Passive house design

Jabe Blumenthal knows numbers. After graduating from Yale with a degree in Applied Mathematics he joined a little-known software company in the early 80s, Microsoft, and co-designed a little program we now know today as Microsoft Excel.   Jabe also knows climate change. He has served on the board of Seattle-based Climate Solutions for over a decade, advocating for ‘practical and profitable solutions to global warming’ throughout the Pacific Northwest. He also knows a thing or two about the costs and benefits of climate-friendly construction. He served on the board of the Bullitt Foundation when that group planned and built its noted “living building,” the Bullitt Center.   So when Jabe and his family be... More

The cottage is located in the village of Lesniki, Kiev region, in a very picturesque place on the slope. We placed the first floor parallel to street, and the ground floor we placed  perpendicular to the slope and oriented it to a specific natural point. So this is a  terrace-type house, where the roof of the ground floor is a terrace for the first. We have created an interesting and dynamic architectural form, but at the same time inscribed in the surrounding landscape. More

LBBA has been working with Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA) for over 25 years to transform empty lots and rundown buildings into safe, decent housing close to schools, parks, and other services. Together, we have built and renovated over 175 units of affordable housing in Humboldt Park. Tierra Linda, a scattered-site housing project located near the Bloomingdale Trail, has been developed to nurture health and healthy living. In July 2014, LUCHA led an interactive eco-charrette to generate and target sustainability goals for its new wellness-centered housing development. The kick-off event, which brought together members of the design team with the maintenance staff, tenants, and neighbors of the future development, intr... More

A Redundant FarmWoldon Architects were approached by the emerging furniture designer James Smith Designs to transform Argal Home Farm, a redundant Cornish farmstead, into a vibrant and inspirational place to live and work. The new workshop forms part of a masterplan for Argal Farm, including the conversion of a stone barn into co-working space for local creative businesses and a replacement farmhouse in Cornish granite complemented by landscaped kitchen garden and orchard. Working collaboratively with the client, a design concept for the workshop emerged from a detailed brief, balancing the technical requirements of furniture making with the desire to create an exceptional workspace. Environmentally, providing suitable lighting and mitiga... More

Lilyfield House is a spatial assembly of internal and external rooms and volumes, opening to the light, to green spaces and rising to the district outlook. The rooms and platforms of the house pviot around a central atrium, integrating portions of a historic shop.   Accessible from only two sides and subject to acoustic constraints under a flight path, these 3-storey alterations and additions cater for family living and working from home. Accommodation includes two living areas, a large kitchen and dining area, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a home office, existing garage, carport and outbuilding.   A reduced materials palette of off-form concrete, black steel, plywood and bamboo flooring and historic fabric in white-set plast... More

Talina Edwards Architecture recently won the Sustainability Medal at the 2019 Architeam Awards for the Owl Woods Passive House project, and was also an official finalist in the New Home Category at the 2019 Sustainability Awards. Owl Woods Passive House has been described as one of the most unique and beautiful Architecturally-designed Passivhaus homes in Australia. The owners wanted a ‘tree-change’ home that was ‘just-enough’ in terms of size, whilst also being comfortable, sustainable, functional, flexible, healthy and beautiful. The architectural response was inspired by the surrounding bushland and farming land. The design echoes a cluster of farm-sheds or birdhouses, whilst also being reminiscent of a Scottish... More

The North River Architecture design team has embraced Passive House design as a challenge and necessity in their practice. By demonstrating that Passive House design can be affordable, beautiful, resilient, and comfortable, the designers sought to overcome the common challenges that hinder its mainstream viability. This 2,755 square foot home was designed to have zero energy or maintenance costs while respecting local historic and cultural significance. The design concept takes its references from the simple, hardscrabble farm buildings still common and recognizable in New York's Hudson Valley since the Dutch settlers came to the area in the 17th century. This simplicity allowed for modern strategic e... More

