Todd Talbot on the roof of his Passive House
Todd Talbot’s ambitious journey to build a resilient Passive House on the shores of Okanagan Lake turned tragic after wildfires destroyed his dream home, yet through his new TV series, Talbot folds the devastation into a new kind of Build Show that is about climate change, resilience, and innovation.
By Raphael Lopoukhine
Todd Talbot is standing in the ashes.
Around him, the charred remains of his Passive House blend into the blackened earth, a cruel reminder of the fire that swept through British Columbia’s Okanagan Lake region in the summer of 2023. The mighty fir and pine that dotted the landscape were reduced to blackened stumps, the lake that once shimmered under the sun now reflects a sky stained in hues of grey and orange. A dream reduced to rubble, a vision consumed by flames.
It’s an unexpected way to kick off a new series, “Todd Talbot Builds: The Passive House Project,” premiering October 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life, but Talbot warns the viewer right off the top that “this is a very different way to start a television series; it’s not your average build show.”
This was supposed to be the house that stood for resilience, a symbol of building differently in the face of a changing climate. An A-frame net-zero Passive House, pinned to a cliff, overlooking Okanagan Lake — a home that could withstand the heat, the smoke, and limit impacts from wildfires. A home that could keep a family safe in a world where safety feels like a dwindling commodity.
But with the house gone, all that remains is the story. With its high and lows, it’s a different kind of story; a story that upends a familiar genre. Though Todd’s physical legacy may no longer stand—‘probably the most impressive, proudest thing I’d ever done’—his show may become his unexpected legacy. Perhaps from the ashes of Todd’s Passive House a Phoenix may rise, marking the beginning of a new wave in storytelling for our climate changed lives.
The Beginning of a Journey
Three years earlier, Todd had stood on this same piece of land with his wife, Rabecca. Back then, it was a different scene entirely — blue skies, green trees, the pristine waters of Okanagan Lake.
“Rabecca found this property and we went to look at it. There was not much to look at, actually, but there was something about it that was, I don’t know, it spoke to us.” Todd told the viewers in the show.”
For most of his career, Todd, a professional actor by trade, had been the face of transformation, co-hosting “Love It or List It Vancouver,” where he helped families make tough decisions about their homes, albeit following a formulaic script.
“I’d spent so many years on television in that…character promoting this idea that bigger is going to solve your problem, bigger is better, more space,” Todd said in an interview with Passive House Canada. “But none of that really ever sat well with me.”
Todd started his career in film and TV, later transitioning to theatre and working across Canada. His love for real estate emerged when he bought his first property in Vancouver with a friend. His passion for construction and renovation took off, building a portfolio of properties while balancing his acting career. Eventually, he found a way to combine these two worlds on Love It or List It Vancouver.
Todd Talbot’s kids swimming on Lake Okanagan
A Vision Takes Shape
Todd and Rabecca’s vision was bold: to build a net-zero, passive house — one that would produce as much energy as it consumed and remain cool in summer, warm in winter, and breathable during times of wildfire smoke.
The vision grew incrementally, first the property with a goal to build differently, then the A-frame design, and then later came Passive House.
“If you Google A-frames, it’ll say it’s one of the most cost-effective structures to build — if you don’t build it on a cliff and try to make it a Passive House,” Todd jokes in his new series.
The shift toward Passive House design came after Todd learned more about its benefits from a friend. “A lightbulb went off for me,” Todd recalls. “It was one of those moments where you’re like, this was the piece that was missing.”
Todd liked that Passive House was measurable and had a principled approach. He was frustrated with the lack of quality in traditional construction—homes built only to be knocked down 20 years later due to poor performance. The five key principles of Passive House, combined with generating power on-site, provided the framework he had been searching for.
“So I was like ‘I’m all in,’ and I was obsessive about it,” he said. “To build quality, resilient buildings, especially a Passive House, there’s an obsession with detail that has to be there; this project really took over my life, as my wife can attest to.”
Rebar ready for concrete at Todd Talbot’s Passive House. The skies are dark with wildfire smoke.
Building Dreams on Fault Lines
Todd’s ambitions grew alongside the project, and so did the obstacles. In the first episode of the series, he’s seen battling the site’s terrain and the complications of building on a steep slope.
