Design Brownstone renovations, wood-frame houses, and apartment buildings to the Passive House standards for comfort, health, and energy efficiency.

New York Passive House annual meeting. Discussing 2025 NYC Energy Code which has new requirements for thermal bridging and air leakage mitigation.

Yeah, that's a really unfortunate framing. I would also take issue with the use of the phrase 'cut costs' - I have always understood single stair to be primarily about improving the quality of multi-family housing, not as an exercise in cost-cutting which evokes corner-cutting.

Not the headline I would have gone with. Buildings can be safer with one stair than with two, especially if you reduce the length of the corridor and number of apartments per floor.

Saw it with my book club. It was great!

Hope to see you there!

The Passive House Network #PassiveHouse 2026 Conference! 🏡💡 📅 June 4-6, 2026 📍 Hotel Marcel, New Haven, CT Find out more: https://ow.ly/8XZh50XTyoF

Woke up this morning to snow covering my third-floor bedroom window. Ditmas Park, Brooklyn

It snowed in Brooklyn!

Cursed floor plan

1940 Irish language scif-fi book Manannán by Máiréad Ní Ghráda It is the first Mecha Robot outside of Japan and mention of a Gravity assist in fiction. It was never republished or translated.

Heat pumps aren’t new. Here’s one from 1938

The NYT reports that lawmakers in 24 US states are considering legislation that would legalize #pluginpv! 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/c...

Like a waffle slab but low carbon and renewable

Happy New Sidewalk Shed Rule Month to all who celebrate! Permits now capped at 90 days with mandatory progress reports for renewal. Effective February 2. edgnyc.com/blog/what-ny...

PrePoMo church in Bonn

"Poo was never a pollutant. When we defecate, we emit poo. Plants need poo to survive and grow. They thrive with more poo."

Nice progress on plug-in (balcony) solar bills in Vermont and Virginia. Would make it easy for renters and homeowners to install PV.

New York doesn’t have design review, but we do have Landmarks, which provides a similar function

Historic parking lots in NYC? Let's take a tour! (the NoHo one is unlikely to win here) Winner, so far: 39-14 215th St in Flushing, built 1892. No alteration noted, and no big changes since 1940.

New York City's curbside outdoor dining will return to being year-round, Council Speaker Julie Menin announced on Wednesday.

Cold enough here in New York for the ERV preheater to kick in. ERV: energy recovery ventilator provides continuous filtered fresh air and exhausts stale air without losing a lot of heat

We’re dismantling a stone pencheck stair right now and so it seems a good time to revisit a short 🧵 on the subject. How pencheck stairs work (resist torsion), and how they don’t (cantilever):

Map should include Trader Joe’s, which is owned by Aldi Nord

Reminder ahead of this weekend's frigid temperatures... Landlords in NYC are legally required to provide: * Heat-- At least 68 degrees during day (6am-10pm) and 62 degrees at night (10pm-6am) * Hot water-- At least 120 degrees (1/2)

Great turnout for The Good Building Book launch in Hereford with the authors @ecominimalnick.bsky.social and Jon Broome Good to catch up with folk, hope the book sells like hot cakes

📣 Call for Presentations: The Passive House Network Conference 2026 Have insights, lessons, or projects to share? Submit your presentation proposal and help advance the conversation on how #PassiveHouse transforms building delivery. 🗓Deadline: FEB 13 🔗Learn more & submit: https://ow.ly/E5QS50Y1fQx

Hopkins designs Europe’s largest Passivhaus university building for Oxford

This car battery could power 100% of the heat pump needed in a home built to the Passive House standard for about ten days in the middle of winter.

So many reasons to NOT build housing with shipping containers

Historic preservation and the Passive House standards can work well together. We’re doing it in New York and there are examples from around the world. The international Passive House conference will have a presentation on this building in Madrid. See you there!

It was nice to remind myself yesterday evening that I can just get on the subway and see art at the Met

Still lots of snow in New York

Literally “water ice”. You make fun of Philly for saying this but then the Germans go and call popsicles and Italian ice Wassereis. Lol

As of today, 25 out of 50 US states have introduced plug-in solar legislation.

Webinar on senior housing in Spain built to Passive House standards for comfort, health, and energy efficiency. All electric with rooftop solar. Feb 4 at noon New York time

Nuclear fusion from the balcony

I remember experiencing this for the first time working in an architecture office in Hamburg. I was like why are you opening the windows in the middle of winter!? Fortunately you don’t need to do this in new buildings that have mechanical ventilation with heat recovery

Had to shovel out the heat pump outdoor unit today. 10.5 kW (3-ton) Mitsubishi servicing 4 zones, one for each floor.

Nuclear fusion collectors? Yes, please!

Join us on April 24-25 in Essen for the 28th International Passive House Conference! It’s an event you won’t want to miss, packed with everything you need to stay at the forefront of energy-efficient building design. 👉 Explore the full program and grab your ticket today! https://ow.ly/XLnt50XMa6b

It’s not quite as cold as MN right now, but NYC just turned out a massive protest in solidarity in plunging temps, heading up 6th ave.

"And in Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has over the last decade prioritized banning cars from the city center and expanding pedestrian space. Last year, Parisian voters passed a referendum to close an additional 500 streets to traffic — and remove 10% of the city’s parking spaces."

New York weather forecast in Celsius I don’t think we’ve had such cold weather for so many days in a row in the 25 years I’ve been here

Balcony solar bills introduced in California Hoping New York does something similar

You probably don't know what SEQRA is - but you should know that it's slowing down the housing that we need. Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg is here to explain why reforming it is key to cutting red tape and building more housing.

🎓 Attention Students! 🎓 The Passive House Institute is offering #designPH-EDU, a special version of the 3D planning tool, for FREE for one year! This is an amazing opportunity for students to explore the possibilities of energy-efficient building design. 👉https://ow.ly/Ngtc50XMatw

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of nearly 100 House Democrats, will announce later today that it's formally endorsing legislation to strip $175 billion from ICE and put it toward affordable housing. www.huffpost.com/entry/doj-fe...

Governor Hochul will announce an extension of the Second Avenue Subway to 125th and Broadway in her State of the State address on Tuesday. buff.ly/2qxRQs6

🌟 #28intPHC Highlight: “Affordable green living in the centre of the city, including free electricity!” Join the conference to hear Harald Konrad Malzer’s presentation on affordable, climate-friendly housing! Early-bird tickets until Jan 31! https://passivhaustagung.de/en/conference/