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Interviews with the leaders, practitioners, and change-makers in the global Passive House movement. A production of Passive House Accelerator.
Kim Davis
00:01 - 00:25
Across the board what I left with was thinking about the word scale and how you know it can be a massive university project in New York or Martins you know tiny project in South America I feel like everyone is kind of scaling up their collective impact in this industry in whatever way that they can and it just felt really clear to me that meaningful change can happen and that it's happening at every different level.
Zack Semke
00:32 - 01:51
Hello and welcome to the Reimagine Edit, a special series of the Passive House podcast that shares curated insights from the conversations happening in the Reimagine Buildings Collective, our membership community where we bring together builders, designers, and change makers driven to create healthy climate-ready buildings so that we can share hard-won lessons, level up our practices, and build the networks we need to thrive. Today is July 8th, 2025, and in this episode, we'll hear from Mariana Pickering, J.D. Scott, Jonah Stanford, Juhee Lee Hartford, James Hartford, Eliot Hetterly, James Turner, Stephen Stuart, Mary James, Kim Davis, Rainger Pinney, Ed May, Michael Ingui, and Eoin Killeen. I'm Zack Semke, director of Passive House Accelerator and host of the Reimagine Buildings Collective, and thanks for joining me. Alrighty, let's get going, starting with the trio from Be Public and their Ask Me Anything session in the collective. Mariana Pickering of former Emu Passive fame, now with Be Public, as well as J.D. Scott and Jonah Stanford of Be Public. Mariana starts by drawing the parallel between adoption of high-performance prefab and the early days of Passive House.
Mariana Pickering
01:52 - 02:31
It's really interesting for me to kind of take the history of my career in in really educational kind of communication stuff and come over to something that's trying to get the prefab out the door. I think what was interesting at my time at EMU was it was that beginning phase of getting Passive House out into the world and getting more mainstream folks interested in Passive House. And I don't know, I have the same exciting vibes about where panelization is right now. And so it feels like it's that kind of trigger moment in history where this is going to become really important. And I'm happy to be involved with one of the cool companies doing it.
Zack Semke
02:33 - 02:47
Here, Mariana draws the distinction between Passive House prefab versus quote, mainstream crappy offsite builds, followed by JD and Jonah sharing what they've seen in terms of growth and development in the past couple of years.
Mariana Pickering
02:47 - 03:42
Everyone I know in this community and all of us and even the public leadership, we're coming to it from the Passive House direction, right? We're coming from it from the high performance as the baseline of what we all want to do. And then let's layer prefab or offsite on top of that. And so there is, I think, a little bit of lack of awareness from our side as a community about what's happening over in mainstream crappy offsite builds, you know, and how is that, how is that growing in an industry? I'm really interested in kind of hearing what that community is talking about separate from the performance kind of discussion, because I imagine that doesn't enter into it a ton, but my super, super high level impression from the outside looking in is just that there is, there has been kind of a revived conversation around it in the past several years. Yeah,
JD Scott
03:42 - 04:39
absolutely. I mean, I think last year, we saw a pretty big leap in growth. We had our first commercial institutional project that went up locally. And we're actually, this year, we're kind of in the middle of design and planning phases for our first multifamily project locally, which is really exciting. So I think there is growth happening. There are still the same challenges and individual roadblocks on projects that everyone goes through. And that's not changing anytime soon, I don't think. And likewise, I think the volatility and the ups and downs that Zack is talking about, that's still probably going to be in the picture for the foreseeable future. I think we found at the first couple of months of the year, people being skittish and maybe pulling back on projects or pressing pause. But now a lot of people have come back and are plowing ahead on stuff. And that's really inspiring and exciting for us to see.
