About us
Habit Studio is a women-led architecture and residential design practice based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, specializing in sustainable residential renovations and custom Passive House design. Co-founder Lorrie Rand, a Certified Passive House Designer, also serves as the firm's Director of Sustainability. Habit Studio is best known for designing and delivering Nova Scotia's first Passive House retrofit: an internal, deep-energy retrofit of a two-storey 1850s-era house on Falkland Street in Halifax's North End (converted into the studio's own office space), completed in partnership with builder Root Developments. That project followed the Passive House Institute's component method to pursue EnerPHit certification — the Passive House standard specifically developed for retrofits of existing buildings — with an expected post-retrofit heating demand of 53 kWh/m²a, representing an approximately 87% improvement over the building's prior performance. The retrofit scope included upgraded building-enclosure insulation, high-performance windows and doors, improved airtightness, and mechanical system upgrades to high-efficiency heat-recovery ventilation and heat pumps — demonstrating how a historic 19th-century home can be brought to near-net-zero energy performance without losing its architectural character. The project has been covered by Passive House Accelerator, REMI Network, Net Zero Atlantic, and AEE Canada East as a landmark example for the Atlantic Canadian retrofit sector. Beyond individual projects, Habit Studio's Lorrie Rand is also co-founder and Senior Advisor of the ReCover Initiative, described as Atlantic Canada's Deep Retrofit Accelerator, and she instructs with Passive House Canada and serves on the National Research Council's National Model Codes Committee for Climate Mitigation. Habit Studio is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and can be reached via the contact details published on habitstudio.ca; the firm's project photography and client reviews are also listed on Houzz.
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