In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Zack Semke and Michael Ingui talk with Ilijana Soldan, Senior Sustainability Manager at HCM, and Timothy Lock, Management Partner at OPAL, ahead of AIA COTE’s three-hour Design programming block at
Reimagine Buildings ’26: The Solutions on November 6. Ilijana and Tim both serve on the 10-member COTE Leadership Group, which guides a national community of more than 16,000 AIA members.
Ilijana and Tim explain where AIA COTE’s Framework for Design Excellence and Passive House already overlap, and where each community has something to learn from the other. The conversation offers a preview of AIA COTE’s three-hour Design block at
Reimagine Buildings ’26. The first hour looks at where AIA COTE and the Passive House community already align. The second turns to the gaps between them, including a session on equitable communities. The programming will conclude with case studies from COTE Top Ten Award winners, including Coliseum Place Affordable Family Housing and Alice West Fleet Elementary School.