Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

Passive House 101 Cram Session

Passive House is a revolutionary approach to building design that aims to create ultra-energy-efficient buildings that are comfortable, healthy, and resilient. In this video, we provide a comprehensive overview of the principles of Passive House, including how it works, what sets it apart from traditional building methods, and the benefits of adopting this standard for your next building project.

We delve into the key components of Passive House design, such as insulation, air sealing, heat recovery ventilation, and passive design. We also explain the key performance metrics that buildings must achieve to be recognized as Passive House certified, and how Passive House performance, combined with carbon-sequestering materials and clean clean energy, provides the path to zero carbon building.

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

Efficiency Promotes Social Justice

Darmstadt/Wiesbaden, Germany. Highly energy-efficient buildings are indispensable for climate protection. The 26th International Passive House Conference demonstrated that a high energy efficiency is also necessary for other reasons: social justice, good air quality for example in schools and health care buildings, and protecting the power grid against overloading are other good reasons to build and retrofit buildings in a better way.

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

Senate Bill 9 (SB9)| What can I build?

In 2021, Governor Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 9 (SB9) to further address California’s housing shortage. SB9 went into effect January 1, 2022. This law establishes a streamlined process to develop two primary residential dwelling units on one eligible single-family zoned parcel, and to split one eligible single-family zoned parcel into two separate parcels of approximately equal size. SB9 also provides more flexible property setbacks and parking standards and extends subdivision approval expirations for eligible parcels

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

3d Printed House at Woodbury University, Los Angeles

3d Printed House at Woodbury University, Los Angeles

Woodbury School of Architecture students in the design studio of professor Kishani De Silva invited us to attend the 3d concrete printing for their Solar Decathlon competition contribution. The Solar Decathlon is the U.S. Department of Energy’s global challenge to college students to design and build zero-energy buildings. It was very impressing and exciting to see their building growing layer by layer.

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

Zoning Holiday Design Party

PARAVANT Architects participated in the Zoning Holiday Passive House Design Competition. On February 1, 2023 the Zoning Holiday Design Party took place in San Francisco, CA attended by developers, architects and advocates.

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

Happy New Year !

Happy New Year 2023 from Passive House Los Angeles & PARAVANT Architects.

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

What – NO ZONING???

What - NO ZONING??? That's certainly a party! PHN is collaborating with YIMBY Law/Action and Home3 Inc. to celebrate by hosting a Call for Designs for Passive House 5-plex designs for California.

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

Updated Passive House Series

Passive House Network (PHN), The Economics of Residential Passive House, Residential Electrification with the Passive House Standard

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Christian Kienapfel Christian Kienapfel

CODE BREAKER – Multifamily | All-Electric 2022 Energy Code Changes

The 2022 California Energy Code has introduced significant changes for multifamily occupancies, from how these occupancies are to be classified and organized within the code to the introduction of new Mandatory and Prescriptive Measures facilitating preparation for future multifamily all-electric buildings.

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