Description

Overview: Families and teams intentionally prioritize Passive House resilience after losing everything in the 2025 Los Angeles Fires.

Presentation 1:

From Ashes to Airtight: Passive House as Post-Fire Resilience Strategy

Presented by Meredith McDaniel, MAAM Architects & Darin Dusan, Joubert Homes

To end the cycle of rebuilding after wildfires, Passive House can serve not as an idealistic upgrade, but as a practical risk-management and resilience framework, and a financially and logistically viable path under real-world rebuild conditions, through close collaboration between architect and builder. The benefits begin with the building and extend to owners, insurers, lenders, and communities.

Presentation 2:

Factory-Built Airtightness: Delivering a 0.32 ACH Fire Rebuild in Four Months

Presented by Edie Dillman and Jonah Stanford, B. Public Prefab

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.

1.25 AIA & 1 PHI CEUs

Moderated by Anne Barrett, Yale University

Learning Objectives:

1. Summarize the logistically and financially viability of Passive House strategies for disaster recovery projects within the context of markets or practice areas. 
2. Identify high-impact strategies for enclosure, ventilation and material decisions that deliver measurable health and durability improvements in post-wildfire conditions.
3. Analyze how panelized systems reduce field labor dependency while maintaining Passive House–level performance.
4. Apply lessons from this fire rebuild case study to future high-performance disaster recovery projects.