Affordable Modular Passive House

The Housing Initiatives Partnership (HIP) buys up properties in poorer neighborhoods and builds high quality affordable houses. When they saw the Passive House that DC Habitat built as part of the Solar Decathalon and toured our Bethesda Passive House, they asked us to make a proposal for a new home on Addison Road in Prince Georges County.

We teamed up with O’Neill Development, our partner on the Bethesda house, and Beracah Homes, a modular builder in Delaware, and proposed a modular Passive House. Our approach to keeping costs down was simple: let a good modular builder do what he does best, building as much of the house as we can in his shop. Then add additional insulation, complete air sealing, and add 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 is now complete.We will  offer the plans as part of our stock passive house plans. To see the step by step progress of the construction, visit our blog.