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Maxa Design

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Award-winning designers of high-performance homes and certified projects in Australia. Best Sustainable Design - Residential.

Maxa design stunning, stylish buildings that are beautiful to live in, replete with character and personality. Your design brief, budget and lifestyle form the basis of our concepts and we strive to keep your dream alive throughout the design process. Maxa Design are passionate about designing innovative, energy efficient and environmentally sustainable homes. Whether we are enhancing an existing building or creating a unique response to a blank canvas, we embrace the opportunities you present to us. Maxa Design endeavours to develop lasting relationships with our clients through effective communication and by ensuring that we understand your vision. We believe you should enjoy the journey and adore the creation and by working collaboratively your vision will become a reality. Particular attention is paid to:
• Passive Solar design to naturally warm and cool your home
• Passivehaus design
• Energy saving measures so your house is cheaper to run.
• Water efficiency systems
• Responsible material selection

Recent Awards:
2016 NABD (National Association of Building Designers)
Best Residential Design, New Houses, $300-$500k Construction Cost. BDAV design awards:
Best Residential Design, New Houses, $300-$500k Construction Cost.

2016 Commendation:
BDAV design awards:
Residential Design Alterations & Additions, $200-$500 Construction Cost. Culvert House Trentham.

2015 BDAV design awards:
10 Star Sustainable Design Challenge
Excellence In Use of Steel.

2014 NABD (National Association of Building Designers):
Best Environmentally Sustainable Design.

2014 BDAV design awards:
Best Environmentally Sustainable Design
Residential Alterations and Additions $200-$500k build cost. Commendation:
New House $500k-$1m build cost. Finalist - BDAV 10 star challenge

2013 BDAV Design Awards
Best Residential Design Alterations & Additions up to $200K. Best Environmentally Sustainable Design
Finalists in the 10 Star Challenge

2013 Australian Timber Design Awards
Best Small Budget Renovation

2012 BDAV Design Awards
Finalists in the 10 Star Challenge

2011 BDAV Design Awards
Best Residential Design of a New Home up to $300k
Most innovative use of brick
Finalists in the 10 Star Challenge

31/10/2026

"Isn't an airtight house bad for you? Doesn't a house need to breathe?"

Most Australian homes "breathe" through gaps around windows, doors, floorboards, and downlights. That air leakage is uncontrolled. It lets in dust, pollen, smoke, and cold draughts, and your home's heating and cooling has to work a lot harder to keep temperatures stable.

A Passivhaus takes a different approach. We seal the building carefully, then give it a proper set of lungs: an MVHR system.

Instead of air sneaking in wherever it can, fresh air comes in through filters on purpose, in the right amount, to the right rooms. Stale air and moisture go out the same way.

That means:

▪️ Steady, filtered fresh air around the clock
▪️ Very low to zero dust and pollen counts, which can help during hay fever season
▪️ Much lower risk of condensation and mould
▪️ Much less energy wasted on heating and cooling

So yes, a house does need to breathe. It just works better when it breathes properly!

Want to know more about designing a high-performance home? Get in touch with our design team. We work across Australia, bringing sustainable, comfortable living to you.

You can also read our resources here:
https://www.maxadesign.com.au/resource

31/10/2026

Here's the claim: "A Passivhaus is so energy efficient that the cost to heat or cool an entire 100m2 house for a year is scarcely more than the energy used by a late-model fridge."

It's an impressive headline, but is it the truth?

Based on the Passivhaus annual heating demand limit and a modern reverse cycle split system, the 100m² home may use approximately 273–429 kWh of electricity each year for heating.

For comparison, a typical large modern fridge uses around 350–460 kWh per year.

How is it possible? Passivhaus design reduces the amount of heating a home needs through:

• High-performance insulation
• Exceptional airtightness
• Carefully designed windows
• Minimal thermal bridging
• Heat-recovery ventilation

There is some important context: this comparison applies to a 100m² Passivhaus and heating energy only—not the home’s total energy use or that the average new Australian home is approx 230m². The result will also vary with the efficiency of the heating system, climate and size of the home.

Even so, it demonstrates what a passive house approach can achieve: a comfortable, healthy home that needs remarkably little energy to stay comfortable.

So the claim isn't complete nonsense. It just needs a small home and a typical large model fridge to hold up!

30/10/2026

“Energy efficiency does not require a compromise in occupant comfort—not at all.”

