2021 Passive House Conference Program is Complete

New York, NY May 13, 2021 –  The North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) today announced that the Passive House 2021 Conference: Passive House For All program schedule has been completed.  

The program is organized around the idea that Passive House should serve everyone and be accessible to everyone. Sessions feature a wide, and emerging, range of projects and intersecting interests – in use, region, climate, construction type, and audience – demonstrating that Passive House can be a core tool in making sustainable communities, more equitable living conditions, higher-skilled workers, healthy populations, and climate solutions.

“The program encompasses a wide variety of communities and building types, reflecting the society we live in,” said NAPHN Executive Director Ken Levenson. “Passive House must not just get the energy balance right, it also needs to help optimize the human balance, in support of truly sustainable communities. When that happens we’re building climate, health, and social well-being solutions. We can do it. No one should settle for anything less.”

(Click on image at right for complete schedule PDF.)

VISIT THE EVENT WEBSITE TO REGISTER

A rundown of the program follows. 

Thursday, June 10

Thursday, June 10, Noon – 1 PM ET

PH2021-01

Opening Plenary 

Opening Remarks:

• Bronwyn Barry, NAPHN Board Chair
• Ken Levenson, NAPHN Executive Director
• Janet Joseph, NYSERDA Senior Vice President for Strategy and Market Development

Passive House: A Global Community of Action

As Passive House grows, reaching across climates, countries, and continents, to China, and the global south, the conversations, and concerns are becoming more diverse. Hear how the Passive House Institute is not only embracing this reality but helping drive it, and perhaps surprisingly connecting the journey to its origins. Discover how a global movement is changing how the world thinks about buildings.

Speakers

• Dr. Wolfgang Feist, Passive House Institute
• Jessica Grove-Smith, Passive House Institute
• Elena Reyes Bernal, Passive House Institute
• Wei Kuang, Passive House Institute

Thursday, June 10, 1:30-2:30 PM ET

PH2021-02

As Goes The City Of Exeter, So Goes The United Kingdom: experience Passive House acceleration 

A decade ago the City of Exeter began a Passive House journey that has led to a transformation of the cities’ development practices and has been at the vanguard of fast-growing Passive House development activity across the UK. Focused on occupant health, comfort, durability, and accessibility, hear the story, the lessons learned, and what is on the horizon from the UK’s largest Passive House developer.

Speaker: 

• Emma Osmundsen, Managing Director, Exeter City Living

Thursday, June 10, 1:30-2:30 PM ET

PH2021-03

Nuutsumuut Lelum: Passive House multifamily in service of an Indigenous community

Designed for a diverse Indigenous community including families, elders, and youth, anchored by communal spaces – referencing Northwest Coastal Indigenous longhouse buildings. Hear from the owner, designer, builder, and operator about how a complex context set up this elegant solution and how it is being lived in today.

Speakers:

• Mark Ashby, Fold Architecture Inc.
• Tomas O’Brien, Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre
• David Simpson, dys architecture
• Darcy Imada, dys architecture
• Karl Binder, Saywell Contracting Ltd.
• Walter Hoogland, Telus

Thursday, June 10, 1:30-2:30 PM ET

PH2021-04

Designing to Scale Retrofits: A quest to make existing buildings climate solutions

This is a joint session with design teams from NYCHA’s first deep energy retrofit and Syracuse University, Winding Ridge apartment retrofit project, and NYSERDA. Find out about what it means to design scalable and replicable low-energy retrofit solutions looking at the eight predominant multifamily building typologies in New York State and relevance to productized approach, including existing and emerging technologies.

Speakers: 

• Nina Sharifi, Syracuse University
• Caitlin Martusewicz, Cycle Architecture + Planning
• Tony Daniels, Cycle Architecture + Planning
• James Geppner, NYSERDA  

Thursday, June 10, 3-4 PM ET

PH2021-05

Let’s Make a Passive House Deal: how does your banker get to “yes”

A panel discussion of lenders and dealmakers about lending, value, risk, Passive House certification, and getting Passive House deals done.

Moderator: 

• Beth Eckenrode, Auros Group

Panelists:  

• Sadie McKeown, Community Preservation Corporation
• Jennifer Leone, NYC Housing Preservation & Development
• Sharmi A Sobhan, Chase Bank
• Mark Curtiss, Massachusetts Housing Partnership

Thursday, June 10, 3-4 PM ET

PH2021-06

EnerPHit Retrofits to New Heights: a multifamily tower is reborn

The landmark, Ken Soble tower, undergoes a modernization program to ensure long-term asset viability, secure housing quality, and indoor comfort for senior residents while reducing the building’s environmental impact. Learn about the details, the systems, and process that made it happen.

