When we say we have learned a lot from this year, we mean we learned A LOT. Not only because that is what we are supposed to be doing in school, but because of everything that has been going on. As you all know, it is difficult to make plans when you do not know…
What is Open House Chicago (OHC)? It is an annual citywide festival, with sites and events distributed throughout multiple neighborhoods, areas, and select Chicago suburbs that each provide free and open access to the public at the participating locations. The festival itself is produced by the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) which is one of the…
‘Palimpsest’. What does that mean to you? Adaptive reuse? Reinhabitation? Rebuilding? Transformation? Layering histories? Sustainability? AIAS FORUM 2021 revolved around the word ‘palimpsest’. In architecture, that word refers to reusing an object for a different purpose than its previous life. The virtual conference in early January covered many topics through inspiring speakers and their definition…
Part 4 | Outreach The fourth and final part of the Passive House Series is about outreach and our ongoing mission to educate our community. As we began our work on PH03, we as a class identified our primary and secondary goals for the semester. Our primary goal was to complete a high performance, retrofit…
Part 3 | Envelope The Passive House 3.0 series continues with talk about the envelope of the structure. Beginning the retrofit, we as a team needed to take a deep dive into the detailing it takes to meet the standards of a Passive House envelope. Other than the normal construction of a building, there are…
Introduction The first passive house, or PH01, was a venture taken by South Dakota State University department of Architecture students and faculty in Brookings, SD. Two passive houses have been designed to meet the Passive House Institute of the United States (PHIUS) standards since then. PH02 is a single-family residence that utilizes a detached garage…