Conference Day 1 & 2 | 30th & 31st July 2026
Our wonderful Conference Committee are still finalising some of the speakers so watch this space to see updates as they are locked in.
| Day 1, Thurs 30th July | Day 2, Fri 31st July |
| 8:50 am Conference Kicks off with Introductions and welcome | 9:00 am Conference Starts |
| 9:10 am International Keynote Speaker – Tomas O’Leary, Mosart (Ireland)
It’s just over two decades since Tomás built the first certified Passive House in Ireland (2004). Early interest didn’t translate into widespread uptake, but over time, improving Building Regulations helped lift performance expectations and lay the groundwork for change. The real shift came in 2020, when Passive House was introduced into planning policy, leading to a 546-home public housing project that proved it could be delivered at scale. |
9:10 am Whole Team Talk – Peachgrove Community Cohouse
With Ben Preston, Living Systems; Guy Shaw, Energy Architecture; Akash Kumar, Smith Architects; Phil Smith, Smith Architects and Rick Fourie, Living Systems Peachgrove East is a 48-unit cohousing neighbourhood aiming to become the largest Passive House certified project in New Zealand. Throughout this interactive session we’ll explore the design and context of Peachgrove East, and give participants an opportunity to engage with key members of the design team to dive deeper into aspects of the project and it’s approach to Passive House that interests them. |
| 9:40 am Speed Networking |
| 10:00 am Pecha Kucha – Designers/Builders A Sprint Through NZ’s Newest Passivhaus Projects The Ridge – Bahareh Amiri; Tra Dubh – Belen Aseguinolaza; The Loft | He Pae Atawhai – Claire Tod, Nicoll Place – Reshma Cherian | 10:00 am Pecha Kucha – Trade Suppliers Hear from our Experts on their latest product developments. |
| 10:40 am Morning Tea | 10:40 am Morning Tea |
| 11:10 am RetroPHit Workshop RetroPHit Workshops with Kara Rosemeier PHun facts: solving retrophit problems as a team Dealing with existing buildings while aiming for EnerPHit certification is the black belt of passive housing – and it’s best approached by a motivated, collaborative team where everyone brings their strengths to the table. We’ll carefully assemble teams to combine a broad range of experience, enabling the development of holistic detailing solutions and, ultimately, their integration into a coherent whole-house outcome. To support this, we’ll include liaison roles and roving experts alongside dedicated detail designers. But most of all, this is about the satisfaction of working together with like-minded people on a project that makes sense, and have some PHun on the way! | 11:10 am RetroPHIT workshop RetroPHit Workshops with Kara Rosemeier Continued from Day 1 Dealing with existing buildings while aiming for EnerPHit certification is the black belt of passive housing – and it’s best approached by a motivated, collaborative team where everyone brings their strengths to the table. We’ll carefully assemble teams to combine a broad range of experience, enabling the development of holistic detailing solutions and, ultimately, their integration into a coherent whole-house outcome. To support this, we’ll include liaison roles and roving experts alongside dedicated detail designers. But most of all, this is about the satisfaction of working together with like-minded people on a project that makes sense, and have some PHun on the way! |
| 12:40 pm Lunch | 12:40 pm Lunch |
| 1:10 pm PHINZ Update | 1:10 pm Workshop presentations In this session, we will hear back from the workshop groups on what conclusions and insights were gleaned on retroPHit solutions. |
| 1:30 pm Speed Networking |
| 1:50 pm Supplier Technical Workshops – Hands on sessions with the experts in their field | 2:00 pm Whole Team Talk – Builders Panel No Lone Wolves: Lessons and Team Secrets from the PH Frontline Panelists: Toby Tilsley Craft Homes; Igor Krasheninnikov, Helicon Construction; Jono Main; Trevor Breen, Breen Construction; Tom Worthington, PJ Builders How do you move from “standard” building to the precision of Passivhaus without the wheels falling off? It starts with the huddle. This session dives into the collective effort required to deliver New Zealand’s most recent Passive House projects. Our panel of builders will share “quick hits” of wisdom—the mistakes they’ll never make again, the communication tools that actually work on-site, and how they’ve seen architects, engineers, and trades work as a single, high-performing unit. Learn why teamwork is the most critical principle of the Passivhaus project. |
| 2:50 pm Speed Networking | 2:50 pm Keynote Speaker – Resident Builder Peter Wolfkamp Celebrating 40 years of success and moving from confrontation to collaboration with our building sector. |
| 3:10 pm Afternoon Tea | 3:30 pm Afternoon Tea |
| 3:50 pm Keynote Speaker: Jason Quinn Core Lessons from the PH RetroPHit Expert Class Retrofitting is much harder than building new. I’ve absolutely loved working with and teaching a great group of design and trades professionals from across New Zealand and Australia in our Retrofit Expert course. It is inspiring to see so many joyfully stepping up to turn thermal wrecks into awesome homes across our region. But here is the hard truth: if you get the physics wrong—particularly with internal insulation—you can make the building worse. In this session, we’ll cover the biggest takeaways from the course. We’ll look at navigating complex hygrothermal moisture risks , the magic in the EnerPHit component method, and how to sequence step-by-step EnerPHit renovations so you can deliver genuinely high-performing, healthy homes. | 4:10 pm Designer Collaboration Panel Join Tim Ross, Architype; Everett Norris, Everhomes; Elizabeth Guthrey, Design & Make Architects |
| 4:30 pm Keynote Speaker: Tom Webster, presenter of Grand Designs NZ Join Tom and PHINZ Chair, Joe Lyth for a fireside chat. | 5:00 pm Closing session |
| 5:20 pm Conference Day 1 concludes | 5:15 pm Conference concludes |
| 6:00 pm PHINZ Networking Event Don’t miss this fantastic and highly anticipated opportunity to network with your peers and meet new faces in the community. Build relationships that helps us to grow and expand our delivery of high-performance homes and projects across Aotearoa. |
