Passive House Podcast

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...

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....

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, ofte...

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 a...

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...

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...

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 fo...

On Episode 36 of the Passive House Podcast. cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh interviews Robyn Wark, Manager of Advanced Demand Side Management at BC Hydro about the groundbreaking Energy Step Code in British Columbia.  Robyn is a sustainability strategist, partnership builder, and coach on low carbon communities.  Her sustainability work has won awards from Real Estate Foundation of BC, the Federation...

In Episode 35 of the Passive House Podcast , cohost Zack Semke interviews architect Tom Eisele , recently of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Resiliency, and current policy advisor with New York Passive House. Zack and Tom discuss the momentous New York City Local Law 97 which caps greenhouse gas emissions for all buildings in New York that are 25,000 or larger—over 50,000 buildings. The caps s...

In Episode 34 of the Passive House Podcast , cohost Zack Semke interviews Passive House policy leader and accelerator Beverly Craig , Senior Project Manager of Low and Moderate Income Programs at Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (Mass CEC). Zack and Beverly discuss the pivotal role that policy progress can play in spurring widespread adoption of Passive House design and construction. Beverly shar...

Ya’el Santopinto is an architect and associate at ERA Architects , where she leads ERA’s affordable housing retrofit practice. She is also the director of research and partnerships with the Tower Renewal Partnership, a non-profit sister organization to ERA that advocates for supportive policy frameworks around the preservation of Canada’s affordable apartment housing supply. Ya’el is the project a...

Kate Nason is a certified passive house designer in Melbourne, Australia. She works for the international environmental design consultancy, Atelier Ten. She's also a director of partnerships and major events on the board of the Australian Passive House Association and a part-time tutor at the University of Melbourne. Having had various architectural roles since graduating from her master's degree,...

Most Australians who know a bit about Passive House will know a bit about Clare Parry . If they haven’t met her personally, they will have been impacted by her leadership. In this interview, Clare shares with Passive House Podcast cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh how she had to travel to New Zealand to attend Passive House training because there wasn’t any available in Australia when she first became i...

Laura Nettleton is the founder of Thoughtful Balance , an architectural and consulting firm based in Pittsburgh devoted to cutting-edge sustainable and high-performance design solutions. The firm has pioneered some of the most significant Passive House retrofit projects in the United States. Laura is dedicated to the idea that architecture should be simple, affordable, and available to everyone. S...

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2021, we have something special in store for listeners of the Passive House Podcast. Guest cohosts Mary James and Ilka Cassidy launch their once-a-month series of interviews with women leaders and practitioners in Passive House with an interview with Nina Sharifi and Gabrielle Brainard.  Mary James is Passive House Accelerator’s Director of Publications...

Talina Edwards is a leader in regenerative architecture and Passive House design in Australia. She’s a leader of Australian Architects Declare as well as a board member of Australian Passive House Association. In 2013 she established her architectural studio, Talina Edwards Architecture, which has gone on to win numerous sustainable design awards, most recently for the striking Owl Woods Passive H...

Passive House podcaster extraordinaire and personality Ben Adam-Smith of House Planning Help joins  Passive House Podcast cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh for an entertaining conversation about how Ben came to his focus on Passive House, his burgeoning communications treasure trove at House Planning Help's "The Hub", his observations about Passive House adoption in the UK, and the secrets behind his Pa...

You may know Prudence Ferreira through her role as cohost of Passive House Accelerator’s Global Passive House Happy Hour. Or perhaps you’ve been her student, learning the ins and outs of Passive House design and building science in one of Prudence’s many teaching engagements. She’s one of North America’s top Passive House innovators and a global leader in high-performance building practice. Now ba...

Sian Taylor was one of the first certified Passive House designers in New Zealand and has played a pivotal role in Passive House adoption there. She first trained as an architect in the United Kingdom, at the University of Wales in Cardiff. She currently lives in Otago, where she started her practice, Team Green Architects . Her architectural practice has helped show a pathway for fusing high-perf...

Anton Dobrevski was born and raised in Bulgaria, where he says that houses are generally not built well or well insulated. Nevertheless, Anton was introduced to Passive House at an early age by his father, a pioneering Passive House builder in Bulgaria. Upon graduating from high school, Anton moved to the Netherlands to study architecture at Delft University of Technology. During one of his first...

This week’s Passive House Podcast serves double-duty: first, as a fascinating conversation with the accomplished Passive House architect and deep thinker Dennis Wedlick; and second, as a preview to this Tuesday’s (January 26) webcast produced by Dennis on behalf of AIANY CRAN that will feature a “mini film festival” of residential Passive House practice from four teams, followed by a panel discuss...

While Brett Seriani began his career in Canada, he is now a Passive House pioneer in Australia. Before becoming a Certified Passive House Designer, Brett trained and qualified as both a structural engineer and an architect. With this powerhouse of experience and knowledge, he is well placed to offer a range of technical design services through his company, Seriani Designs. In this episode of the P...

Lois Arena is one of North America’s top Passive House practitioners and has worked on many of the continent’s most significant Passive House buildings. In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Lois joins cohost Zack Semke to discuss her journey to Passive House as well as to offer a teaser for the Global Passive House Happy Hour presentation about VRF lessons learned on January 20.  The conv...

Daniel Kress is a prolific Passive House educator, having trained over half of Australia’s certified Passive House professionals. In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, our first of 2021, Daniel joins cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh to discuss his work at Smart Plus Academy, the educational consultancy that Daniel founded and directs, as well as his work promulgating Passive House in Australia...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast Sangeetha Sambandam joins podcast co-host Zack Semke to talk about her journey to Passive House and the major projects she has underway. Sangeetha, a designer at WRT in Philadelphia, completed her architectural training in India with an undergraduate background in physics. After working in Sri Lanka and India she moved to Philadelphia where her interest...