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Passive Progressive: A look at Passive House adoption and the need to accelerate! By: Handel Architects
July 23, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
In the past 15 years Passive House in the United States has evolved from a niche pursuit of the energy-conscious architectural Avant Garde to being a set piece in a popular Showtime series (“The Curse”) starring two-time Oscar-winner Emma Stone. Along the journey into the popular consciousness, Passive House organizations have successfully certified hundreds of buildings across the country, from single family homes and low-rise multi-family buildings to office buildings and high-rises. Now in 2025, the standard is becoming synonymous with high-performance building and is referenced in codes and climate policies in many of the nation’s most progressive jurisdictions. As exciting as Passive House’s growing popularity may be, advocates have had a challenging time expanding to certain market sectors and regions. Given the proven energy benefits of Passive House, accelerating the adoption of this standard and the high-performance strategies embedded within it is a necessary step if we intend to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Recent federal efforts to rollback investment in the renewable energy sector has made it more critical than ever that we focus on reducing building energy demand through practical application of building science.
This course offers a practitioner’s perspective on the collective action and thoughtful leadership that has rapidly expanded the adoption of Passive House. It will make the case that there is publicly available data from a range of sources that indicates Passive House cost premiums are manageable, secondary benefits are tangible, and actual energy consumption is greatly reduced. The course will offer actionable steps to support the much-needed acceleration in the adoption of Passive House and high-performance building strategies across multiple market sectors.
AIA Credits: 1 LU/HSW – Approved
DATE: July 23rd 2025
TIME: 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST
VENUE: Webinar
Speakers
Louis Koehl AIA CPHD
Louis Koehl is the Director of Sustainable Design at Handel Architects, which he joined in 2012. He is responsible for advancing the firm’s mission of industry leadership in sustainable design by supporting strategic initiatives focused on aspirational goals. He serves as both a resource to the office and the development community.
Louis’ projects at Handel Architects include the world’s largest fully affordable Passive House Building, Sendero Verde in East Harlem; an all-electric Passive House dormitory for the University of Toronto; and Winthrop Center, a mixed-use project in Boston which includes 812,000 SF of Passive House commercial space and has ambitious LEED and WELL targets.
Louis is a registered architect in the State of New York and a Certified Passive House Designer. He received his Master of Architecture from Columbia University after receiving his BA in Architecture from the University of Kentucky.
