BEO Buildingscience is a New Zealand building science consultancy founded and led by Denise Martin. BEO provides ATTMA-accredited airtightness testing, hygrothermal modelling, Passive House consulting and PHI certification, H1 energy compliance, thermal bridge analysis, and airtightness tester training for residential and commercial projects across New Zealand.
Building science is concerned with how buildings actually perform — not just how they're designed to. Heat moves through walls and windows. Moisture accumulates inside structures. Air leaks through gaps no one designed. These things happen according to physical laws, not good intentions, and they determine whether a building is comfortable, durable, and energy efficient — or chronically cold, damp, and expensive to run.
BEO works at this level: quantifying what's actually happening in a building, and providing the technical basis for decisions about how to fix it or build it right the first time.
Services
Airtightness Testing — ATTMA Accredited (L1 & L2)
Blower door testing to ISO 9972 for residential and commercial buildings. BEO holds ATTMA L1 and L2 accreditation, covering everything from single-dwelling Passive House certification to large commercial and Green Star projects (which require an ATTMA L2-accredited tester). BEO also provides room integrity testing for gaseous fire suppression systems, and shakedown testing during construction for projects with demanding airtightness targets.
Hygrothermal Modelling — Condensation and Moisture Risk
WUFI Pro hygrothermal modelling simulates heat and moisture movement through building assemblies over a full annual climate cycle. Used to assess interstitial condensation risk in walls, roofs, and floors; to prepare NZBC E3 alternative solution reports for non-standard cladding and roofing systems; and to diagnose persistent condensation and mould problems that can't be resolved by surface treatment alone.
Thermal Bridge Analysis
2D finite element analysis (Flixo) of structural junctions, penetrations, and construction details to quantify heat loss and assess condensation risk at thermal bridges. Used for Passive House PHPP input, NZBC H1 compliance, and design optimisation of high-performance building envelopes. Also used to investigate cold spots and recurrent mould at structural junctions in existing buildings.
H1 Energy Compliance and Energy Modelling
NZBC H1 compliance across all three pathways: Schedule Method (H1/AS1), Calculation Method (H1/AS2), and Modelling Method (H1/AS3) for projects with high glazing, non-standard construction, or performance aspirations beyond the schedule minimum. A free online H1 Calculation Method tool is also available for designers working through trade-off calculations independently.
Passive House Design and PHI Certification
PHPP energy balance modelling, component specification review, airtightness strategy, and PHI certification documentation for Passive House Classic, EnerPHit, and Low Energy Building projects. Denise Martin holds PHI Passive House Certifier credentials — one of very few practitioners in the Southern Hemisphere with this qualification — and provides certification support both as consultant to the design team and as certifier.
Airtightness Tester Training — L1, L2, PH+, Contractor
BEO is New Zealand's only ATTMA-accredited training provider. Courses cover residential tester accreditation (L1), large building accreditation (L2, prerequisite L1), Passive House airtightness practice (PH+), and practical site-level training for builders and subbies (Contractor course, no examination). Delivered in person across New Zealand with digital assessment for formal examinations.
Credentials and Accreditations
Who BEO Works With
What Makes BEO Different
Most building compliance services in New Zealand are organised around ticking boxes — meeting the minimum, producing the certificate, moving on. BEO operates from a different starting point: the question is not whether the building meets a threshold, but what is actually happening inside the envelope and why.
That means quantified analysis rather than approximate judgements. A blower door result, not a visual inspection. A WUFI hygrothermal simulation, not a rule-of-thumb assessment. Thermal bridge calculations to ISO 10211, not assumptions. The tools are the same ones used in European high-performance building practice — applied to New Zealand projects and New Zealand climate data.
BEO's credentials are also genuinely rare in this jurisdiction. PHI Passive House Certifier status combined with ATTMA L1 and L2 accreditation and ATTMA Training Provider status does not exist elsewhere in New Zealand. For projects where that level of technical depth matters — Passive House certification, Green Star airtightness credits, complex moisture or airtightness problems — BEO is typically the only locally based option.
Where BEO Operates
BEO is based in Arrowtown, Otago, and operates nationwide. Testing and consulting services are delivered in person; travel is coordinated to cover multiple sites in a region efficiently.
About Denise Martin
Denise Martin is the founder and Principal Consultant of BEO Buildingscience. Originally from Dessau, Germany, she holds building science qualifications from Technische Universität Dresden and has over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of building physics, energy performance, and construction practice.
She is a PHI-certified Passive House Designer and Certifier, an ATTMA Accredited Tester at both L1 and L2 level, and New Zealand's only ATTMA-accredited Training Provider — a combination of credentials that does not exist elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.
BEO is based in Arrowtown, Otago, and operates across New Zealand.
Get in Touch
Most enquiries can be scoped quickly. Early-stage advice is almost always more useful than late-stage compliance firefighting — whether you're designing, building, or trying to understand why a building isn't performing the way it should.
Airtightness Testing → Condensation & Moisture → Thermal Bridging → Energy Modelling →