So I was really confronting the fact that this industry or profession or whatever that I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to is more or less directly tied to the destruction and swallowing up of all of the natural places that I’ve always sought refuge in. I’m still confronting that fact.

I was also spending quite a bit of time camping solo deep in the deserts of southern Utah and northern Arizona, exploring canyons and reading a lot of Ed Abbey, for what that’s worth.

It was inspired in large part by what I perceived to be this unspoken, widespread conception of Modernism as a kind of Manifest Destiny, that led to a lot of frustration and disillusionment early on in my career in architecture.

The whole thing was a kind of study of the concept of ‘utopia’ framed specifically thru a few influential architects and authors I like. It’s a little scattered, unpolished probably, but the ideas behind it seem worthy as ever for discussion in the year 2025.

I appreciate the tip, I’m going to look into PHN. For us, the addtl burden of the PHIUS process just makes it unrealistic for most projects. To be fair, this is far less of a problem with PHIUS than it is regressive zoning regs in the cities we work in most.

Is there much difference between PHN and PHIUS methodology? I’m a certified CPHC thru PHIUS, but not familiar with PHN yet. It’s been really challenging where we work to mesh passive house design with all of the other administrative, economic and labor challenges that already exist.

Can I ask where you’re working? I’m a firm believer in the principles, and also frustrated in how difficult it is to achieve the standard in the US, which may be a cultural issue as much as anything. It seems like the rest of the world has been able to adopt passivhaus far more easily.

Agreed. We try to approach each project a unique challenge requiring a unique solution. The principles are the same, but we’re dealing with different approvals processes, different site and microclimate, different clients, etc. not to mention constantly changing economics of materials and labor.

Plus many of our projects are so overburdened by administrative requirements (permitting, fire code, HOA, etc) that adding in a cert or metrics like passive house becomes ridiculous to pull off. I like elegant, simple low tech solutions, and that’s becoming a pipe dream in many places we work.

Definitely. And those principles are the cheapest and easiest to achieve as long as they are considered at the beginning of the process. I’ve become really disillusioned with high-tech solutions to problems that can be mostly addressed with good design.

For sure. Part of what we’ve seen lately is a trend toward high tech and proprietary solutions which solve 1 problem and create 2 or 3. I think it’s a combination of dealing with challenging economics, timelines and permitting requirements, as well as the novelty of new products.

Having worked in the natural building world previously, I’m so intrigued by straw panels. Massive labor requirements has been a big barrier to low-carbon, natural building methods - so panelized construction that bridges that gap is exciting.

Not that achieving all of these things AND keeping a project within budget and schedule is in any way easy, but it should be an aspiration if we want to build things that make the most of our limited resources and will last well into the future.

But the most egregious sin in the high performance world if you ask me (not that anyone did), is to continue building uninspired, soulless boxes. Ugly things just don’t last. Period.

I don’t care what your carbon footprint or energy consumption are if what you build isn’t beautiful and functional.

#passivehouse is cool and all, but it’s still basically a resource intensive way for property owners with above average means to hedge against the climate crisis for themselves while at the same time exacerbating the issue.

Our ‘highest performance’ projects are our most resource intensive by far.

And infill residential projects like this one I worked on circa 2015-16. A lot of scrutiny from the historic board, but zero lot lines, engagement with the street, alley parking out of site.

I miss the walkability and vibrancy of Cincinnati, especially on inversion days that keep me stranded inside. Blink was a great reminder of that.

Lots of different ideas in this space, loosely planning some small scale experimentation for 2025z

#architecture #mushrooms #naturalbuilding