By Jay Fox

The California Rebuilds Catalog is now available and includes more than 30 single-family designs. Each of the designs meet or exceed Passive House Classic levels of performance, as well as California’s Fire Resilience Code for homes and landscape hardening. The designs were submitted by teams last year as part of the California Rebuilds Design Competition. The competition was launched by the Passive House Network and Passive House California last year following the devastating fires in January 2025 that led to the deaths of an estimated 440 individuals and the destruction of more than 16,000 buildings.

Joining the group was also Roussa Cassel of the Artisans Group Architecture & Planning. The Artisans Group's submission, Manzanita House, was selected by a group of student jurors from Glendale High School for the Students’ Choice Award.

A full list of team members can be found in the California Rebuilds Catalog and previous coverage by the Accelerator on the competition.

A Blueprint for Resiliency

There is significant overlap between Passive House design and fire resilient design. In some cases, the two complement one another. For example, simplified geometries and lower form factors make buildings more efficient and less likely to provide a space for embers to smolder and eventually catch fire. While not explicitly vital to Passive House certification, most passive buildings have lower surface area to volume ratios.

The design principles that are central to Passive House principles also align with fire-smart building practices. For example, high-performance, multi-pane windows offer better protection against fire incursion, especially when the interior pane is tempered. Meanwhile, creating an airtight building envelope and using with mechanical ventilation (plus air filtration), can prevent unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke from entering the building, thereby allowing occupants to shelter in place and to mitigate smoke damage.

As the winners who attended the event earlier this week noted, their work was inspired by a desire to make not only individual homes resilient, but to benefit entire communities. As just one example, many teams prioritized social cohesion by designing floor plans that are more conducive to aging in place. While not explicitly designed for seniors, many of the homes contain accessible bathrooms on the ground floor and adaptive layouts that can provide separate accommodations for live-in aides.

By keeping long-time residents in their homes for longer, they can continue to serve as the social glue holding intergenerational networks together. This not only makes individual homes more resilient; it ultimately makes communities stronger.