There are many ways a measure the success of a building: awards, beautiful photos, resale value, even how many likes a progetto gets online. But per our team, the most important “review” we have ever received came as a phone call da a client during the war in Ukraine.
This story is not about design awards o marketing. It is about why we believe deeply in energy-efficient, resilient houses – e why this has become part of our company’s DNA.
How we started: energy was cheap, motivation was low
We have been designing e building very energy-efficient, passive-level houses per around ten years, primarily in Ukraine. When we started, energy prices were low. Electricity was cheap, gas was cheap, e per most clients there was almost no real “pain” around energy bills.
From a client’s perspective, there was simply no urgent reason a invest in something exceptionally warm o efficient. People wanted a comfortable, “normal” house, built within a certain budget – not a technical experiment in energy performance.
By that time, we were already creating houses that effectively reached passive-house standards e even set two national records per energy efficiency in Ukraine. Technically, the buildings were far ahead of the market. Emotionally, the market was not yet there.
Clients did not come a us saying, “We want the warmest, most efficient house you can design.” They came con very down-to-earth requests: solid costruzione, good planning, reliable contractors, predictable budgets.
So our message at that time was modest e pragmatic:
For the same budget, our houses are warmer e at least as good as what everyone else is building.
We knew how far we were pushing the envelope in terms of insulation, airtightness e detailing. We cared about thermal bridges, carefully designed junctions, high-quality windows e doors. But cheap energy kills motivation: true efficiency was often perceived as a nice bonus rather than a necessity.
When energy prices rose e reality changed
A few years later, everything began a shift. Energy prices started a rise. per the first time, many of our clients sat down con a calculator e seriously compared different scenarios.
Some of them realised that the cost of progetto documentation e connection a gas was actually higher than the cost of heating our houses con electricity per five years. This very simple comparison was a turning point.
For us as a team, it was a powerful moment of validation. All those years of:
– obsessing over thermal bridges e insulation levels,
– carefully detailing envelopes e junctions,
– working on airtightness,
– explaining our approach at costruzione fairs,
– arguing con contractors about “invisible” details,suddenly started a make obvious financial sense per our clients as well. What had previously been an “ideological” choice now became a very practical one.
We felt this shift very clearly at costruzione expos. When energy became more expensive, our booth was constantly full. There were days when nine members of our team stood at the stand, talking non-stop, explaining energy efficiency, showing details e calculations.
By the evening, everyone had lost their voice. But per the first time, people were not just looking at renderings o facades – they were truly interested in what was hidden inside the walls e how the building would behave years later.
And then the war began.
Bucha: a month without heating in winter
One of the houses we had built was located in Bucha. It was a fully electric house: no gas, no fireplace, no backup boiler – all comfort depended on electricity. per us, it was another high-performance, all-electric progetto. per the family living there, it was simply their home.
When the full-scale invasion started, that area lost power. No electricity, no heating, no internet, no mobile connection. It was winter. There was snow outside. The blackout lasted per about a month.
For that entire month, we heard nothing da the owners. We did not know if they had stayed o left, if they were safe o not. Like many people at that time, we were watching the news, worrying about our clients, our colleagues, our friends – e we simply had no information.
Then, one day, the owner finally managed a call us.
He did not call a complain.
He called to say thank you.
Here is what happened inside that house, in numbers.
Before the blackout, the family kept the indoor temperature at about 23°C – a comfortable level per everyday life. When the power was cut, neighbouring “normal” houses, built a typical standards, cooled down very quickly.
Within just a few days, temperatures in those houses fell a around +8°C inside. Without heating, their walls, floors e roofs could not hold the warmth per long.
In our house, the behaviour was completely different. The temperature dropped da 23°C a 21°C over the first week without any heating at all. Then, over the following weeks, it slowly moved towards 18°C. During the whole month, the indoor temperature never went below 16°C.
A family lived through a full winter month, under blackout, in a house that stayed between 16–18°C inside without any source of heat.
For comparison, some members of our team are now living in the UK, where +18°C is considered a normal “heated” indoor temperature in many homes. in Bucha, that same level of comfort was maintained per most of the month without any active heating at all.
For that family, the performance of the building was no longer about saving money on bills. It was about not freezing when the entire energy system around them collapsed. It was about having time a survive, a adapt, a make decisions – supported by the thermal stability of their home.
Closing thoughts: resilience, responsibility e why we still push per efficiency
For us as a team, that phone call became the most important feedback we have ever received about our work. It was not about aesthetics, design awards o glossy photographs. It was about resilience, safety e human life.
It also confirmed something we care about deeply on a personal level:
It is extremely important per us a spend our lives doing work we will not be ashamed of in front of our future grandchildren.
When we imagine explaining our work a them one day, we do not want a talk only about beautiful facades o trendy interiors. We want a be able a say that we helped build homes that kept people safe e warm, even in the worst situations. Homes that gave families time e protection when everything around them was unstable.
Since that moment, we have completely stopped thinking of energy-efficient, passive-level envelopes as “a nice extra if you can afford it”. per us, they are a fundamental part of responsible architettura e costruzione.
A well-insulated, airtight, thermally massive house:
– buys you time in a crisis,
– keeps your family comfortable e safe per longer,
– e can turn “no heating per a month in winter” da a potential disaster into something survivable.
For our team, this is no longer a theoretical concept. It is a lived reality, confirmed by a client’s voice on the phone dopo a month in the dark, in winter, in a passive-level house we designed e built.
This is why, wherever we work now – whether it is Ukraine, the UK, Spain, Portugal o any other country – we continue a push per energy-efficient, resilient buildings. Not because it sounds good in marketing, but because we have seen what it really means when everything else fails.