Jonah Stanford
04:39 - 06:05
Yeah, maybe just like if we look at some of the larger market indicators, I think it definitely does seem like there's growth in that. Like even in, I know it's a couple of years ago, if we look at the ICC 1200, 1205 codes that came out, right? Those are some of the first codes that we see national codes aligning offsite construction with the design and install process. So I think that was probably one of the happiest days of my life for us to get offsite construction nationally. So that's huge. Also, if we look at some of our larger industries, like you look at Simpson Tie, right, which is probably I also think is a very smart organization. They're coming out with more and more products for offsite construction. They're aligning with that. So I think they're definitely seeing that demand in the industry. We look at like for the first time at IBS in Las Vegas, we saw that first prefabricated panels, panelized construction being sort of promoted by certainty, right? They just completed their ERS through ICC on their one panel series, which is totally designed around offsite construction, of course. So there's some larger industrial players that I think are definitely moving into this that we haven't seen in the decades
Zack Semke
06:05 - 06:30
previously. Cool to hear about the alignment of codes with offsite construction, as well as the big dogs getting involved. Next, we hear from experts and residents Juhee Lee Hartford and James Hartford of River Architects and their Reimagine design interview with Passive House Accelerator founder Michael Ingwe. Here they share a secret to success in Passive House Builds.
James Hartford
06:31 - 06:51
So we've worked with people that have had no passive building experience at all and just hit it right out of the park, while others who were certified and struggled to make airtightness. So it's really, I think, just care, curiosity, and willingness to admit that you don't know everything and when to call in for just some help.
Juhee Lee-Hartford
06:52 - 07:52
Right, and quality execution. So that particular builder, Heitman Builders in Garrison, Hopewell Junction area, they just did quality work, you know, quality residential work. And so it was no brainer for them to just pay attention to what they're doing. And even the tapes that will be hidden behind finishes, they gave great care. And as James said, reading the drawings, willingness to learn. And they were not afraid. When we were starting out in Passive House, many builders that wanted to do a project with us were like, oh, this is Passive House. It's going to be so much work. And it's going to be, we'll have to redo things. And they were so scared. And so that would be reflected in their bid. But with Heitman, they just roll right in. they didn't mark up terribly you know it's just quality work it's just quality work so
James Hartford
07:52 - 08:32
yeah yeah you touched on something there g like um you know like paying for your learning curve you know like i think most of us are used to paying for our courses and taking the the costs you know like up front before we take on a project right so um we don't expect to have a client pay us to learn how to do passive house right and so um for a builder who's new to passive house they shouldn't expect the client to pay for their learning curve either you know it shouldn't hurt them um but at the same time you know there's it's an investment um and it's an investment in the future of their business you know it
Michael Ingui
08:32 - 09:55
makes so much sense i mean you guys mentioned two words that i wrote down because i i like writing down little golden nugget words or phrases but um curious builder was one that i love uh and i will use again uh and and not afraid is is actually uh so smart because you're right i mean you get the prices in there because you're you're afraid of what you're about to do or you don't want to start something new or uh the curious builder thing is so smart or it's really curious anybody you know when you when we're around people who aren't curious um maybe Maybe they're not so open to growth and new things. So we've got the ear of some architects and builders here with us today, but also there'll be people listening to this. We're just kind of getting into either from school or there are someone who's never done a passive house before, a high performance building. Someone either works at a firm and wants at a firm to do something or someone who's trying to get it going, architect or builder or engineer. What's one message you'd want them to remember about building better? One question. Second question, what do you wish you knew as you started out? You know, like, hey, listen, if you just do this one thing or two things or whatever they are, what kind of words of wisdom can you share with everybody?
Juhee Lee-Hartford
09:57 - 10:07
I would say it's okay to start small. You know, it still matters. And I think our efforts will accumulate and it will make a difference.
James Hartford
10:08 - 11:20
Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, you can see in the background here that our own studio is a renovation of a blacksmith shop. It was built somewhere between 1820 and 1840. And it's a source net zero certified passive house. You know, in a lot of ways, there's a lot of experimentation that went on in it. And, you know, so we used ourselves as our own guinea pig. We've got some features in it that, you know, really aren't in many other passive houses. We've got a ground loop for preheating the incoming air. There are a few things that are a bit experimental, but really, again, kind of approaching the project with curiosity and willingness to take some chances. Nothing too crazy. We're not defying gravity, but to really express, you know, find ways to express yourself through it and to hone skills both for yourself, your team and your builders is really important. And then it's also just a great example to show to clients coming in because it's a really big selling point when you're, you know, actually, you know, can demonstrate that you're walking the walk with them,
Zack Semke
11:21 - 11:40
you know. Not defying gravity, but walking the walk. Next, we hear from several members of the collective and the insights they shared at the collective's after party, the day after our big Reimagine Buildings 25 conference this past month. First up is Eliot Hetterly of Settlement Housing Fund.
