Our symposiums are afternoon-long online events on one subject, where researchers, designers, engineers, builders, manufacturers, and policymakers from North America and Europe work through it together. Here is each one, with its recording where it’s online.

On this page: Building Electrification · Schools · Rubin Hall, an EnerPHit Retrofit · Fenestration · Wood and Regenerative Construction · Building Ventilation

2024: Building Electrification

July 25, 2024 · Online, noon to 3 PM ET · Building Electrification: A Passive House Symposium

“Electrify everything” is the call, but electrifying typical buildings overwhelms utilities and drives up costs. Electrification leveraged by Passive House performance lowers the burden on the grid and keeps buildings affordable, while improving resilience. The symposium looked at why PHI’s primary energy calculation now optimizes buildings for a future 100% renewable grid; how Massachusetts balances grid investment with Passive House efficiency; electrifying larger buildings, domestic hot water above all; and case studies: Hotel Marcel, an all-electric EnerPHit Premium hotel in New Haven, and certified homes in Minnesota and California.

With Jessica Grove-Smith (Passive House Institute), Bronwyn Barry (PassiveHouseBB), Tim Eian (TE Studio), Bruce Becker (Becker + Becker Architects), Dylan Martello (Steven Winter Associates), and Paul Ormond (Massachusetts DOER); moderated by Ken Levenson.

2024: Schools

June 20, 2024 · Online, noon to 4 PM ET · Academic Performance: A Passive House Schools Symposium

Passive House works at every level of learning, from preschool to university. As school systems push toward electrification, serve as public shelter in extreme weather, and adapt to fast-changing needs, the symposium looked at the challenges schools present, the Passive House strategies that are working, and what comes next, through case studies from the US and abroad and panel discussions.

With Naomi Beal (PassivhausMAINE), Caleb Crawford (NYC School Construction Authority), Ann-Marie Fallon (Architype, UK), Dominic Griffin (Architecture Research Office), Wolfgang Hasper (Passive House Institute), Richard Lo (Kaplan Thompson Architects), Timothy Lock (Opal Architecture), and Barry McCarron (South West College, Northern Ireland); moderated by Ken Levenson.

2023: Rubin Hall, an EnerPHit Retrofit

November 2, 2023 · Online, noon to 2:30 PM ET · Restoring the Past, Protecting the Future: Decarbonizing Historic Skyscrapers

How do you turn a landmarked high-rise with a large carbon footprint into a high-performing building that still respects its history? The project team for New York University’s Rubin Hall, a 17-story student residence designed to meet EnerPHit, took the question apart: uninsulated brick and terra cotta walls, single-pane steel windows, and oil-fired steam heat, turned into an insulated, airtight enclosure with historically appropriate triple-pane windows and all-electric heating, cooling, and ventilation; and the landmark approvals along the way.

With Cecil Scheib (New York University), Cheryl Saldanha (Simpson Gumpertz & Heger), Dylan Martello (Steven Winter Associates), Jeffrey Rios (AKF Group), and Michael Syracuse (FXCollaborative).

2022: Fenestration

March 9, 2022 · Online, 1 to 5 PM ET · Fenestration Focus: Scaling High-Performance Domestic Supply & Demand · with the Passive House Institute and the Facade Tectonics Institute

The Passive House Standard has changed what windows are expected to do, and is transforming window manufacturing from Ireland to China. The symposium asked how to grow the domestic market for high-performance windows: the first session compared PHI’s window metrics and certification (glass, spacer, frame, and installation) with NFRC’s whole-window ratings, and how to use both; the second, the policy levers (codes, incentives, training, and rebates) that could raise demand and scale manufacturing.

The program

Session 1: Metrics and certifications

  • Introduction, Bronwyn Barry, passivehouseBB
  • Fenestration certification: metrics, standards, targets, and process, Adrian Muskatewitz, PHI
  • Translating PHI metrics: how they compare with NFRC and US window certification, Daniel Haaland, RDH
  • Weighing both frameworks, Helen Sanders, Technoform and the Facade Tectonics Institute
  • Panel discussion, moderated by Bronwyn Barry

Session 2: Policy to accelerate demand and scale manufacturing

  • Policy levers and opportunities, Bronwyn Barry
  • What drives innovation forward, Stephen Selkowitz, LBNL
  • PHI curtain wall design experience, Peter Dushenski, GlasCurtain
  • Panel discussion, moderated by Helen Sanders

2022: Wood and Regenerative Construction

January 26–27, 2022 · Online, 1 to 4 PM ET each day · Regenerative Construction Ecosystems · organized with Michael Eliason of Larch Lab

Industrialized wood construction from well-managed forests can reduce wildfire risk while delivering decarbonized buildings that are healthy, fast to assemble, and adaptable; Passive House adds resilience to wildfire, energy insecurity, and a warming world. Day one covered designing, planning, and erecting mass timber buildings, and how universities train the people who will build them. Day two covered Passive House and low-carbon buildings: prefabrication, wood components, and embodied carbon tools, with an early look at our US version of PHribbon. Blue Lake Rancheria and the North Fork Lumber Company, both of Humboldt County, California, helped make it possible.

The program

Day 1: Wood industrialized construction

  • Introduction, Michael Eliason, Larch Lab
  • Keynote, Dr. Guido Wimmers, University of Northern British Columbia
  • Mass timber for academic and public buildings, Corey Martin, Hacker
  • Delivering wood buildings, Erica Spiritos, Timberlab
  • Industrialized construction in an educational setting, Dr. Daniel Hall, ETH Zürich
  • Panel discussion, moderated by Michael Eliason

Day 2: Passive House, embodied carbon tools, and wood components

  • Keynote, Ann-Marie Fallon, Architype
  • Wood and straw prefabricated Passive House, Bjorn Kierulf, EcoCocon
  • Calculating embodied carbon in Passive House: the PHribbon, Tim Martel
  • Decarbonized value-added wood manufacturing and Passive House, Matt O’Malia, TimberHP by GO Lab
  • Prefab panelized wood Passive House, Jonah Stanford, B.PUBLIC Prefab
  • Panel discussion, moderated by Michael Eliason

The recordings of both days will be posted here soon.

2021: Building Ventilation

March 10, 2021 · Online, 2 to 5:30 PM ET · Let’s Clear the Air: Ventilation, High Performance, and Passive House

Ventilation is often an underappreciated part of high-performance buildings: the pandemic made its health role obvious, but its energy impact stays hidden until a building targets radical efficiency. The symposium traced how PHI’s ventilation criteria and component testing came about and where they’re going, and then the strategies for Passive House ventilation design: humidity, enclosure, climate, and health; when dehumidification is needed; and how to keep indoor air quality high, and know it.

The program

Session 1: What do we know and how do we know it? Matching unit testing data to desired outcomes

  • Rainer Pfluger, University of Innsbruck, formerly of the Passive House Institute
  • Berthold Kaufmann, Passive House Institute
  • Charles Stephens, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
  • Matthew Friedlander, RenewAire
  • Moderated by Mike Moore, Stator

Session 2: Passive House performance strategies for high-quality indoor air

  • Lois Arena, Steven Winter Associates
  • Enrico Bonilauri, Emu Systems
  • Josephine Zurica, Dagher Engineering
  • Berthold Kaufmann, Passive House Institute
  • Moderated by Andrew Peel, Peel Passive House Consulting

Questions about a symposium, or an idea for the next one? Write to us at info@passivehousenetwork.org. See also our Conferences and PHN Presents.

Checked October 2026.