Addison Road Passive House

Housing Initiative Partnership, Inc. (HIP) acquires properties in under-developed or blighted neighborhoods and builds high-quality affordable houses. When they witnessed the Empowerhouse project that Matt helped manage with his previous firm, (literally DC’s first Phius-certified Passive House) and our New American Foursquare (Bethesda) Passive House, they asked us to make a proposal for a new home on Addison Road in Prince George’s County.

We teamed up with O’Neill Development, our partner on the Bethesda house, and Beracah Homes, Inc., a modular builder in Delaware, and proposed a modular Passive House. Our approach to reducing construction costs was simple: engage with a good modular builder, who by default produces high-quality construction (small tolerances in controlled conditions), build as much of the house as we can in the factory, and then add only the roof insulation, complete the airsealing, and connect the HVAC system in the field.

Of course, nothing in construction is simple when you do it for the first time. However, with careful coordination of all the players and an attentive client throughout the design process, the project met its goals. To see the step by step progress of the construction, visit our web log.