Eliot Hetterly
11:41 - 14:42
So this is my first Reimagine Buildings conference, and I really enjoyed it. I found it super inspiring. One of the themes that really stood out to me was this idea of interconnectedness and how the solutions to the challenges that we face involve all of us because we are all interconnected. People, the environment, plants and animals, like everything is connected. And that is even true when you are thinking about past, present and future. Like, even though we can kind of separate those categories at the same time, there's so much interconnection there as well. And blending of like past, present and future. One of the presentations that really stood out to me was from Jansara Ruth from the Healthy Materials Lab. And just thinking about how like the solutions to our modern problems are using strategies that are like as old as time. Like building with natural materials like straw and clay and lime. Yeah, it was an amazing presentation. John Sara is like a personal hero of mine. But yeah, just how like these are traditional ecological methods, like a lot of what we know about them comes from indigenous people. You know, they're sort of like of the past in a sense, but also like are so relevant to our present and to our future. And we can blend those traditional knowledges with also like the technologies that we have of today and tomorrow. and just the interconnection of, like I was saying, you know, when John Sari was describing how LVT breaks down in landfills and then those toxic chemicals get into the soil and into the water and into like our bodies eventually and the bodies of animals and other living beings. We really still are so interconnected. And so the, you know, the solutions involve all of us, but also the harms impact all of us. So it really, you know, it takes everybody. And just to close, I think, you know, again, as my first Reimagine Buildings Conference, I found it incredibly inspiring. It's so cool to see passionate people all over the world that are really motivated and excited by Passive House and building science. I think John Sara said, you know, we're in a time of crisis, but also of a lot of opportunity. And it's a time to think radically different. And I felt that energy of just opportunity and willing to go kind of above and beyond and thinking out of the box, thinking radically was really present. And that gave me comfort, especially with all the attacks from the federal government and from the right on efforts to address climate change and environmental injustice. It was just a good reminder that progress will continue. This work continues. We are all so committed to it. I think somebody said, like, we can't unlearn what we've learned. And that is so true. Like, collectively, we have so much knowledge and progress will just keep pushing
Zack Semke
14:42 - 14:51
forward. Hear, hear, we will keep pushing forward. Next is collective member James Turner, host of the brand new podcast, Marketing Passive House.
James Turner
14:53 - 16:37
I noticed a through line of communication coming up again and again, which is, I think, the thing that I am most passionate about in this community is just how to get the word out to the people that need to hear it to make adoption not just be a thing that people with a lot of wealth or really smart people can do. So I really like how there was a lot of talk about success being measured in terms of healthy, happy occupants. I think that Cecil Scheid, that was something that he said he was focusing on the health and the indoor air quality and like the students doing better on their exams like that was kind of his metric for success and he's like yeah yeah we know we're the energy savings will help pay for that but the the goal was the healthy building i really liked that another thing that i wrote down was the on the side of ann marie fallon's building was written this is not an ordinary project but it needs to be and i thought that that that's so the spirit of of the thing now i mean if the next step would be to then somehow take people inside and show them after it was built and keep keeping that ethos alive i a quote that i wrote down later in the night that i absolutely loved uh was about ben ire's builds in new zealand and he said if you come and see it in the middle it looks like a mess if you see it at the end it looks beautiful but if you get to live in it it'll change your life I think that's the crux of the whole issue, I think, is that if you have the experience, then you'll understand. But it's really hard to just tell people about a visceral body thing like that.
Zack Semke
16:38 - 16:47
That quote was one of my favorites as well, and well said, James. Now we hear from collective member Stephen Stuart, an instructor at Yes Tomorrow.
Stephen Stuart
16:49 - 18:37
Recognize the power of using architectural skills to be an agent for social change. And I saw that with all of the projects and all of the presentations yesterday. People were using their status as an architect, as a designer, as an educator to drive social change. So that was really cool. One of my other favorite quotes, I like what Cecil Scheib said about Ewan Hall. He wants people to know there's nothing special about the equipment that was used to do that right before. They have some special conditions that they had to address in terms of the envelope, but the equipment is available to everyone. Nothing special about it. And I think we need to emphasize that to that's a myth that exists in Passive House. It's specialized stuff, so it's more expensive. Seven million dollars to retrofit 17 floors? Less than half a million a floor. Simon, when he was talking about the project of Henning Larsson, he said that our buildings should be authoritative and regenerative. And we shouldn't focus not so much on do no harm, But how can we do more good? I think if we can all use that as a takeaway, how do you do more good? That's so much more powerful than doing less harm. Doing less harm is striving to achieve mediocrity. So let's go way beyond that.
