Akira Living is a Passive House & Building Enclosure Consulting Firm with a cost-effective design process, empowering Architecture Firms to offer clients a high-performance, net-zero ready home today.  We provide project design assistance, full building enclosure consulting / design and energy modelling services for Passive House and Net Zero Home projects (Step 5 for Part 9 & Step 4 for Part 3 buildings in the BC Energy Step Code).  Akira Living becomes your trusted Energy Advisors and educators through both the design and construction process.

Contact us to schedule your Free Pre-Design Assessment today!

You have questions, we have building enclosure solutions!  Akira Living provides your design team with a head start on how to prepare and comply with the BC Energy Step Code.  Schedule a presentation today if interested.

Akira Living in collaboration with Apex Building Sciences Inc. (Building Enclosure Professional Engineers) have prepared a BC Energy Step Code Guide to help the preliminary energy model meet the building enclosure performance requirements.  Our solutions include cost effective strategies to improve building airtightness and anticipated exterior wall thicknesses to account for in floor plan design.  This guide will help your firm avoid costly drawing revisions and avoid high-risk construction assemblies.

This is a building enclosure first and mechanical systems second approach to building design.  Allowing building enclosure thermal resistance optimization in lieu of meeting prescriptive R-value minimums.  Transitioning into the BC Energy Step Code will prove to be easy when collaborating with the right building enclosure experts and Certified Energy Advisors.

At Akira Living, we share our Building Science expertise, resources and solutions with our Licensed Partners (Architectural Firms) empowering them to make beautiful buildings even better with a High-Performance Building Enclosure.  We make the transformation into the Passive House and High-Performance Building Sector fast, easy and affordable.  Attempting this without a highly trained Building Enclosure Consultant may prove to be a risky and complex endeavor.

HIRO & KAI are Wood-Framed High-Performance Building Enclosure Solutions derived from 1000+ of hours of research & development.  We have condensed formal education, work experience, technical course training, hygrothermal / condensation / R-value / thermal-bridge analysis, countless technical papers, dozens of books, case studies, seminars, conferences, high-performance building material presentations/reviews, and Professional Building Enclosure & Structural Engineering peer reviews compiled into cost effective solutions.  Both HIRO & KAI integrate the latest building material technology and air barrier systems without compromising our Design Philosophy.  And is easily incorporated into any wood-framed building in Cool Temperate & Cold Climates Zones (ASHRAE Climates Zones 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8).  Architecture Firms empowered with HIRO or KAI can free up time to focus on the fun stuff in building design.

We want to share the HIRO & KAI solution with Architectural Firms with aligned interests to evolve away from existing North American practices (conventional construction).  Our mission is to simplify the design process to help our Clients and Partners achieve their goals faster with building science that works.

• Save you 1000+ hours in research and development for the Design Team.
• Eliminate the trial and error approach to avoid costly building enclosure design mistakes.
• Eliminate the use of harmful and toxic building materials.
• Deliver a durable home that takes care of your Clients.
• Help you expand your services to secure more projects.
• Make the transformation to the Passive House and High-Performance Building Sector fast and easy.

Partnership with Akira Living will reinforce your team with expert building science advice to eliminate complexity, maximize efficiency, and fast track your ability to deliver a successful High-Performance Building or Passive House, while minimizing cost and risk.  Akira Living’s specialized experience on intelligent building enclosure design will save extensive time on research and development of the exterior assemblies and transition details.  A high-performance home that benefits the inhabitants’ health and overall quality is simple when partnered with Akira Living.  Refer to the DETAILS section for super-insulated construction assemblies (The Recipe) and airtight / thermal bridge free transition details (The Technique) available to purchase.  All the building enclosure guidance required to start designing High-Performance Homes today!

At Akira Living, we make Passive House objectives for high-end homes not only possible, but simple.  Any competent Architect can design a Passive House with thoughtful house planning paired with a thermal bridge free building enclosure and quality building components.  At Akira Living, we have simplified the design process by engineering Construction Assemblies and plug-and-play Detail Packages allowing Architects to create a High-Performance Home with confidence.

Training staff on Passive House design is an invaluable investment, but takes both time and money.  Alternately, you can integrate Akira Living services and solutions to make the Passive House transformation affordable for your company and new clientele.

A Detail Package will simplify how exterior transitions fit together with no more guess work by the trades on-site.  The Detail Packages available include minimum 43 common building enclosure transition details encompassing cost effective constructability, functional water shedding surfaces, and continuity of the required barriers (air, vapour, moisture and thermal).  A Builder with access to a Detail Package help visualise the required sequencing of materials to prevent costly mistakes.

Akira Living in partnership with Architects and Builders can create a home that benefits the inhabitants’ health and overall quality of life from day one.  A home that is more comfortable, with better indoor air quality, nearly soundproof to street noise, and resilient to condensation damage.   These are qualities that define a True Luxury^© home, all of which are by-products of the Passive House Standard.  As a side benefit, with thoughtful planning, the Akira Living Building Enclosure tailored to a specific climate zone may virtually eliminate heating and cooling energy costs (up to 90% reduction).  Savings from annual operating (utility) costs may exceed the added mortgage cost for the extra labour and materials to install an Akira Living Building Enclosure making conventional home design obsolete.