Speakers:

• Ya’el Santopinto, ERA Architects Inc.
• Graeme Stewart, ERA Architects Inc.

Thursday, June 10, 3-4 PM ET

PH2021-07

Pride of Place: Investing in Downtown Transformation 

New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) is transforming downtown neighborhoods into vibrant communities for all New Yorkers. Recognizing that companies are increasingly seeking to relocate and invest in vibrant, walkable downtowns in an effort to attract and retain a talented workforce, DRI is an investment to improve the vitality of urban centers across New York State. Hear examples from across New York. 

Speakers

• Lori Borowiak, NYSERDA
• Mara Kravitz, MatriArch Development
• David Szlasa, Basilica Hudson

Thursday, June 10, 4:30-5:30 PM ET

PH2021-08

Practice, Passive House & Priorities: the new meanings of work balance

There is a growing awareness that our work must actively engage and support solutions to our climate, health, and social justice crises, providing new challenges and opportunities for positive transformation. A panel discussion and Q&A will explore how we are examining, prioritizing, and engaging these imperatives in our workplace and our building projects.

Moderator:

• Beth Eckenrode, Auros Group

Panelists:

• Jonathan Moody, Moody Nolan Architects
• John Rezvani, 475 High Performance Building Supply
• Shawn Hesse, International Living Futures Institute
• Sophia Rini, Rockwool

Thursday, June 10, 4:30-5:30 PM ET

PH2021-09

Breaking Ground: community, affordable housing & Passive House

Breaking Ground is a non-profit focused on affordable housing paired with wraparound services designed to help people maintain their homes for the long-term as a proven and cost-effective solution to chronic homelessness. Their new development, Betances Residence, designed by CookFox enlists Passive House as the latest evolution of their commitment to the complete integration of program, design, and engagement.

Speakers:

• Brenda Rosen, Breaking Ground
• Elissa Winzelberg, Breaking Ground
• Adam Beaulieu, CookFox Architects

Thursday, June 10, 4:30-5:30 PM ET

PH2021-10

Passive House Building Certification: quality assurance you can take to the bank

This session explores the key lessons learned by the PeelPHC certifier team over the course of several years certifying buildings. The impact of certification on performance, cost, project timelines, and more will be discussed. Best practices will be reviewed to identify how you can deliver assured quality with confidence in your next building.

Speakers:

• Andrew Peel, Peel Passive House

FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2021

Friday, June 11, 9:30-10:30 AM ET

PH2021-11

School, School & More School: a process of continual Passive House learning

Science is at the heart of Passive House, but it is in its application – intersecting with cultures, communities, and the needs of people – that transform the science into architecture. Learn from a global leader in educational building design. See the data, the lessons, and applications across years and contexts.

Speaker:

• Anne-Marie Fallon, Architype

Friday, June 11, 9:30-10:30 AM ET

PH2021-12

Feeding the Masses: making Passive House commercial kitchens work

What could be more opposite to Passive House than a commercial kitchen? Do we write off the multitude of cafeterias and restaurants that we all, from every walk of life, depend on? No, it gets figured out. Through trailblazing project applications and the scientific rigor of the Passive House Institute, even this barn-burning function can be tamed in support of Passive House performance. Find out how they are doing it.

Speakers:

• Marine Sanchez, RDH Building Science
• Roberto Iannetti, Passive House Institute

Friday, June 11, 9:30-10:30 AM ET

PH2021-13

All Aboard! strategies for Passive House outreach, training, and employment

The skills of Passive House and high-performance sustainable building can be specific and intentional, but they are not difficult. As we set out to remake the built environment, enormous opportunities exist to upskill our (blue and white collar) workforce and provide good jobs to the unemployed and underemployed. A panel discussion on pathways that cultivate workforce participation of all people.

Moderator: 

• Ken Levenson, NAPHN

Panelists:

• Daphany Sanchez, Kinetic Communities Consulting
• Darnell Dinkins, TD Construction Group
• Kevin Brennan, Brennan Brennan
• Josh Kriesberg, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center

Friday, June 11, 11 AM-12 AM ET

PH2021-14

Not Your Familiar Big Box Retailer: Passive House Supermarkets

From Walmart to Whole Foods, being more sustainable has become baked into business plans. But there’s much more to be done. And Passive House supermarkets are showing the way. Take a deep dive into this trailblazing building type and find out how our “green retailers” can do much, much better.

Speakers:

• Jürgen Schnieders, Passive House Institute
• Laszlo Lepp, Passive House Institute

Friday, June 11, 11 AM-12 AM ET

PH2021-15

The Future of Affordable Housing: an examination of modular versus traditional site-build Passive House

Woodlawn Senior is a five-story, 80-unit project located in the Bronx, NY, nearing completion and used a traditional delivery method. Bethany Terrace, a 4-story, 58-unit, affordable housing to start construction in 2021, uses modular construction and is a Second Round NYSERDA Building of Excellence winner. This presentation illustrates challenges in building affordable Passive House projects and how modular construction can decrease construction time, control costs, increase quality, and decrease construction waste emissions.

