Passive House Weekly: July 18, 2022

July 18th, 2022

Please read on for a selection of Passive House happenings, articles, interviews, and developments. The featured project above is the PHI Certified Clark Road Passive House.

Do you have Passive House news that we should share in a future edition? Email us at: [email protected].

1. Passive House Week in Preview

WED: Puerto Madero, Urban Development on the Outskirts of Cartagena, Colombia

Puerto Madero is a 17 hectares (42 acre) urban development on the outskirts of Cartagena, Colombia. The site is located just 7.2 km (4.5 miles) from the heart of Cartagena’s colonial walled city, a UNESCO world heritage site. Planned as an integrated community with a zoning density of up to 1700 housing units, the project is starting with a 1st phase of 27 single family duplexes and a 2nd phase of three six-story buildings, each with 48 apartments. The units’ design is based on Passive House principles and has been assigned by Phius as a feasibility study. The hot and humid climate of tropical regions requires intense use of cooling and dehumidification that can be effectively be mitigated with the Passive House design. Get the Zoom link

WED, July 27th: WE WANT YOU!

We have a special announcement for the final Construction Tech event of the summer, taking place on July 27th: We Want You!

All Passive House Accelerator community members are invited to present a short overview of a current or recent Passive House project! We will have five, 4-6 minute slots available for community members to present a short overview of a PH project they are involved with. Interested? Please email [email protected] a few sentences about your project by July 20th. Expect the event to be a casual, fun and collaborative send off before our summer break in August.

NOW LIVE: Episode 96 of the Passive House Podcast

In the latest installment from his recent visit to Massachusetts, Zack visits the Cambridge Finch Passive House affordable project to interview Michelle Apigian, Associate Principal at ICON Architecture, a leader in the boom of Passive House development underway in Massachusetts today. Michelle guides a tour of the building as she discusses her Passive House work at ICON. Listen here

THIS WEEK: Events In the Passive House Community

NYSERDA's Buildings of Excellence Funding Deadline Extended

Passive House Accelerator
Puerto Madero, Urban Development on the Outskirts of Cartagena, Colombia (July 20)

Passive House Network
Sponsor Showcase, Demand Control Ventilation, and Passive House: Research and Experience (July 21)

The Global Building Network Sustainability in the Built Environment Embassy Talks
Passive House Project as Pilot Program for National Policy on Net-Zero Energy Building in Hot and Humid Climate Zone (July 21)

#BS Friday LIVE
The ReCover Initiative & Habitat Studio with Lorrie Rand (July 22)

THANK YOU To This Week's Featured Sponsor:

Visit Prosoco.

2. Featured Article of the Week

Quebec’s Mass Retrofits Initiative

Michael Jemtrud, associate professor and chair in Architecture, Energy, and Environment at McGill University’s Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, is fired up about the urgency of gutting carbon emissions within the next eight years. “We need to talk about 2030,” he says, adding, ”2050 is just kicking the can down the road.” With that mission ever-present, Jemtrud is leading ReCONstruct, an initiative designed to spur rapid scaling of retrofits in Quebec and create more resilient communities. Continue reading

3. New Video

Austin, Texas based Positive Energy is a unique firm that has built its reputation and business on offering high performance MEP engineering services to the residential architecture market with a focus on health, comfort, and decarbonizing. The firm has tackled Passive House projects spanning many different scales and budgets. Kate Bren, and M Walker join this Construction Tech session with an in-depth look at three case studies highlighting Positive Energy projects that shifted conventional consultant choreography and leveraged deep performance analyses during the conceptual design phase.

4. Upcoming Conferences

Green Building United, New Gravity Housing Conference (August 11)
At this year's 6th Annual 'Massive Passive' New Gravity Housing Conference, GBU is bringing together affordable multi-family housing experts and projects from across the Eastern US to demonstrate what is possible. Each case-based session will provide timely, useful, and directly applicable Passive House information for designers, developers, funders, owners, and builders.

NESEA's BuildingEnergy NYC 2022 Conference, Bridging the Gap (Sep 15)
NESEA's BuildingEnergy NYC conference is designed by and for practitioners in the fields of high-performance building and design, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and building/energy policy. Conference sessions and showcase demos offer best practices and lessons learned, case studies and proven data, technical "how-to"s, emerging technologies, and innovative policies and programs. If you are a professional in the built environment in any stage of your training and career, plan to immerse yourself in a day of networking and intensive learning on Thursday, September 15, 2022, in NYC at Convene Park Avenue (466 Lexington Avenue).

Passive House Canada Prefab Symposium 2022 (Sep 21-23)
Whether you are a design professional, building scientist, contractor, developer, government official, or financial decision-maker, Passive House Canada’s Prefab Symposium will provide case studies and best practices across Canada, and share how you can integrate an innovative prefab strategy into your core business practices. (Virtual)

PhiusCon 2022: Emissions Down, Power Up! (Oct 25-28)
PhiusCon is coming home to Chicago Oct. 25-28 at the historic Palmer House. Last year, Phius set its sights on expansion with its motto “Emissions Down, Scale Up!” and despite the obstacles presented by COVID, shared that vision with a sold-out crowd in Tarrytown, New York. PhiusCon 2021 created a wave of momentum, and Phius is looking to carry that into PhiusCon 2022 as it builds for the future. And you can’t talk about building for the future without mentioning electrification, so Phius decided to put a charge into this year’s motto: “Emissions Down, Power Up!”