As the house began to take shape, so did the environmental challenges. First, there was the heat dome — a blistering wave of unprecedented temperatures.
“It was over 40 degrees for more than a week,” Todd recalls. The crew was hit hard by the heat and Todd’s plans for a lovely summer as he built the dream house and the kids enjoyed the lake was upended.
The heat dome with temperatures above 40 Celsius, between June 25 and July 1, 2021, killed 619 people from heat stress in the Greater Vancouver Area and beyond. 98 per cent of the deaths occurred indoors, according to the report to the Chief Coroner of British Columbia.
“Your home is supposed to be the place you’re supposed to be safest, and we’ve seen a lot of heat related deaths in a climate that never used to deal with that level of heat, and we don’t have infrastructure to combat it,” said Todd.
After the heat dome came the fires. While the crew was pouring concrete into the night in episode two of Todd’s new show, the air filled with thick smoke and the area received an evacuation order. As the anxiety of the job site subsided, a new climate anxiety rose up: not knowing if crew member Patrick Conolly’s house went up in flames.
“It’s interesting to look back on it, because as we were putting the show together, it’s like, oh my god, like we should have seen these signs more than we did,” said Todd in an interview. “Of course, we did see them but you’re soldiering through, and…more than anything, it confirmed that we were doing, we were on the right path.”
Todd had outfitted his house to fight climate change and confront physical climate impacts, like forest fires. To mitigate against the threat of fires, he added a standing seam metal roof, exterior insulation, and non-combustible cladding.
Then, in the summer of 2023, B.C. faced its worst wildfire season on record. The fires forced Todd, Rabecca, and their kids to evacuate, halting production of the series. By then, nearly all the Passive House elements were completed, save for the stone wool insulation and non-combustible cladding on the underbelly of the structure.
When Todd and Rabecca returned a month later to survey the damage, the only thing left was the pile of insulation—the rest of the house had been reduced to ash.
The remains of Todd Talbot’s Passive House after the historic 2023 wildfires.
A New Story To Tell
In the charred remains of their project, Todd and Rabecca found the makings of a new story — one that wasn’t just about the technicalities of Passive House construction or the beauty of their chosen spot on Okanagan Lake, but about resilience, innovation, and learning to live differently in a changing world.
“Our project’s devastating ending inspired us to keep filming so we could emphasize the powerful impact of B.C.’s wildfires,” Todd said in the show’s official press release.
And so, they kept the cameras rolling.
And created something unique: a story about climate change that simplifies complex ideas and builds understanding and empathy through people-centric storytelling
“If there’s going to be a breakthrough in the general public embracing some of these ideas (climate mitigation) and agreeing to invest time and money into it, it has to be presented, number one, aspirationally. And number two, it has to be simplified, because you have to get to the emotional level of where people understand it,” Todd said.
At first, no one involved in making TV was interested in a story about building a Passive House.
“It was so difficult to sell a show about construction and high performance; it really only got picked up because it was at a lake and it looked freaking cool, and maybe because I was building it,” Todd said.
Todd said the show is a documentary, people will be entertained and hopefully find something more from it, but will they tune in because of the subject matter?
“That will be the interesting part,” Todd added.
The Road Ahead
The house is gone, but the project isn’t over. Not for Todd, not for Rabecca, not for their children, and not for the audience who will soon see their story unfold on screen. Todd is committed to rebuilding “We’re committed to doing something, even though we don’t know what it looks like yet,” Todd said.
The build will be smaller in scope because they were significantly impacted financially from the fire, but Todd is optimistic and inspired about using modular Passive House construction.
“The Okanagan is on the front lines right now, and the interior BC and will continue to be, but I don’t think any of us are really immune to elements that are going to be affecting our homes, regardless of where you are,” he said.
The house may be gone, but the story remains — one of resilience, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of a better way to build and live.
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Catch Todd Talbot live in Toronto at the Fall Home Show on Saturday, September 28 at 1 p.m. at the Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place, Tickets are on sale now at fallhomeshow.com.
Tune into “Todd Talbot Builds: The Passive House Project” premiering October 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life. Visit TV.CottageLife.com to find out how to watch the channel in your region.