Speakers:

• Asok Thirunavukarasu, Paul A. Castrucci Architects
• Grayson Jordan, Paul A. Castrucci Architects

Friday, June 11, 11 AM-12 AM ET

PH2021-16

Home on the Prairie: an American archetype remade for 2050 and beyond

From Indigenous teepees to settler cabins, to Frank Lloyd Wright designs, home on the prairie captures our imagination. See a leading practice’s evolution of thought, details, and systems integration, in making Passive House homes for our emerging Anthropocene age.

Speaker:

• Tim Eian, TEstudio

Friday, June 11, 1-2 PM ET

PH2021-17

Excellence for Everyone: Passive House examples from NYSERDA’s market transforming building program

The Buildings of Excellence is a $40 million competition that recognizes the design, construction, and operation of very low or zero carbon-emitting multifamily buildings.  Three winning projects will be explored: The Rise is a fully electric, mixed-use building with supportive and affordable housing for justice-involved families, in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The Seventy-Six Complex is a mixed-use structure with affordable and market-rate housing and the goal to demonstrate that buildings can be regenerative, creative, healthy, and inspiring in Albany. Park Avenue Green in the Bronx is a 154 unit building that the owner is now collecting data to compare to a similar non-passive building previously built.

Speakers:

• Patrick Fitzgerald, NYSERDA
• Avery Gray, Bright Power
• Abdulla Darrat, Renewal LLC
• Matthew Murphy, Bright Power
• James Garrison, Garrison Architects
• Corey Jones, South End Global
• Jordan Dentz, Levy Partnership
• Chris Lebron, Xenolith Partners
• Sara Bayer, Magnusson Architecture and Planning
• Julie Chou , Magnusson Architecture and Planning

Friday, June 11, 1-2 PM ET

PH2021-18

Zero Carbon Emissions: a target with teeth

As part of a global transition towards ‘outcomes-based codes’ US policymakers are now exploring various options for including the impact and calculation of embodied carbon into standardized code. This session will look at where this is happening, who is doing this, and at new tools and assessments that our Passive House community is supporting to seamlessly integrate embodied carbon into operational carbon models.

Speakers:

• Bronwyn Barry, Passive House BB
• Kim Cheslak, New Buildings Institute
• Mikhail Haramati, NYSERDA
• Tim Martel, AECB

Friday, June 11, 1-2 PM ET

PH2021-19

Keeping It Real: the Passive House Standard meets American builders

A contractor that “gets” Passive House, transforms the construction process and makes high-quality business as usual. Yet initial builder concerns can leave them skeptical and ultimately hobble the high-performance design. How do we address builder concerns, provide actionable training and make Passive House relevant for their business objectives? It starts with “Why”.  

Speaker:

• Enrico Bonilauri, Emu Systems

Friday, June 11, 2:30-3:30 PM ET

PH2021-20

Passive House Community Amenity: The Clayton Community Centre

Community centers by their very nature are ambitious, often serving a diversity of populations, needs, and desires. Few community centers are more ambitious than this one. Executed with capital A architectural design, and aggressive sustainability targets that include Passive House certification, public building is retaking a pride of place. Find out how they did it.

Speakers:

• Melissa Higgs, HCMA
• Scott Groves, HCMA
• Rebecca Holt, HCMA

Friday, June 11, 2:30-3:30 PM ET

PH2021-21

Small-Town EnerPHit: where sustainable energy funding meets sustainable community building

Smart infrastructure investment can ignite greater prosperity for the many. The town of Kane Pennsylvania is leading such an effort by investing a foundation grant into upgrading a 130-year-old downtown property to the Passive House EnerPHit Standard and committing to local job training, and material sourcing. Find out how this transformative effort is getting done.

Speakers:

• Brandy Schimp, Mayor, Kane, PA
• Joel Morrison, Penn State University
• Norm Horn, Envinity
• Gary Moshier, Moshier Studio

Friday, June 11, 2:30-3:30 PM ET

PH2021-22

Where the Rubber Meets the Road: handing Passive House buildings over to operations & management

Find out why, after the Passive House is built, the critical question is; Are operations and management staff trained and ready? This session will explore the need for O&M staff training and will identify the most critical building components and systems that should be targeted to ensure efficient operation, comfort and durability.