Zack Semke
18:38 - 18:55
Definitely. Let's go way beyond that. I've heard folks at the Living Future Institute draw the distinction between shrinking one's footprint and growing one's handprint. that our handprint can help shape a better future. Okay, now we hear from Mary James, Director of Publications at Passive House Accelerator.
Mary James
18:57 - 20:51
Kim, awesome lineup you program for this day. It was really great. And, you know, I just want to echo everybody. I love the sign. This is not an ordinary project, but it needs to be. I think that should be on every Passive House project. And I also really appreciated some of the evolution that this conference represented for me in terms of growing acceptance of Passive House at the university level. I mean, how many universities were represented there? And the challenges that people have taken on in retrofits, particularly Chris Swinburne with 750 year old building, and that they're they in addition to all the other requirements they have to deal with, but they have to deal with reversibility as a key requirement. I thought that was really interesting and just seeing the progress. I mean, sometimes it feels a little disheartening that maybe everybody's not doing Pazza Paz yet, but still the progress on that and the progress on healthy building materials that a lot of people mentioned them. I mean, John Sauer-Ruth gave a great talk, but it wasn't limited to her talking about biogenic materials. I was so impressed by the logistics center in the Netherlands because I interviewed the owner of Ika Cocoon probably almost 10 years ago. And never would I have imagined that their straw panels were going to be used on a building of that size within 10 years. I mean, it just so I'm so happy for him because I think this building material is so great in so many ways. So I loved it. And of course, the retrofit projects were all great to hear about always.
Zack Semke
20:53 - 21:09
It's true. That logistics center is really remarkable. And what a showcase for Eco Cocoon. Really cool. Next up, we hear from Kim Davis, Passive House Accelerators Programs Manager and the curator and producer of the Reimagine Buildings 25 conference.
Kim Davis
21:09 - 22:07
It was just great to see the community come together. I was able to do a speaker, a couple of speaker meetings with all of our speakers. We had 35 total. So that was more where I was listening to their presentations. I wasn't able to listen in as much yesterday as I wanted to. But I think across the board, what I left with was thinking about the word scale and how, you know, it can be a massive university project in New York or Martine's, you know, tiny project in South America. I feel like everyone is kind of scaling up their collective impact in this industry in whatever way that they can. And it just felt really clear to me that I guess meaningful change can happen and that it's happening at every different level. And I just I found that to be really powerful. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun to play. And also, Kara, who's here, thank you for manning the chat and keeping everyone from freaking out when they can't find their CEU information. And this is kind of keeping everything running. But it was just a lot of fun. So thank you, everybody.
Zack Semke
22:09 - 22:23
That sense of momentum and of the real possibility for meaningful change was palpable at Reimagine Buildings 25. And a big thank you goes to Kim for pulling together the program. Next up, we hear from collective member Rainger Pinney.
Rainger Pinney
22:24 - 23:39
It was cool to see a lot of presenters who I wasn't familiar with, in addition to many, you know, that I've been exposed to mostly through this group, I think, but also some I was so excited to see that logistics center in the Netherlands that combines straw and mass timber, which are sort of my two favorite things. I've been watching that on LinkedIn for quite a while. It was cool to see a more comprehensive presentation. And it was also really neat to be able to drag my wife over to watch that part and see how excited she was at the efforts made around the biodiversity, because that is sort of her area of interest. And it's really cool to see somewhere like a logistics center making such huge efforts on the environmental impact side of things on the local ecology. And to be not only not doing harm, but to be improving the site, which echoes some of the things that we were hearing throughout the day of not just trying to do less harm, but to make a positive impact.
