Recently I realized that we neglected to follow up on a Passive House project discussed in pre-construction way back in March 2010. It turns out the New England Passive House, or Little Compton Retreat, received LEED Gold certification from the USGBC in recent months. The background is this is a home by ZeroEnergy Design, who performed mechanical and architecture services, and Aedi Construction, who built the home.
The Passive House movement in the US was on a major tear in 2011 but for that awful split between PHIUS and international PHI. The standard seemed free of maneuvers and politics and infighting, yet now there’s something about PHIUS+ certification and a ban on spray polyurethane foam insulation. Oh boy! Notwithstanding all of this, let’s not take anything from the following incredible, high-performance, completed projects discussed in the past year that sought or achieved Passive House certification.
When we first profiled Anchorage Builders in 2010, they were in the construction phase of North Carolina’s first Passive House. We followed up with the project in a subsequent post and were quite impressed with the completed home, both aesthetically and sustainably. Building on this successful experience, Anchorage and architect Jay Fulkerson have recently collaborated on yet another Chapel Hill home designed with Passive House building methods.
The hottest building standard on the block, Passive House, moves to the realm of student housing in a new residence hall at Unity College called TerraHaus. TerraHaus is expected to be the first student residence in the country with Passive House certification and will house 10 students.
ZeroCottage is a cutting-edge green home under construction in San Francisco. The net-zero energy project by David Baker and Partners Architects is pursuing every notable green building certification around, including the Living Building Challenge, LEED Platinum, Green Point Rated, and Passive House.
Update 8/19/2011: PHIUS just published its response [PDF].
Today, tweets exploded on our Passive House list maintained through Twitter. It started with word this morning that the Passivhaus Institut, founded by Dr. Wolfgang Feist in 1996, had revoked certifier status held by Passive House US (PHIUS), the only Passive House certifier in the United States. This news was verified by Dr. Feist himself on Twitter, with a link to an open letter issued by the Passivhaus Institut explaining what was going on.
