Pattern Language from Passive House: Workshop Series

This interactive online four-session workshop series draws on project experience to demonstrate cost-effective planning and design of affordable, low-emission, mid-rise, multifamily, wood-framed housing. Featuring regional case-studies and strategies for Massachusetts and New England. 

The solutions presented in this workshop are drawn from the hundreds of affordable multi-unit buildings constructed to the Passive House standard worldwide, because this is the largest cohort of affordable, low-emission, mid-rise, multi-unit housing. While these solutions are taken from multi-unit Passive House buildings, they are equally applicable to buildings constructed to other low-emissions standards. Likewise, while affordable housing projects dominate the case studies presented in this workshop, the patterns apply equally to market- and luxury-housing projects.

The curriculum has been prepared by the Energy and Sustainability team at RDH, a team that is consulting to more than five million square feet of Passive House projects, in consultation with Passive House Massachusetts and Mass Save. The workshops will be presented by Monte Paulsen, a veteran Passive House trainer and leader of the RDH Passive House team.

Recordings of all workshop sessions are available for a limited time. Register to watch now. 

Workshop 1: Guide to a Pattern Language, Form Patterns, Costs, Discussion

Workshop 2: Embodied Carbon, Assembly Patterns, Thermal Bridging Patterns, Incentives

Workshop 3: Summer Comfort, Shading & Window Patterns, Cooling Patterns, Open Discussion

Workshop 4: Ventilation Patterns, Electrification Patterns, Planning Process & Timelines, Wrap-up Discussion