Zack Semke
23:40 - 23:49
straw and mass timber and ecological restoration super great to close up the after party Eliot had this to say as
Eliot Hetterly
23:49 - 24:43
an urban planner and developer who wants to get more involved on the like engineering and technical sides of all of this i've been looking for classes or trainings like how can i learn more and like there's not a lot of building science degree programs for example like yet. But I feel like this conference is so important for education. I learned so much. And just since being involved in the collective, I've learned so much. And it's just, it's really cool that this is filling that gap on the educational side. And I feel like a conference like this just offers a lot of knowledge to be learned. And like, it's cool how outside of regular institutions like universities. So much learning can happen just by sharing ideas and sharing projects with each other. I just found that really cool and really genuinely learned a ton from the conference.
Zack Semke
24:45 - 25:16
Next, we pivot to Ed May and his Ask Me Anything this month. Ed is principal at Building Type and the instructor for the collective's PHPP course and Honeybee PH course. By the way, we're launching a summer cohort for the Honeybee PH course on July 24th, available free to all collective members. Anyhow, Ed's AMAs are always masterclasses, and this one was no different. Here, he shares some nuggets about how to communicate about Passive House with clients. A lot of it is about like,
Ed May
25:17 - 29:12
hey, did you know that we have tools that allow you to keep the roaches out of your building or seal out the rats? And people are like, whoa, I definitely want whatever that is. You know, they don't really understand the technical side or maybe aren't so excited about the technical side and are only maybe glancingly interested in the energy efficiency side. Not that they're like antagonistic to it, but like it's not the prime motivator. It's really more about those like human experiential benefits, I think. There's another type of client who really does get fired up about the energy efficiency side and like really gets excited about the tapes and the sealants. And I'm sure you've met those kind of folks. Those are the folks who are really interested in the techniques and the tools and stuff that you're using to execute these projects. There's two very different types. You kind of have to figure out who you're talking to as you start to sort of communicate these things. And so you really have to calibrate your message depending on who it is that you're speaking to. And you kind of have to do like a little bit of like sussing out first. You kind of have to like pull a little bit out of them first and understand who it is you're speaking to and then kind of change your message depending on, you know, who it is and sort of what they're most interested in. But I think the biggest thing to keep in mind with all of this stuff, and it was an old colleague of mine, Monty Paulson, who used to say this quite often. He would say that the Passive House, all of these high performance techniques, the Passive House idea, it's supposed to be a solution to a problem. It's not supposed to be a problem in and of itself. It's not a thing in and of itself that we're trying to sell. It's a set of tools that we use to solve a set of other problems. So what you want to try and do is figure out what those problems are. Oh, you're uncomfortable in your home in the wintertime. You have bad air quality. You're suffering from allergies. You have pest problems, mice, bugs, what have it. You want to kind of meet people where they're at and say, like, what are the problems that you're struggling with? And then, you know, you say, well, we have this set of techniques. You know, this is how we ensure that your house is comfortable all year round. This is how we ensure that your house is free from mold and allergens and bugs and pests and has good air quality and all the rest of it there. And a lot of what we find when it comes to working with architects in particular is that a lot of what we end up selling, quote unquote, when we're selling them passive house, is about selling... what's the right way to say it? We're helping them reduce the complexity and make sense of a complicated universe. Like you're an architect and you read a magazine and the magazine's like, "Oh, you have to use product XYZ in a sustainable building. If you don't use product XYZ, then it's not a sustainable building. Then you read the next article and it says the exact opposite. And so you're like getting buffeted with all of this weird advice. Some of it, not very trustworthy. Some of it trustworthy. You can't really figure out like what you're supposed to pay attention to. So with a lot of architects, what we're helping them do is kind of cut through a lot of the medium nonsense that they get sort of subjected to on a daily basis and say, okay, no, here's the small set of things that we really need to focus on and pay attention to. And these are the things that are actually important. And we help them do the math and we help them understand the physics and we kind of educate them in that respect. But a lot of it comes down to helping those professionals navigate the complexity of their environment and help them cut through the noise and be like, okay, like these are the things you can ignore. These are the things you need to focus on. And we find a lot of that has a lot of resonance with professionals because their job is incredibly complex and is getting more complex every single day. And so anything that simplifies that is really is really worth a lot to a lot of folks.
Zack Semke
29:13 - 29:34
Simplify, simplify, simplify. And last but not least, we've got a great clip from Eoin Killeen of Killeen Construction from his Reimagine Construction interview with Michael Ingwe. Eoin is one of Michael's go-to contractors for his historic retrofits. And here, Eoin offers advice to another builder who's about to start his first Passive House retrofit.
