Page 70 - Winter_2020

Passive-House
Passive-House

Aggressive
Aggressive

Architect Designs

an Ultra-Low-

Energy Home for

Her Family

by G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

By now, most readers of ARCHITECTUREDC are familiar
with the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) program, a rating system developed by the U.S.
Green Building Council to encourage environmentally
responsible design and construction. LEED, however, is
just one of numerous green building standards in use
around the world. Others include BREEAM (Building
Research Establishment Environmental Assessment
Method), based in the U.K.; the WELL Building Standard,
which emphasizes occupants’ health; and the Living
Building Challenge, which assesses a building’s
environmental performance over a 12-month period
before certification. Each of these programs has both its
strengths and weaknesses and its adherents and critics.
Passive House is a voluntary standard focusing
on energy efficiency. Established in 1996 in Germany
by the Passivhaus Institute (PHI), the program has
grown slowly but steadily, and has been applied to both
residential and non-residential projects at a variety
of scales. In 2007, an Illinois architect and her builder
partner founded the non-profit Passive House Institute
US, Inc. (PHIUS), a separate organization that has
refined the passive house standards to respond to the
widely varying climates in North America.
Architect Robin McGrew, AIA, LEED AP, PHIUS
CPHC, now an associate with Cunningham | Quill
Architects in DC, first became interested in the Passive
House concept while her family was living in Greece. Living room.
When they returned home to DC, she and her husband
were eager to move into a smaller house. Ultimately,
they decided to subdivide the double lot that they
already owned, build a new house on the open part of
the site, and sell their previous house. Having become
a certified Passive House architect, McGrew saw the
opportunity to apply her specialized knowledge to her
own family’s home, which she designed independently
before joining her current firm.
McGrew’s Passive House
as seen from the street.
68 PASSIVE-HOUSE AGGRESSIVE