Passive House Podcast

Co-host Matthew Cutler-Welsh interviews Shaun St-Amour, education and outreach expert at 475 High Performance Building Supply, Passive House evangelist, and a frequent fixture at Passive House Accelerator as Q&A Concierge at the Global Passive House Happy Hour and Co-host of Construction Tech Tuesday. Matthew and Shaun discuss Shaun's family legacy in construction, his background in prefab, his journey to Passive House, his work establishing the Ice Box Challenge in Vancouver and its subsequent tour across North America, and much more. 

Watch this video of Shaun St-Amour and the Ice Box Challenge team in Seattle, WA for the 2017 installation as part of the Seattle Design Festival: https://youtu.be/kZZM17L-uVc

For links to the events that Matthew and Co-host Zack Semke discuss at the end of the episode, visit: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-june-21

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, co-host Matthew Cutler-Welsh interviews architect Kyle Mills, Director of BluKube Architecture in Sydney, Australia, and pioneer of both Passive House practice and education Down Under. Their conversation touches on Kylie's early builder apprenticeship with her father and the insights that has brought to her work with tradespeople onsite, her experience watching the trades in Australia ramp up on Passive House practice enough to start enabling deeper Passive House retrofits, and her thoughts about the future of Passive House in Australia.

Near the end of the episode, Matthew and cohost Zack Semke discuss upcoming events, details about which can be found here: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-june-21

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

In this, the first special Passive House Component episode of the Passive House Podcast, cohost Zack Semke speaks with Rob Conboy, CEO of Glavel, an industry innovator and founding sponsor of Passive House Accelerator. Rob and Zack dive into Glavel’s origin story, its commitment to 100% clean energy use in the production of its foam glass gravel, the firm's moves to weave equity and inclusion into its company DNA, and its quest to eliminate operational and embodied carbon emissions from buildings throughout North America. Glavel takes recycled glass and transforms it into a low embodied carbon, insulative gravel that replaces both gravel and foam board insulation at the foundations of Passive House buildings. It’s revolutionary stuff, and Rob and his team are harnessing that revolutionary spirit to build a manufacturing operation that will accelerate the transition to healthy, resilient, and climate-wise buildings. Have a listen!

Check out the video version of this special episode here: https://youtu.be/w3inUmTDYv8

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

Mary James and Ilka Cassidy talk with Meleny Thomas, executive director of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT), about the organization’s mission to create community-led development and her decision to target Passive House for their initial development of 10 new homes. The choice sets a precedent for healthy homes not being restricted to affluent communities, Thomas says, in discussing how she first heard about Passive House and why she chose it as a target. SBCLT grew out of a decade of grassroots and youth organizing in a community burdened by unsafe, unaffordable housing and toxic environmental hazards. Thomas has more than 15 years of experience building community-based organizations and serving families and has a Master’s in nonprofit management and leadership.

Find links to upcoming events here: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-june-13

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

Passive House Podcast cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh interviews Brian Guinan, Certified Passive House Consultant, Certified Passive House Tradesperson, and Owner/Director of ISMART Building Group in Perth, Australia. The two discuss Brian’s apprenticeship as a builder in his native Ireland, his time in construction in New York City, and his journey to Passive House construction in Western Australia. Brian shares his insights around transforming industry practice, and the importance of focusing on improvements to existing technologies and construction approaches in order to achieve the most rapid change. He shares lots more about his work to build awareness about Passive House and to build examples as proof-of-concept for builders, trades, architects, and homeowners. 

Matthew and cohost Zack Semke talk about the upcoming NAPHN hybrid conference, Passive House For All, that will take place on June 10 and 11, 2021. For links to this event as well as many other upcoming Passive House gatherings and trainings, visit: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-june -7

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

José Sosa trained as a structural architect in Panama City before attending New York City College to complete a Masters in Sustainability in the Urban Environment. Professionally, he’s worked in both Panama and New York, often on high-performance projects. As well as working as an architect, José has also supported other designers with the specification and supply of high performance windows, often for Passive House projects. José became a Certified Passive House Designer in 2018 and the following year he founded the Panama Chapter of the Latin American Passivhaus Institute.

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

Guest co-hosts Mary James and Ilka Cassidy talk with architect Petra Wörner, managing partner of wörner traxler richter, about heading up the design of the world’s first hospital targeting the international Passive House standard.  Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst, currently under construction in Frankfurt, Germany, will open its doors next year. The 839,585sf facility recently passed the all-important airtightness test with an impressive result of 0.13 ACH50, bringing the hospital a giant step closer to certification.

Mary, Ilka, Matthew Cutler-Welsh, and Zack Semke refer to upcoming Passive House events at the end of the episode, which can be found here: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-may-24

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

In this episode, Passive House Podcast cohost Zack Semke interviews Bomee Jung, recently of NYCHA (NY City Housing Authority) and now principal of Topsight Advisors. Bomee discusses her involvement in early efforts to address climate action and buildings, the role that affordable housing providers are playing to reset our collective understanding of what “housing quality” should mean (ie. Passive House), and the ways that Passive House practitioners and organizations can help advance racial equity both in the AEC industry and in the built environment. Don’t miss Bomee’s contributions to our Passive House Policy Summit and her recent interview with Chris Benedict about the health impacts of compartmentalization in multifamily buildings. 

Zack and cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh also discuss upcoming events that can be found in our Passive House Week in Preview: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-may-10

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

Sixteen years in the UK Royal Navy not only gave John Palmer a sounds background in engineering, he also gained leadership and management experience within a large and structured institution. When he made the decision to leave his Commander role, he retrained and applied his technical and management skills to building and then energy efficiency. It was only a matter of time that he came across and then fully embraced the building science of Passive House. In 2018 he left his role as Managing Director of Enhabit to become the Research and Policy Director for Passivhaus Trust. During this interview, cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh questions John about his recommendations for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), a common method of comparing theoretical building energy efficiency in Europe and the UK.

Mathew and cohost Zack Semke discuss upcoming Passive House events that can be found here: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-may-3

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

On Episode 37 of the Passive House Podcast, guest co-hosts Mary James and Ilka Cassidy interview Katie Faulkner, founder of WestFaulkner, an office with a mission for sustainable design. She is also a director at PT-Tech, a division of Placetailor in Boston whose initial focus is on the design and prefabrication of retrofit panels for triple decker homes.

Katie has been working as an architect for more than 20 years and was named to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2020. Her work is motivated by an interest in sustainable, modular construction, centered on the intention to reduce risk and improve cost control. She was a founding partner of the Boston-based firm NADAAA, where her projects included the Daniels Building at University of Toronto, Rhode Island School of Design’s North Hall, and the R+D Center at the Beaver School. More recently, she was a Vice President of Design for Katerra, focusing on a mid-rise mass timber housing prototype.

 Mary and Ilka’s conversation with Katie ranges from the career opportunities that prefabrication opens up for women to the urgency of deep energy retrofits, and much in between. Her early work in healthcare design led to an abiding interest in optimized project delivery models, while always keeping sustainable design front and center. Katie’s decades-long experience is well suited to her current collaboration with Placetailor to bring to market cost-effective bio-based retrofit panels.

Mary, Ilka, Matthew Cutler-Welsh, and Zack Semke discuss upcoming events that can be accessed here: https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/passive-house-week-in-preview-may-3

Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.