Who Should Take the CPHD Course?

Who Should Take the CPHD Course?

If you want to make great buildings, this course was built for you. The Certified Passive House Designer (CPHD) course is the premier core Passive House training, backed by the Passive House Institute’s 30-plus years of technical leadership. It was developed for a wide range of professionals and industry stakeholders who are tired of feeling that our buildings can do better. This course bridges the gap.

Architects, engineers, and consultants

If you want to make architectural form and detail not just look good but directly drive performance, this course is for you and your team. The course gives you a working command of the fundamental drivers of building performance, so design and construction decisions are better informed from day one. The payoff shows up as a higher-quality product, fewer callbacks, and predictable outcomes the client can depend on. You earn an internationally recognized credential that sets you apart in a market raising its standards every year. The lessons can be applied to everything you design, before you even finish the course.

Developers and building owners

If you want to own a building that withstands weather and energy shocks and meets the growing demand for occupant health and wellness, this course is for you and your team. You may never open the energy model yourself, but understanding what drives performance changes how you lead a project. You’ll know how to vet a team, protect a pro forma, and recognize the choices that pay back for decades. Passive House buildings are durable, low-maintenance, resilient in extreme weather, and cheaper to operate — which translates to happier occupants, lower vacancy rates, stronger asset value, and a lower-risk investment. The course lets you speak the language fluently and make the business case with confidence.

Policymakers, regulators, and sustainability advocates

If you want to deliver high-quality buildings that serve the occupant, owner, yes, but also the community and environment, with predictability, this course is for you. If your work is shaping codes, incentives, or climate strategy, this course gives you the technical credibility to drive building solutions. Passive House offers assurance of high-performance outcomes, crushes peak energy demand to enable grid-friendly electrification, cuts carbon, and produces healthier, more resilient communities — including warmer, safer homes for the people who need them most. You’ll be able to write and implement a policy that actually works in the field, because you understand how the buildings behave.

Contractors, project managers, and educators, too

If you want to connect the dots between construction choices and performance outcomes, this course is for you. Builders and PMs who grasp airtightness, ventilation, and sequencing deliver cleaner projects with fewer surprises. Your business will be built to provide what people want and not just what the code allows. And educators who take it carry rigorous, current building science straight to the next generation of professionals. Wherever you sit, the through-line is the same: you become the person in the room who can explain why a building will—or won’t—perform.

What makes the course doable

The structure is genuinely built for working professionals. It’s a hybrid of on-demand and live online instruction, and you choose how to take it: fully self-paced, on the live cohort schedule for pacing and community, or a mix—which is what most people do. Either way, you’re aiming at one exam date, so flexibility never costs you momentum. The whole arc fits in about three months; the summer cohorts kick off June 30th and sit for the PHI exam in September. You earn 35 AIA LU/HSW credits, learn calculations in Imperial units with real U.S. and international case studies, and keep working tools you’ll use on real projects, including the PHPP energy modeling software.

And it’s affordable

Tuition is $2,295, including the exam, software, and materials. Not only are payment plans available, but, depending on where you live and work, incentives can cover 75% to 100% (in Denver, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, NYC, and parts of California). There are also $500 discounts for veterans, educators, students, seniors, and nonprofit and public employees; a 50% Fellowship for US residents of color; and group rates for firms sending a team. Our staff will help you find the one you qualify for.

Whichever seat you’re in, the question isn’t really whether the CPHD is for you. It’s whether you’d rather be the professional with the answers—or the one calling someone else in.

Register for a Summer 2026 cohort.

See how much of the cost can be covered with our Financial Incentives.

Questions first? Come to our virtual Training Office Hours on June 25th.