Build It Forward

Katrin Klingenberg didn't set out to build a movement. She was finishing her own home in Champaign-Urbana when a persistent phone call pulled her into a room full of building science legends and nothing was the same after that.

Recorded live at NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026, this conversation on Build It Forward has Nick and Katrin tracing the origin of Phius, the early debates about whether European passive house standards could work in American climates, and the long road to developing a climate-specific standard that actually fits how we build here. They get into workforce development, the role of training and credentials, and what it looks like to think about passive house not just as a building standard but as a market transformation tool, one that Katrin believes should eventually make itself obsolete.

This is a conversation about what it takes to shift an industry and what comes next.

00:00:55 One Phone Call That Changed Everything
00:01:18 Building America's First Passive House
00:03:26 How Phius Came to Be
00:06:05 Finding the Community Already Cooking
00:07:06 Why the European Standard Didn't Translate
00:11:00 Turning a Building Method into a Movement
00:19:00 The Workforce Gap Holding the Industry Back
00:27:00 What a National Training Strategy Actually Looks Like
00:34:14 When Passive House Becomes Second Nature

Connect with Katrin Klingenberg and Phius:
phius.org | IG: @phius_official

Learn more about NESEA:
nesea.org |IG: @neseaorg

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
vision@auburndalebuilders.com

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #Phius #NESEA #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #WorkforceDevelopment #BuildingEnergy #PassiveBuilding #KatrinKlingenberg

What is Build It Forward?

Build It Forward is about the people, ideas, and decisions shaping the future of high-performance residential construction. Hosted by Nick Falkoff, GM of Auburndale Builders, and produced by PRMEABL_, the name is a play on “pay it forward.”

Conversations range from technical decisions and process to people, culture, history, and collaboration — exploring what’s working, what isn’t, and what might be interesting to try next.

These conversations are worth having, and worth sharing, because the best buildings come from communities that share what they know and build forward together.