Speaker:

• Lois Arena, Steven Winter Associates

Friday, June 11, 4-5 PM ET

PH2021-23

Closing Plenary – Defining Sustainable Community For All: discovering new pathways forward

Housing shortages, restrictive zoning, underserved communities, poor public health, a climate emergency, and environmental and social injustice, are just some of the intersecting forces at play as we seek to transform the built environment to support solutions to all these issues and more. This closing plenary panel is a discussion of these intersections, some of the challenges and opportunities they present, and how the Passive House community and our work, might help lead in these efforts to recognize and realize sustainable communities for all.

Moderator:

• Lori Atwater, Transformation Village

Panelists:

• Sonal Jessel, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
• Jes McBride, YIMBY
• Lauren Hood, Detroit City Planning Commission
• Bronwyn Barry, Passive House BB

Friday, June 11, 5-5:15 PM ET

Closing Remarks & Announcements

Speakers:

• Bronwyn Barry, NAPHN Board Chair
• Craig Stevenson, NAPHN Treasurer
• Ken Levenson, NAPHN Executive Director
  

“We believe the variety of featured content will be relevant to a wider audience of building industry stakeholders and the communities they serve,” continued, Ken Levenson. “This program is meant to connect the dots between the potential of Passive House and everyone’s future planning.”

In addition to the program content there is an in person expo and an online expo. The online expo is on a powerful new platform this year that allows attendees and exhibitors to more readily reach out, connect, meet and exchange information, much like an in-person event. 

Exhibitors include leading Passive House manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers, from NYSERDA and Rockwool, to Zehnder, Swegon, Intus Windows, 475 High Performance Building Supply, Wythe Windows, Rothoblaas, Steven Winter Associates, Mitsubishi Electric, Bright Power, Cascadia Windows & Doors, and more.

Attendees to the conference include architects, engineers, consultants, builders, developers, NGOs, policymakers, and students – all committed to making high-quality buildings that aggressively address our environmental crises. Attendees run the gamut from seasoned Passive House practitioners to the newly introduced.

Questions? Please submit them to conference@naphnetwork.org.

# # # 

About NAPHN 2021 Conference: Passive House for All:

Passive House for All is a call to action. Our existential environmental, health, and social crises demand that we look beyond isolated symptoms and tackle interlocking systemic causes; across disciplines, from buildings to communities. The event will take on the full range of specialized technical, process, and policy aspects of Passive House one expects from a NAPHN conference – and it will challenge us to make Passive House benefits, tools, and work, accessible to all, and enriched by everyone.

To increase accessibility to the conference – which includes an expo of leading manufacturers of Passive House components and providers of Passive House services – the program and expo are being presented both in-person in New York City and online. Also, the ticket pricing has been made more affordable and is supplemented with additional discounts for students, faculty, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) attendees, in support of more diverse and inclusive participation.

NAPHN encourages everyone to review the full program and register today.

# # # 

About NAPHN: 

The North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) is an independent national non-profit educational organization affiliated with the International Passive House Association (iPHA) and the Passive House Institute (PHI), located in Darmstadt, Germany. 

NAPHN has chapters based in New Jersey (www.njpassivehouse.com), Washington DC (www.passivehousenetwork.org), the Rocky Mountain Region (www.phrockymountains.com), Minnesota (www.passivehouseminnesota.org), and Pennsylvania (www.passivehousepa.org).

NAPHN supports the widespread adoption of the international Passive House design and construction standards, building science principles and protocols, as a critical response to our climate crisis – providing unparalleled effectiveness in mitigating climate disruptions and adapting to rapidly changing environmental conditions. 

NAPHN is focused on the inflection point between policy and implementation. We partner with leading stakeholders across all building sectors, including governments, professional associations, manufacturers, owners, builders, labor organizations, and educational institutions – to make the transformation complete. https://passivehousenetwork.org 

About Passive House: 

Passive House is an international building standard and methodology, applicable to buildings of all kinds from office buildings to hospitals, new-build and renovations, that results in a dramatic 

drop in operational energy use, and more comfortable and healthy occupants – meant to aggressively mitigate our climate crisis while providing resilient adaptation. 

The Passive House Standard was developed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), an independent scientific research organization, located in Darmstadt, Germany, and includes specific requirements for energy use and comfort of occupants. The Passive House Standard is being successfully applied to thousands of buildings and millions of square feet around the world, from Boston to Beijing. 

The Passive House methodology starts with reducing cooling, dehumidification, and heating loads by focusing, not on gadgets and active technology, but instead on fully integrated durable passive building components, such as proper continuous thermal-bridge-free insulation, continuous airtightness, high-performance windows and doors, and ventilation that includes a high-efficiency heat/energy recovery core, carefully calculated, and all integrated with the entire architectural process of design and construction. http://www.passivehouse.com http://www.passipedia.org 
View an Introduction to Passive house video: https://passivehousenetwork.org/resources/passive-house-basics/