Overview: Families and teams intentionally prioritize Passive House resilience after losing everything in the 2025 Los Angeles Fires.
Presentation 1: Passive House Rebuild
Description: A case study on working with fire disaster communities, this Altadena, California, rebuild serves as an example of the challenges and opportunities in responding to and preventing future disasters. Skilled labor shortages and rising costs can put high-performance goals at risk. Leveraging prefabricated enclosure components in Passive House design demonstrates a path to future resilience.
Learning Objectives:
- Summarize the logistically and financially viability of Passive House strategies for disaster recovery projects within the context of markets or practice areas.
- Identify high-impact strategies for enclosure, ventilation and material decisions that deliver measurable health and durability improvements in post-wildfire conditions.
- Explore delivery tactics for maintaining performance goals under insurance timelines, permitting requirements, and compressed construction schedules.
- Analyze Passive House benefits in terms of risk reduction, property value protection, and long-term financial security for owners, insurers, and lenders.
Presentation 2: Factory-Built Airtightness: Delivering a 0.32 ACH Fire Rebuild in Four Months
Description: A case study on working with fire disaster communities, this Altadena, California, rebuild serves as an example of the challenges and opportunities in responding to and preventing future disasters. Skilled labor shortages and rising costs can put high-performance goals at risk. Leveraging prefabricated enclosure components in Passive House design demonstrates a path to future resilience.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how shifting air barrier sequencing to a factory setting affects airtightness outcomes and risk management.
- Identify workflow strategies that allow offsite fabrication to run concurrently with complex permitting environments.
- Analyze how panelized systems reduce field labor dependency while maintaining Passive House–level performance.
- Apply lessons from this fire rebuild case study to future high-performance disaster recovery projects.
CEUs:
Upon completion of all modules a Certificate of Attendance will be automatically issued for AIA & PHI credit. Please self report to both AIA & PHI using the codes provided.