Eoin Killeen
29:34 - 30:18
The best advice I can give is just get into it. Because when you, you can theorize as much as you want, but when you get in there hands on and start to kind of see it in person, it just makes them, it's not as complicated as people think it is, you know, and don't get me wrong. There's simple science in many respects and and i think if you're especially if you're doing a gut renovation and it sounds like you do a lot of retrofits and it's similar to what we do here so i think just get into it and get started and you will learn as you go along a little bit but what works best for you keep an open line of communication with your guys and with your subs you know and you'll you'll figure it out there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff out there online as well now that we didn't have years ago so
Michael Ingui
30:18 - 30:46
and i was going to say including this yeah so as you get into it one of the benefits of the collective is that you've got the collective. You'll see me doing it right now, and I've been doing it forever, where I'm like, okay, guys, what do you think of this? So I've been debating electrical water heaters now for a little while because I've been messing with them. So I went in the collective and I asked everybody questions on that. So I feel like using the collective as your tool on that. So my question is always, what's next?
Eoin Killeen
30:46 - 31:17
What's next for us? I mean, keep learning. I like the new products that come out. I think it's incorporated all these other interesting stuff that's going on with solar and everything else into this. You know, I find that a lot fascinating. I love that Mike was on there talking about working with bigger buildings. I think bigger buildings bringing this into play is really important. But the retrofit can be done. It's been proven it works. It's great, great houses. And there's no excuse that a lot of these houses, especially in these big cities, shouldn't be done properly. There's so much loss of energy in the city in these houses. It's crazy.
Michael Ingui
31:18 - 32:10
By the way, I have another Eoin-ism, which I just made that up. which is something that Eoin has drilled into the team. And especially on that first Garden Place project where we were super into creating a systematic approach, which is do not forget you're on a deadline. Your client wants to move in. You have a system. There will always be a better product. We are in an emerging market where we're learning so much, so fast. Finish, stay on schedule. And everybody's got to keep their head together. And, Eoin, I think you've really driven that point home as well, which I think is so important because we really are. It's such a fast emerging market. So maybe that would be my last question. Talk about that a little bit because I feel like that's key for someone who's just getting into this because you're going to be learning at a rapid pace.
Eoin Killeen
32:11 - 32:24
Yeah, but again, I think it's not as complicated as you think. I think you get into it and you get your first one done. Just do it. Just start. And you're going to learn so much from the first project. The second one, by the second, third is down. You're going to find a system that works well for you.
Zack Semke
32:25 - 34:16
Just do it. Just start. That feels like a good clip to close with here. So thank you to Mariana, JD, Jonah, Juhee, James, Eliot, the other James, Stephen, Mary, Kim, Rainger, Ed, Michael, and Eoin for sharing their insights with us over the past few weeks. As always, these clips just scratched the surface. So if anything piqued your interest here, please do dive into the full replays of these sessions available in the collective. And by the way, the replay of the full Reimagine Buildings 25 conference that I mentioned earlier is also available in the collective. So if you're not a member of Reimagine Buildings Collective, please join us. You'll get direct access to experts and peers on the same journey. You'll get to know them, ask your burning questions, and expand your mind and your practice by engaging with these thought leaders and fellow trailblazers. Head over to reimaginebuildings.com to learn more. Beginning July 15th, we're launching our Reimagine Summer Labs, where you can join a small group of peers to tackle a real-world challenge in healthy climate-forward building and get a chance to share your insights with the Passive House Accelerator community. Check it out. Speaking of joining the collective, a big welcome to our newest members, Marcy Conrad-Nutt, Mark Fitzsimmons, Debbie Chambers, James Bromfield, Cameron Caja, Scott Muellner, Mark Isaacs, Patrick Paul, and Josh Salinger. With that, thank you for listening to this ninth episode of the Reimagine Edit, a production of the Passive House podcast by Passive House Accelerator. As always, don't hesitate to DM me with anything Reimagine Buildings Collective related, what you'd like to see on the platform, and any ideas you'd like to share. We're building this community with you, so let us know. And don't forget to invite your friends and colleagues to join us. Thanks, and have a great couple of weeks. Be well.