Beyond Homes: Beyond Homes: Intro to Phius Passive Building Certification WEBINAR

“Zero is the goal, Phius is the means.” Passive House Institute US (Phius) originated in the US and Canada in the ‘70’s, was enhanced in Germany in the ’90’s, and reinvigorated in the US in 2003 when Katrin Klingenberg designed and completed the first home to meet passive house standards in the United States. Phius is driven by carbon neutrality and improving the standard of building construction. Phius updated its standard in 2021 to meet stringent efficiency and carbon neutrality goals to make buildings the building block of the 21st century electrical grid: resilient, digitized, distributed, and interactive.

In this webinar, Katrin (Kat) Klingenberg, Executive Director & Co-Founder Phius, and Doug Farr, President of Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design, will walk us through the Passive house certification process, commercial building examples, and how green & healthy building certifications should work together and not be siloed.

Speaker Bios

Kat’s home sparked considerable interest and she went on to found Phius, dedicated to making passive building a mainstream best practice. She developed and delivered building-science based training in how to design and build energy efficient and zero energy buildings. Over the past ten years she has collaborated with federal and state governments’ agencies to tailor the Phius Standard for each of the nine US and ASHRAE’s global climate zones—that adaptation cost-optimized passive building and has driven widespread adoption. She has consulted on projects nationally and internationally.

Doug is a nationally-recognized architect, urbanist, and author. He leads Chicago-based Farr Associates, a pioneering, sustainability-driven architecture and urban design firm that plans and designs lovable and aspirational buildings and places. The firm was recognized by the New York Times as “the most prominent of the city’s growing cadre of ecologically sensitive architects.” The firm prides itself on its pioneering “firsts” in high-performance buildings in the Chicago region including LEED Platinum, PHIUS Net Zero, and LBC. In 2020 Doug launched Carbon Free Chicago, a 30-year campaign for the equitable transition away from fossil fuels. In 2022 Doug Co-Curated the ENERGY REVOLUTION exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Center, which closes January 10th, 2023