Passive House Weekly May 8, 2023

May 8th, 2023

Please read on for a selection of Passive House happenings, articles, interviews, and developments.

The featured project above is Winthrop Center. The project is featured on our recent episode on our new YouTube channel, Reimagine Buildings (image courtesy of MP Boston). Watch now!

Do you have a recent Passive House and/or high performance project that demonstrates PH principles, electrification, low embodied carbon and high performance construction? Submit here to be featured in a future edition of Passive House Weekly, Podcast or LIVE! program.

1. PHA Week in Preview

New Episode On Reimagine Buildings

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The Winthrop Center is an upcoming skyscraper in Boston that is set to become an iconic feature of the city's skyline. With its advanced features and unparalleled views, it takes a revolutionary step in Boston's built environment and is poised to become the world's largest Passive House office building. The Winthrop Center's innovative energy-saving systems, high-performance building envelope, and energy recovery ventilation system will shrink its carbon footprint all while providing superior interior environmental quality. We invite you to explore the Winthrop Center with us and discover its groundbreaking approach to sustainable development.

While we'll continue to publish the video recordings from our LIVE programming at our good ol' Passive House Accelerator YouTube channel, at our Reimagine Buildings channel, we'll share videos that are made by our team expressly FOR video: pithy PH explainers, hip home tours, inspiring stories of community development and resilience, informative onsite demonstrations, and lots more.

WED: Tales from the Trenches: Passive House Ventilation Commissioning Roadblocks

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Luis Aragon (Senior Building Systems Engineer, Steven Winter Associates) and Michael Schmidt (Building Systems Consultant, Steven Winter Associates) will join our May Next Gen series to present tales from the trenches for ventilation approaches within the context of Passive House building certification standards. These standards have set a high benchmark for low-energy buildings and are widely known as the most rigorous energy efficiency standards currently available.

Attendees will learn how balanced ventilation is best applied at a large scale and how commissioning plays a key role in this process and how it can impact the operations of these buildings. This presentation draws from the experiences of commissioning ERV/HRV systems in Passive House projects and demonstrates the various execution paths on multifamily and commercial buildings. Get the Zoom link

THUR: ROCKWOOL, Passive House and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

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What do the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Passive House, and ROCKWOOL have in common? Commitment to energy efficiency, decarbonization, and resilient buildings.

Join us this Thursday, 5/11 for a Component Spotlight presentation by Alejandra Nieto, Mahnaz Nikbakht, and Robert Blount. Register here

NOW LIVE: New Passive House Podcast Episodes

NOW LIVE: New Bonus Passive House Podcast Episodes

THIS WEEK: Events In the Passive House Community

Pratt Institute School of Architecture
Ice Box Challenge (May 8)

Passive House Canada
Passive House Canada Conference (May 8-10)

Passive House Accelerator LIVE!
Tales from the Trenches: Passive House Ventilation Commissioning Roadblocks (May 10)
ROCKWOOL, Passive House and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (May 11)

Building America
RFP for Community-Based Retrofit Solutions (May 9)

Architizer
How To Incorporate Zero Waste Initiatives into Your Building Design (May 10)

New Buildings Institute
Getting to Zero Forum (May 10)

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

THANK YOU to our Featured Sponsor

ME PHA homepage
Figura 01   (c) Jordi Vila i Marta   Argot Photo 2022

Prefab Learning Space on the Beach

Constructed using a series of prefabricated lightweight timber modules that were built off-site and assembled on the site, the Eco Hub is a 14m x 8m pop-up learning space that can be erected anywhere - even the beach. Continue reading

3. Upcoming Conferences

Green Building United Sustainability Symposium (May 24)
Green Building United is excited to announce the 13th Annual Sustainability Symposium taking place May 24th, 2023 at Drexel University! The Symposium is a full day of educational sessions covering cutting-edge green building and sustainability topics and industry best practices, including LEED, Passive House, Living Building Challenge, Enterprise Green Communities, WELL, green stormwater infrastructure, and 2030 Districts. Join us to hear experts from across the region and beyond as they discuss their current work, opportunities for social, environmental, and economic impact, and challenges ahead in the sustainability field.

NYC Next: Trends for a Changing City (June 8)
In our 2023 conference, NYC Next: Trends for a Changing City, we’re bringing together experts to explain three key trends that will shape the city: getting to net zero, converting offices to apartments, and centering resiliency in NYC’s buildings of the future. We’ll talk to the individuals who have an inside look at these trends and are doing the work to make NYC’s climate targets a reality.

