Passive House Retreat Wins AIA/BSA Design Award

Feb. 5, 2013 - PRLog -- BOSTON -- The Boston Society of Architects, a chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), presented a design award for the Passive House Retreat to ZeroEnergy Design (ZED), a Boston-based green architecture and mechanical design firm. Stephanie Horowitz AIA CPHC and Jordan Goldman CPHC of ZED were present at the Boston Society of Architects Design Awards Gala to accept the award.

The sole judging criterion for the award is design excellence. The jury is empowered to determine the extent to which design excellence is defined by aesthetic, functional, contextual, sustainability, social or other characteristics.

The Passive House Retreat, located on the New England coast, features high performance and efficient use of space in a small package. The home is LEED Gold certified, designed to the Passive House standard, and actual measured energy consumption is 86% less than a similar new home built only to code requirements.

ZED created a sleek, simple, gable roofed structure, and proposed the Passive House standard, which is a building performance standard that yields an extremely low-energy home. A combination of exceptional insulation, air sealing, high performance windows, and solar gain reduces the energy requirements to a fraction of a typical home, and uses only a small heating system. The homeowners, whose extended families owned large, drafty, energy inefficient homes, immediately understood that the Passive House standard would provide both the energy savings and the increased comfort.  They now enjoy a space with no wintertime drafts and very constant temperature throughout the home.

The award from the Boston Society of Architects is the second major award garnered by the Passive House Retreat. Earlier ZED was also presented with the Grand Award at the EcoHome Design Awards.

About ZED:
ZeroEnergy Design is a green architecture, mechanical design and energy consulting firm specializing in new construction and major renovations for homes and buildings. The distinct union of great design and energy performance is enabled by a multidisciplinary team whose expertise spans architecture, mechanical engineering and business.  This integrated design approach makes ZED uniquely equipped to originate designs that are tailored to a client’s requirements, environmental ideology, and unique sense of style.

http://www.ZeroEnergy.com

Contact:
Adam Prince
617-720-5002 *102
ZeroEnergy Design

Photo:
https://www.prlog.org/12073951/1