Passive House standards help homeowners cut carbon emissions and costs in the long run, which makes Passive House a logical option for affordable housing in a rural area, writes architect Lloyd Alter.
But construction of a Passive House requires particular skills and training, and the cost of transporting the appropriate labor and materials to a remote area to construct the home on site can add up. That’s where prefabrication comes in, a method that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority went to for its staff housing in Bella Bella, B.C.
“They are built to Passive House standards by Britco, a big west coast modular company," Alter reports on TreeHugger, "and designed by Peter Treuheit and Koen Drugmand of Mobius Architecture.”
According to Monte Paulsen of Red Door Energy Design, who acted as Passive House consultant, the project was not that expensive. "This project likely has no discernible Passive House cost premium,” he tells TreeHugger. “There is no doubt it cost far less than on-site construction, and far less than panelized construction."
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