Only the most talented athletes and elite teams achieve results worthy of a gold medal.  Drawing inspiration from the Olympic athlete's dedication to perfection and desire to achieve results, five companies have joined together to form the Austrian Passive Group, or APG.   The skilled professionals on the APG team work hard to provide the premium services and quality you would expect from such a choice group.   
Continuing on in the Olympic spirit, APG has joined to build "The Austria House" for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Canada.   This house has become a tradition at the Olympics, and APG has utilized advanced passive house construction to help to make the upcoming year's version even more special.

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In the Austria House hospitality enjoys top priority, especially when athletes and figures from economics and politics meet each other. The Tyrolean Governor Günther Platter and Deputy Governor Hannes Gschwentner rejoiced at the bronze medal awarded to GREGOR Schlierenzauer. We are looking forward to more medal celebrations at the Austria House.

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The Austria House has been fulfilling its purpose since 12th February 2010. For the next 17 days athletes, politicians, representatives from the business world and numerous guests will be able to enjoy Austrian hospitality here. The passive house, built by the Austrian Passive House Group, will give its guests a wonderful „homely feeling at all times“! The new technology built into this house will change the world tremendously, as it requires only 10 percent of the energy of a conventional house and provides fresh, filtered, healthy and comfortable air around the clock.

• The Austria Passive House has operating costs (ventilation, heating and hot water) of about € 350 per year.
• Therefore a passive house provides a marvelous homely feeling at all times!

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May the spirit of our friend "Paulus Freisinger" watch over some happy moments in his house, the Austria Passive House!

If you are interested in the passive-house concept and would like further information, please write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (main contractor and member of the Austrian Passive House Group).

Everything was completed in time and the brilliance of the Austria House shines out. The ventilation system from drexel und weiss will subtly circulate clean and fresh air for the guests, and the windows from OPTIWIN allow awe-inspiring views for everybody.

Without our general contractor Thomas Sohm from Holzbau Sohm and his team – on behalf of them our thanks go to Martin Bereuter– all this wouldn’t have been possible. Thomas Sohm with his quiet and considerate nature bolstered our project managers Erich Reiner and Markus Regensburger time and again. We would also like to express our special thanks to Matheo Durfeld and his team (Heather, Manfred and Julius) in Canada. Their teamwork made it possible to translate this unique project into reality at a distance of 12,000 km. In them we haven’t just found business partners, but friends for life.

Pictures of this in the gallery

The guests can now come to the Austria House - at least to the upper floor where the house already exudes ‘Olympic radiance’. We can only hope that one of the Austrian heroes will be able to present a gold medal in front of the sculptural wall made by “Baumstark” on Saturday, 13th February.

© Austria House, Austrian Passive House Group (APG): drexel und weiss, Optiwin, Erich Reiner, Sohm Holzbautechnik, zweiraum.

The furniture made by Baumstark is fitting splendidly into the Austria House, even though not all the tables, benches and counters are in place yet. A lot of craftsmen are still working on the house to put the finishing touches to it. Manfred is supervising the fixtures and fittings keenly and is quite sure that the work will be finished by next week.
Some highlights can already be admired, among them the sleek and stylish furniture as well as the classy, built-in components made by Miele. The coffee will be pure bliss as the machines are designed to brew it in the Viennese tradition.

The interior illuminated glass counter made by Glas Trösch gives a special flair to the upper floor, and even the lavatories fit harmoniously into the design of the house. We will be thrilled to see the result once everything has fallen into place and the interior radiates the special feeling of the Austria House.

Pictures of this in the gallery

© Austria House, Austrian Passive House Group (APG): Drexel und Weiss, Optiwin, Erich Reiner, Sohm Holzbautechnik, Zweiraum.

The house is warm now and the passive house technique (heating, ventilation, heat recovery, water heating, passive cooling – all controlled by one “mastermind”) is working excellently. It offers perfect air quality and a pleasant room temperature – altogether a smooth-operating indoor climate. And what about the summer? The passive cooling, using only a few kWh/a, will provide a great indoor climate. Everything in the house is finished and is running smoothly – the Olympic Games can now commence.

© Austria House, Austrian Passive House Group (APG): Drexel und Weiss, Optiwin, Erich Reiner, Sohm Holzbautechnik, Zweiraum.

On 7th January 2010 APG’s Austria House was officially presented with a klima:aktiv certificate, making the start of the New Year perfect for the Olympic Austria House.
klima:aktiv is an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management for active climate protection and is also part of the Austrian climate strategy encouraging environmental protection, reducing CO2 emissions through several programs, and campaigning for greater utilization of renewable energy sources.
“The klima:aktiv building standard provides a quality assessment for buildings which comply with criteria for energy efficiency, ecology and comfort at the highest level.” (Source: http://www.klimaaktiv.at/article/archive/27218/) The Austria House was inspected and evaluated according to this strict list of criteria, and owing to its excellent energy-efficient and ecological characteristics it was awarded the klima:aktiv certificate.

© Austria House, Austrian Passive House Group (APG): drexel und weiss, Optiwin, Erich Reiner, Sohm Holzbautechnik, zweiraum.
Photo 1: from left to  right – Carlos Miranda (Canadian Embassy), Reinhard Weiss, Minister Nikolaus Berlakovic, Erich Reiner, Roman Smutny (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna).
Photo 2: from left to right – Reinhard Weiss, Mayor Nikolaus Berlakovic, Erich Reiner.

It has taken just a few weeks to build the Austria House, but it took the basalt lava natural stone more than 150,000 years to find its way into the house at Whistler as tiles. And the stone would probably last another 150,000 years, if the house could last such a long time. In addition to its wonderful open-pored structure this natural stone is particularly characterized by its hardness and durability.

Pictures of this in the gallery