There are many ways до measure the success of a building: awards, beautiful photos, resale value, even how many likes a проєкт gets online. But для our team, the most important “review” we have ever received came as a phone call від a клієнт during the war в Ukraine.
This story is not about дизайн awards або marketing. It is about why we believe deeply в енергоефективний, resilient houses – і why this has become part of our company’s DNA.
How we started: energy was cheap, motivation was low
We have been дизайнing і building very енергоефективний, passive-level houses для around ten years, primarily в Ukraine. When we started, energy prices were low. Electricity was cheap, gas was cheap, і для most клієнти there was almost no real “pain” around energy bills.
From a клієнт’s perspective, there was simply no urgent reason до invest в something exceptionally warm або efficient. People wanted a comfortable, “normal” house, built within a certain бюджет – not a technical experiment в energy performance.
By that time, we were already creating houses that effectively reached passive-house standards і even set two national records для енергоефективність в Ukraine. Technically, the buildings were far ahead of the market. Emotionally, the market was not yet there.
клієнти did not come до us saying, “We want the warmest, most efficient house you can дизайн.” They came з very down-to-earth requests: solid будівництво, good planning, reliable contractors, predictable budgets.
So our message at that time was modest і pragmatic:
For the same бюджет, our houses are warmer і at least as good as what everyone else is building.
We knew how far we were pushing the огороджувальний контур в terms of теплоізоляція, герметичність і detailing. We cared about містки холоду, carefully дизайнed junctions, high-quality windows і doors. But cheap energy kills motivation: true efficiency was often perceived as a nice bonus rather than a necessity.
When energy prices rose і reality changed
A few years later, everything began до shift. Energy prices started до rise. для the first time, many of our клієнти sat down з a calculator і seriously compared different scenarios.
Some of them realised that the cost of проєкт documentation і connection до gas was actually higher than the cost of heating our houses з electricity для five years. This very simple comparison was a turning point.
Для us as a team, it was a powerful moment of validation. all those years of:
– obsessing over містки холоду і теплоізоляція levels,
– carefully detailing envelopes і junctions,
– working on герметичність,
– explaining our approach at будівництво fairs,
– arguing з contractors about “invisible” details,suddenly started до make obvious financial sense для our клієнти as well. What had previously been an “ideological” choice now became a very practical one.
We felt this shift very clearly at будівництво 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 енергоефективність, showing details і calculations.
By the evening, everyone had lost their voice. But для the first time, people were not just looking at renderings або фасади – they were truly interested в what was hidden inside the walls і how the building would behave years later.
And then the war began.
Bucha: a month without heating в winter
One of the houses we had built was located в Bucha. It was a fully electric house: no gas, no fireplace, no backup boiler – all комфорт depended on electricity. для us, it was another high-performance, all-electric проєкт. для the family living there, it was simply their будинок.
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 для about a month.
For that entire month, we heard nothing від the власники. We did not know if they had stayed або left, if they were safe або not. Like many people at that time, we were watching the news, worrying about our клієнти, our colleagues, our friends – і we simply had no information.
Then, one day, the власник finally managed до call us.
He did not call до complain.
He called to say thank you.
Here is what happened inside that house, в numbers.
Before the blackout, the family kept the indoor temperature at about 23°C – a comfortable level для everyday life. When the power was cut, neighbouring “normal” houses, built до typical standards, cooled down very quickly.
Within just a few days, temperatures в those houses fell до around +8°C inside. Without heating, their walls, floors і roofs could not hold the warmth для long.
In our house, the behaviour was completely different. The temperature dropped від 23°C до 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, в a house that stayed between 16–18°C inside without any source of heat.
For comparison, some members of our team are now living в the UK, where +18°C is considered a normal “heated” indoor temperature в many будинки. в Bucha, that same level of комфорт was maintained для 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 до survive, до adapt, до make decisions – supported by the thermal stability of their будинок.
Closing thoughts: resilience, responsibility і why we still push для 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, дизайн awards або glossy photographs. It was about resilience, safety і human life.
It also confirmed something we care about deeply on a personal level:
It is extremely important для us до spend our lives doing work we will not be ashamed of в front of our future grandchildren.
When we imagine explaining our work до them one day, we do not want до talk only about beautiful фасади або trendy інтер’єрs. We want до be able до say that we helped build будинки that kept people safe і warm, even в the worst situations. будинки that gave families time і protection when everything around them was unstable.
Since that moment, we have completely stopped thinking of енергоефективний, passive-level envelopes as “a nice extra if you can afford it”. для us, they are a fundamental part of responsible архітектура і будівництво.
A well-insulated, airtight, thermally massive house:
– buys you time в a crisis,
– keeps your family comfortable і safe для longer,
– і can turn “no heating для a month в winter” від a potential disaster into something survivable.
For our team, this is no longer a theoretical concept. It is a lived reality, confirmed by a клієнт’s voice on the phone після a month в the dark, в winter, в a passive-level house we дизайнed і built.
This is why, wherever we work now – whether it is Ukraine, the UK, Spain, Portugal або any other country – we continue до push для енергоефективний, resilient buildings. Not because it sounds good в marketing, but because we have seen what it really means when everything else fails.