— Dr Wolfgang Feist, founder of the Passive House Institute

Because some "occupants" cannot be compromised with!

25/10/2026

A high-performance home can make impressive promises. Passivhaus certification provides the independent evidence that those promises have been met.

Certification involves rigorous design modelling, careful documentation and verification throughout construction. It confirms that the completed home meets internationally recognised standards for energy efficiency, airtightness, thermal comfort and indoor air quality.

That means greater confidence that the home will perform as intended—not simply in theory, but in everyday life.

Passivhaus certification is more than a plaque or label. It represents attention to detail, accountability and a measurable commitment to creating a comfortable, healthy and energy-efficient home.

Got questions about Passive House? Reach out to our team.
https://www.maxadesign.com.au/contact-us

19/10/2026

If you run the same house through NatHERS and PHPP, the results tell two different stories.

If you're weighing up which path suits your project, call us. We'll explain the differences in plain language. We've also got resources on our website to help!

16/10/2026

Designing a home within an ecologically focused community means considering every decision as part of a much bigger picture.

Located within one of Australia's most ambitious environmentally focused land subdivisions, this home was required to meet 75 different Ecologically Sustainable Development principles. That meant addressing energy efficiency, solar power, water conservation, sustainable materials and best-practice construction from the earliest stages of design.

The result is a Certified Passive House where environmental responsibility is embedded into the architecture.

'Earth House' won the 'Building Design of the year' in 2020 which demonstrates that sustainability is as a genuine foundation for good design—not an addition made at the end.

Explore the Donvale project here - https://www.maxadesign.com.au/donvale

Builder: .com.au
Interior Design:
Rammed Earth:
Photography:
Passivhaus Certifier: .green

14/10/2026

Designing your dream home starts with being asked the right questions—and feeling that the answers have genuinely been considered.

These conversations reveal far more than a list of rooms or preferred finishes. They help uncover the experiences, priorities and aspirations that should shape the home.

We take the time to understand not only what our clients ask for, but why it matters to them. Those insights guide the decisions that follow, from the overall layout and environmental performance to the smallest practical details.

The result is more than a design. It is a home that reflects the people who live there—and feels like the dream they imagined.

10/10/2026

A Passive House should be more than an exercise in technical performance. It should be a practical, comfortable home that supports the way a family wants to live.

This completed home in Narre Warren successfully achieved Passive House certification—an important milestone that confirms the design and construction meet rigorous standards for energy efficiency, comfort and building performance.

For our clients, the real success is having a thoughtfully designed family home that delivers the outcomes they wanted, both now and into the future.

Handing over the certification in a project like this is the culmination of careful planning, detailed performance modelling and close collaboration throughout the project.

A wonderful result for our client and everyone involved in bringing the home to life.

08/10/2026

Thermal bridging can be largely invisible in a finished home—but its effects may be felt for years.

A thermal bridge occurs where heat can travel more easily through part of the building envelope. It commonly happens around windows and doors, balconies, structural connections and places where insulation is interrupted.

If these details are not carefully considered, they can contribute to:

• Unwanted heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer
• Colder internal surfaces and uneven room temperatures
• Increased heating and cooling demands
• Condensation, moisture and mould risk
• Reduced comfort and building durability

Addressing thermal bridging during the design stage allows junctions, materials and construction details to be assessed before they become difficult or expensive to change.

For Passive House and other high-performance homes, this forms an important part of creating a continuous thermal envelope.

Good performance is often determined by details you may never see.

If you're looking for experience in the finer details, our team are here to help.
https://www.maxadesign.com.au/passive-house-consulting

02/10/2026

What are you really paying for when you engage a building designer?

Is it simply a set of drawings and plans—or the thinking, understanding and experience behind every decision?

Before a line is drawn, your designer should understand how you want to live. Your priorities, routines, site, budget, environmental goals and vision for the future should all inform the design.

Our work goes beyond just producing drawings. We consider how the home will feel, function and perform; how spaces connect; how the site and climate can be used intelligently; and how each decision contributes to comfort, efficiency and long-term liveability.

The plans are an important outcome—but they are the result of a much deeper process.

Because a well-designed home shouldn’t simply look resolved on paper. It should feel like it was designed specifically for you.

Address

Blackburn, VIC

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

03 9013 0449 for both Melbourne and Brisbane

Website

http://www.maxadesign.com.au/

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