Facades+ (June 16)
In its 11th year, Facades+ continues to bring together the world’s most talented building professionals. We return to Toronto to discuss the latest advances, issues, and technologies driving the AEC community.

ASES Solar 2023 (Aug 8-11)
ASES supports the global initiative that a world equitably transformed to 100% renewable energy is an urgent necessity. Through the ASES National Solar Conference, SOLAR 2023 will elevate public, institutional, and governmental awareness of the critical role solar energy is playing in the global energy landscape. We must ensure that access to and the benefits from clean energy will be enjoyed by all communities, especially those that have been denied those benefits in the past.

2023 Passive House Network Conference (Sep 28-Oct 6)
At the 2023 Passive House Network Conference, we will share our ambitions for a better world. Today, we have huge opportunities to change course. As communities are being stressed and assaulted by the escalating effects of the climate crisis: wild fires, droughts, floods, conflicts, energy insecurity, poverty, sickness and inequality – let’s explore how we can build better buildings, better communities and a better world. Passive House is the platform. Passive House education and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing has the power to change our vocabulary, our conversations, and our culture. Let’s expand the conversation. The conference program will include industry leading designers, builders, developers, manufacturers, and owners, from across the country and around the world.

BuildingEnergy NYC (Oct 12)
NESEA's BuildingEnergy NYC conference and trade show is a chance to immerse yourself in a full day of networking and intensive learning with your peers from the fields of design, construction, engineering, policy, finance, and beyond. This unique event is designed by and for our community of practitioners, ensuring that the content is useful, relevant, and on the leading edge. Conference sessions present best practices and lessons learned based on real case studies and proven data, as well as showcasing innovative technologies and programs. If you are a building sustainability professional in any stage of your career, mark your calendar now, and plan to join us on Thursday, October 12, 2023 in New York City!

PhiusCon (November 7-10)
PhiusCon 2023 is headed to the Lone Star State! By hosting this year’s conference in Houston, we have our eyes set on the next frontier of passive building: hot and humid climates. The need for reliable, efficient buildings has never been greater in Texas and beyond, which is why now is the perfect time to expand Phius’ footprint in the south. Phius buildings are designed with the grid in mind – providing energy independence and hardening the larger grid system. Despite the challenges posed, the Phius methodology has proven to be effective in hot and humid climates. PhiusCon 2023 will provide an entryway into the Phius community for local practitioners, developers and policymakers, equipping them with a blueprint to create more resilient, grid-friendly, healthy communities.

4. New Videos

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5. Upcoming Passive House Happenings

Pratt Institute School of Architecture
Ice Box Challenge (May 8)

Passive House Accelerator
Tales from the Trenches: Passive House Ventilation Commissioning Roadblocks (May 10)
ROCKWOOL, Passive House and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (May 11)
California MCM Re-Envisioned: PH in Warm Climates (May 17)
Retrofitting and Remodelling a Timber Frame House to EnerPHit Standard (May 18)

NYSERDA
NYSERDA’s Grid-Interactive Building Showcase (May 17)
NYSERDA Programs Available through the State's Consolidated Funding Application (May 24)

ASID NY Metro
ASID NY Metro Equity in Design Summit (May 18)

Passive House Canada
90 - Introduction to Passive House High Performance Buildings (May 16)
Master Class Series – Built in Canada: Lessons Learned from an EnerPHit Project (May 25)
120 Series – PHPP 10 New Features (May 31)
Master Class Series: A Pattern Language from Passive House (June 14)

Passive House Network
CPHD On-Demand Trainings

Phius
PhiusCon 2023 Call for Abstracts (May 26)

Phius Alliance New York
Passive House Tour: Olive House (June 2)


Does your organization have an upcoming event? Submit it here to be included in our next newsletter.

6. What We're Reading

The breath-taking effects of climate change (Medscape)
The very bad math behind the Colorado River crisis (Grist)
Students occupy schools and universities across Europe in climate crisis (The Guardian)
Building code changes needed to fully electrify buildings, report finds (The Fifth Estate)
NY budget lays groundwork for cap-and-invest plan to charge polluters, but details are lacking (City Limits)
Europe explores solar farms in space with Solaris program (Dezeen)
Is it a lake, or a battery? A new kind of hydropower is spreading fast. (New York Times)
“An elegant structure”: new timber PNE amphitheater will meet Passive House standard (Storeys)
Marshall Fire homes being rebuilt twice as fast as national post-disaster average (boulder beat.)
The blooming economy of home energy retrofits means new technology, new jobs, cleaner world (Forbes)

Categories: News