hen Pete Smith heard that his new family home had passed the Passivhaus airtightness test with flying colours, he stood on his head to celebrate. Friends and family of Pete, who is now 72, were not surprised at this eccentric gesture. The retired college manager is known for doing things his own way. His energy-efficient retrofit of The Barn House in Great Busby, North Yorkshire, is the crowning glory of a lifetime spent innovating and renovating. A low-energy home built along Passive House principles, it now achieves 0.4 air changes per hour. “I was brought up by my grandfather and spent most of my childhood in his shed in the days of thrift, making do with whatever timber he could get hold of,” he says. “The first skill and pleasure I learnt at a very young age from him was to make architectural and technical drawings, anticipate problems, and then modify the drawings.” He went on to study philosophy for five years at Sheffield University and the London School of Economics, “which had little connection with sheds,” he admits.


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Pete eventually became head of the faculty of health, care and basic education at Middlesbrough College of further education, and lived in a large, old Victorian house in Middlesbrough for 42 years with his wife, Joy, and their three children, William, Emily and Tom, who are now in their thirties and forties. The family renovated this home over the years before selling to a neighbour and moving into The Barn House in 2017. The original barn originated while they were living in Middlesborough, 32 years ago. Despite being “pretty hard


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