Passive House Multi-Family – Good for All is Good for One Webinar

Passive House Multi-Family – Good for All is Good for One
How Passive House Qualities Benefit both Occupants & Owners
Presentation by Shane Pollin – CA Passive House 

Target Audience:  Building owners, developers, code reviewers, planning officials and design professionals interested in learning about the benefits of integrating passive house principles into larger multi-family or mixed-use projects.

In this session, the link between occupant satisfaction and owner satisfaction will be established.  Given the importance of occupant satisfaction, particularly in the multi-family residential sector, Owners should consider how they can design their buildings to achieve occupant satisfaction.  A survey of articles describing passive house buildings reveals a number of characteristics which are common to the buildings constructed to this standard.  These characteristics embody certain qualities which are highly desirable to both owners and occupants.  Given the desirability of these qualities, the question becomes what strategies can be employed to ensure the presence of the desired characteristics.  The answer is the Passive House principles of building design and construction.  

The presentation will then highlight an ambitious new project under development in the State of Maryland.  The Hillandale Gateway project will be an all-electric, multi-building, mixed-use, mixed-income project designed to reach high levels of sustainability and resiliency.  The project will feature 463 total homes in two buildings along with associated parking and commercial space.  The project is currently seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), Energy Star, Enterprise Green Communities, WELL, and Passive House certifications on two buildings.  One building, comprised of one hundred fifty-five (155) homes in eleven stories, is also being designed to achieve Zero Net Energy.  Once completed, this project will be both the largest passive house and the largest residential zero net energy project in the State of Maryland and the region.  

Finally, with a long-term perspective, the team has also demonstrated a “best value” vs purely “first cost” approach throughout the design and development process.  The advantages of refocusing on the question of “Is it worth it?” compared to the far more common “How much does it cost?” will be explored.