This single family, three-bedroom home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn emphasizes efficiency in its interior organization and approach to energy usage. The client’s interest in optimizing thermal comfort and minimizing energy consumption and cost led to the adoption of Passive House design strategies. As the rear of two buildings on a single zoning lot, the home is fronted by a 25’ x 25’ courtyard, and bound by a 5’ deep yard at the back. The existing masonry shell and wood floor joists were retained where possible, and retrofitted to provide a comfortable interior through five primary methods: continuous interior insulation, thermal bridge-free construction, triple-paned windows, an airtight envelope to prevent indoor-outdoor air transfer,... More

The Pumpkin Ridge Passive House stands as a testament that sustainable design can be affordable. Held to some of the nation's most stringent sustainability standards, this contemporary family home with traditional styling effortlessly combines comfort, efficiency and beauty.The Pumpkin Ridge Passive House, nestled in the foothills west of Portland, embraces the simplicity of Passive House design to deliver superb comfort and efficiency at minimal added cost. This high performance green building, built by Hammer & Hand, will consume 90% less energy to heat and cool the home throughout the year, while also offering exceptional comfort and indoor air quality. Upon completion, the Pumpkin Ridge Passive House is one of six homes in the Pacif... More

To Jackson Hole, Wyoming locals, the timeless beauty of the Grand Tetons is a revered landmark. Rich Assenberg and Nathan Gray, of kt814 architects, took this into account when designing this passive house inspired home. Sustainability, privacy and unobstructed views were priorities. The homeowners, after living in a mobile home for 10 years, sought to build a home in close proximity to their grandchildren, and to allow for easy aging-in-place by incorporating universal design. A series of three Douglas fir and cedar-clad, connected pavilions compose the architecture on the two and a half-acre parcel. The first, a large main house with kitchen/dining and open living room. Second, a pavilion that is broken with an office space that show... More

Our company Biodomes www.biodomes.eu designs and builds custom, one-of-a-kind glass, metal and concrete geodesic domes. We offer over 20 different geodesic dome models that can be sized and customized in a number of ways. We also build earth sheltered, green roof geodesic domes that can be insulated to passive house standards. Our goal is to create structures whose function is as important as their form, buildings that are beautiful and functional at the same time. Earth sheltered, glass geodesic domes represent the ultimate sustainable passive eco homes of the future and the timeless design and alluring aesthetics of geodesic domes offer unsurpassed versatility, they can be designed as ultra modern passive eco-homes, recreational spaces, i... More

Loma Linda 2, the second home from Arizona-based VALI Homes, combines timeless design details, modern construction and energy saving technology that goes beyond what would be needed for LEED Platinum certification. The single-family home, located in the historic Loma Linda district of Downtown Phoenix, is constructed next to the first Vali home on the same infill lot. VALI continues to perfect its cost-effective green building techniques in its second home utilizinginsulation and passive house designto keep this home beyond energy efficient – allowing it to create more energy than it consumes. The east and west exposure of the home is limitedwhile a stylish 4-foot overhang shades the southern exposure. Biomimicry one-inch thick custom st... More

There has been a trend toward empty nesters and retirees moving from the suburbs back to the urban amenities and proximities the suburbs do not offer. This house is on a north facing corner lot in a historic neighborhood a short walk from a grocery store, grade school, a community center and the cultural vibrancy of downtown Lawrence, Kansas. Vacant lots near downtown are expensive but this site was more affordable because it is surrounded by marginal properties. It also had once been a gas station and the old gas tanks were still in the ground and required removal. This triggered a string of EPA requirements to develop and sell the property. It fit studio 804’s mission to develop a brownfield site. The house is a modern, sustai... More

Client: Landsea Europe R&D GmbH Architect: Peter Ruge Architekten Structural/Services engineering: Shanghai Landsea Planning & Architecture Design Co.,Ltd. Thermal structural physics: Passivhaus Institut (PHI) Building quality assurance: Drees & Sommer Sustainable Engineering Consulting (Shanghai) Co.,Ltd. DGNB certification consulting: Energydesign (Shanghai) Co.,Ltd. Building quality workshop: Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (DENA) Building contractor: Jiangsu Nantong Erjian Group Co.,Ltd. Blower door test: Ingenieurbüro Meyer-Olbersleben   The Passive House Bruck is the first residential building to be certified in the moist, warm, south China climate as a passive house by the German Passivhaus Institut in D... More