Ben Caine
Flipping The Narrative

This Perth family threw out their original oversized volume builder plans and opted instead for a compact, healthy, sun-filled home with a big garden.

SANCTUARY ISSUE 70 March 2025

Flipping The Narrative
Ben Caine
Ben Caine is leading the charge with Passivhaus ...

Habitus LIving: Design Hunters
by Aleesha Callahan 4 August, 2023

Founder of WA-based studio Leanhaus, architect Ben Caine took a roundabout way into finding his niche as an expert in Passivhaus – an approach to building that he says “scientifically nothing else compares to”.

Ben Caine is leading the charge with Passivhaus in Perth
Ben Caine
In Perth most houses are double brick but this ...

The Green List

by Poppy Johnston

3 September 2021

When architect Ben Caine was designing a super high energy performance, timber framed home on a laneway block in coastal Perth, he was conscious of not creating another bespoke hard-to-replicate home built purely for “magazine fodder”.

“Good performance homes should be available to more people, not less,” the Leanhaus architect told The Green List.

Like all Ben’s high-performance designs, this two-bed, two bathroom, plus study home in Scarborough known as Abbetthaus is elegant in its simplicity.

In Perth most houses are double brick but this one is timber and it didn’t cause a revolution
Ben Caine
How an ancient design technique could help us ...

Fast Company Magazine July 2021

by Nate Berg

Architects around the world are designing solutions to increasing temperatures and more frequent heat waves. New materials, advanced heat modeling techniques, and some longstanding design principles are showing that even when temperatures hit unexpected peaks, our homes and buildings will be able to stay cool without consuming huge amounts of energy.

Ben Caine is an architect in Perth, Australia, who designs homes to meet the Passive House standard, and he says that some of the lighter exterior and insulation materials commonly used on Passive House projects are still hard to get in Australia.

How an ancient design technique could help us survive extreme heat, no AC needed
Ben Caine
Abbetthaus shortlisted for 2020 Australian ...

Abbetthaus has been recognised on the official shortlist for the 2020 Sustainability awards for thedesign and construction of a single-residential building to which a Class 1a Building category.

Abbetthaus shortlisted for 2020 Australian Sustainable Design Award

Sustainable House Day will be virtual this year and better for it

Sustainable House Day will be virtual this year and better for it

THE FIFTH ESTATE: INTERVIEW WITH BEN CAINE

Thanks to the pandemic 30 houses will be open to the public online this year. But the upside is that visitors can register for a range of talks on everything from design, to building, renovating or retrofitting.

BY KATE WEBER / 8 SEPTEMBER 2020

Abbetthaus shows just what is possible

Abbetthaus shows just what is possible

PERTH NOW / STIRLING TIMES

The words ‘esky’ and ‘racecar’ seem very out of place talking about housing design, but it all makes sense when you talk to Leanhaus founder and architect Ben Caine.

Natalie Hordov / Stirling Times / September 17, 2020

Photo: David Baylis/Community News