Not your typical alpine home, SoLo is a mass timbre house located in the Soo Valley, north of Whistler, which showcases Passive House standards. Photo on this spread by Andrew Latreille / Courtesy: Perkins&Will.
PASSIVE COMFORT As climate change creates new challenges for homeowners, interest is growing in the Passive House building standard, not only for its energy efficiency, but for its comforts. By Lisa Manfield
It’s been 12 years since Austria’s Passive House, home base for Austrian athletes and officials during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, put this standard for energy efficient homes in the spotlight in B.C. The idea was originally developed in North America in the 1970s, as governments grappled with the energy crisis. “The Canadian federal government funded a group of engineers, architects and building scientists to build a forerunner of today’s modern Passive House in Saskatoon,” says Chris Ballard, CEO of Passive House Canada. “They employed the fundamentals of modern Passive 22
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Summer 2022
House standards: good windows and insulation, and solar orientation. Then the Europeans took the ideas and codified them.” Since its reintroduction, though, the concept has caught on like wildfire, and hundreds of Passive House buildings have gone up throughout B.C. and across the country. “We are influencing the entire building community by demanding better standards,” Ballard says. “If you look at where the federal government wants to go with the national building code, it really means that homes will need to use Passive House principles.”
