certificate — and it is why a certified Passivhaus performs exactly as designed.
Yes — any window, any time. The difference is that a Passivhaus does not depend on open windows to stay fresh. The heat-recovery ventilation system supplies filtered fresh air around the clock, so the home stays comfortable and healthy even when it is sealed against a southerly, a heatwave or a week of rain.
It depends on the design, the site and the performance target, which is why we resolve cost early rather than guessing. Our pre-construction process starts with an early feasibility estimate against your concept plans, so you know whether the project is viable before committing to full documentation.
Running costs then work in your favour: a certified Passivhaus needs a fraction of the heating and cooling energy of a conventional home.
Often, yes — the certification pathway for existing buildings is called EnerPHit, and it is genuinely demanding work: airtightness, insulation and ventilation all have to be re-engineered together. Not every home is a candidate, and we will tell you honestly if yours is not.
Many renovations land on a middle path: applying Passivhaus principles and components where they deliver the most benefit, without pursuing full certification.
Whether you are at the early thinking stage or ready to move, we are happy to have an honest conversation. No obligation. We will tell you if we are not the right fit.