Week In Preview: February 28

Please read on for a selection of Passive House happenings, deadlines, and developments to put on your radar this week. The featured project above is the Montessori Kinderhaus.

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

1. WED: UBC Skeena Student Residence with Jamie Harte

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It’s no secret that British Columbia has been charging ahead on delivering Passive House buildings in North America. So why would their institutions of higher education be any different? The Skeena student residence at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus is Canada’s first completed Passive House student residence. Jamie Harte, associate architect at PUBLIC, joins us on Passive House Accelerator Live to talk through the UBC Skeena Student Residence. The six story building will offer 220 bedrooms and amenity space to students at the Okanagan campus (check out our full case study here). Jamie is a Passive House designer with notable projects under his belt such as the Vienna House Social Housing and a multi-unit residential project in Squamish, BC. During his presentation Jamie will dive into lessons learned and keys to delivering high quality Passive House design and construction on a tight deadline. Get the Zoom Link.

2. NOW LIVE: Episode 76 of the Passive House Podcast

Matthew interviews Melbourne-based Alex Slater, architect at Shared Space Architecture, Passive House Designer, and NatHERS Assessor. Alex shares how he's combined building science and art in his professional work modeling and designing high-performance buildings; how his initial interest in the energy modeling engine behind Australia's NatHERS rating system led naturally to an interest in the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) and Passive House more generally; and how building physics plays a central role in his practice, whether Passive House or not. Listen here.

3. THIS WEEK: Winner of Ice Box Challenge Sydney to be Unveiled

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While we have a pretty good idea of which box will win, we can't wait to see how much ice is left in each by the end of this week when Ice Box Challenge Sydney, presented by the Australian Passive House Association, comes to its exciting conclusion. The Ice Box Challenge is a public installation and contest that clearly demonstrates the benefits of Passive House design by placing equal size blocks of ice in two boxes. One is constructed to meet local building regulations. The other is built to meet the more rigorous performance standards required for Passive House certification by the Passive House Institute. After two weeks, the boxes are opened and the amount of ice left in each box is measured, thereby revealing how well each box passively kept out the heat. Learn more.

4. LOG ON: Virtual and Hybrid Spring Conferences

BuildingEnergy Boston 2022 (February 28-March 1)
BuildingEnergy Boston is a conference designed by and for practitioners in the fields of high-performance building and design, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. It brings more than 1,000 industry leaders and emerging professionals together to learn from and share ideas with each other. Sessions are curated by a volunteer NESEA-Member content committee to ensure that conference sessions are genuinely useful to attendees. Register.

Fenestration Symposium (March 9)
Presenters include notable local fenestration researchers, manufacturers, and advocates, whom we’ve paired with our colleagues from the Passive House Institute. The Passive House Network hopes to shed light on how to advance market appreciation of the key role that high-quality fenestration plays in delivering building decarbonization, and better appreciate the certifications, codes, and manufacturing practices that can make it all possible. Learn more.

BUILDEX Vancouver 2022 (March 23 & 24)
Passive House Canada and BUILDEX Vancouver team up for the March 23 & 24 event. The Passive House Canada Exhibition Pavilion will be THE place to discover high performance building materials, products & technologies. Register.

2022 PHN Conference (June 10 & 17)
Efficiency | Equity | Electrification | Embodied Carbon | We must transform our built environment with integrated solutions. We know the basic ingredients: efficiency, equity, electrification and embodied carbon. We have the know-how today. So let’s dive into the synergies and the specifics. Let’s get aggressive, grab all of these tools, and take radical holistic action to build a healthy prosperous future for all people before it’s too late. If you agree, join us in Boston and online. Learn more.