Passive House Canada Conference 2019

This is a separate ticketed event - register here.

Thank you to the event sponsor Vetta Building Technologies!

Passive House on a Large Scale - Applying Lessons Learned
Lois Arena, Steven Winter Associates and Deborah Moelis, Handel Architects
At 26 stories and 270,000 sq. ft. The House at Cornell Tech in New York City is one of the largest Passive House buildings in the world. The lessons learned from this project are now being applied on an even larger scale: Sendero Verde, in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood takes the principles of market rate multifamily Passive House design and squeezes the budget to meet low-income housing, as per New York City Housing Preservation & Development standards.

When complete, Sendero will be the largest PH building in the world and a model for all to follow, showing that deep sustainable design is possible and affordable.

The talk will explore the design and completion of The House and how lessons learned are being applied to a mixed-use, 100% affordable housing project. Deborah and Lois will explore some of the obstacles that have been overcome to implement PH at such scales and compare and contrast the 352-unit market-rate tower, completed and certified, with the 699-unit affordable housing Sendero Verde project, soon to start construction.

Moderator: Cillian Collins

University of Victoria Student Housing and Dining Project: A Case Study in Large-scale Passive House Design
David Adams, University of Victoria
Kaz Bremner, Perkins + Will
Chris Doel, Integral Group
Marine Sanchez, RDH Building Science

With a deep commitment to climate action and greenhouse gas mitigation, the University of Victoria has directed that its new 782-bed student housing and dining project be designed to the Passive House standard. Realizing this level of performance requires focus, creativity, and constant evaluation of performance measures. The Residence is among the few projects aiming to achieve Passive House certification with a fully equipped commercial kitchen. The project consists of two buildings including a 600-seat dining hall, a commercial kitchen (8,700 meals/day), meeting spaces and academic classrooms. The design adopts a wide range of measures to reduce the high-energy intensity embedded with the kitchen operation, including high-efficiency ventilation design, kitchen layout optimization and utilization of waste heat sources. Join Marine and Kaz in this conference session and gain practical guidance on how to incorporate energy-efficient measures into large buildings and how some challenges are not a barrier to delivering PH buildings.

Case Study: Leading by Example: Humber College Building Nx Retrofit
Holly Jordan, B+H Architects
Steven Murray, Morrison Hershfield
Rui Raposo, Humber College

Building Nx is undergoing a deep energy retrofit at Humber College’s North Campus. The retrofitted 1980’s building, a 5-storey office space for faculty, is registered for both Passive House EnerPHit and Net Zero Carbon Building – Design certifications. The scope of the project included a complete upgrade of the existing glass block and insulated metal panel system and replacement of existing mechanical and electrical systems for an ultrahigh-performance envelope and energy efficient BAS. Project representatives (architect, building envelope specialist, and owner) will discuss design, technical performance, and owner experience to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Passive House EnerPHit achievement.

Passive House Premium Erne Campus: Inspiring the Future of Education 
Barry McCarron, South West College

​​​​South West College (SWC) is delighted to present the development of our new college campus on the site of the old Erne Hospital located in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. The building is currently in the construction stage and has progressed significantly since works began on site in April 2018. This new 7,025m2 (TFA) further education college campus building is specified to the Passive House Premium standard. The existing campus building (8,898m2) which uses 152 kWh/m2/year and used 100,000L of heating oil in 2017 at a cost of ~£55,000.00 pounds. This new building represents a 97% reduction in energy, which will equate to ~£52,000 per year in heating savings. This new campus building from South West College represents an excellent demonstration of a proactive approach to energy efficient building design against the backdrop of the imperative for zero energy buildings.

Moderator: Mark Ashby

It Starts with Design
Michael Ingui, Baxt Ingui Architects

We really did learn (and then forgot) most of this in school. Passive House brings it all back and quickly. The essential lesson of shading – siting the house properly – considering how you will service the building – how a few key decisions make all of the difference in the world.
We are a design firm that has bends Passive House to fit our needs only to realize that if we started with the Passive House Consultants early (Pre-SD) that what we learned set our designs free.
No turning back – no do overs – cleaner – easier spaces – worked out and tested so we have the confidence to design better spaces with more ease. The first time!

Schematic Design : Setting up for Success
Lukas Armstrong, Cover Architectural Collaborative Inc.

Achieving PH certification requires consideration of PH strategies from the very start. However, the schematic design must be completed before the first PHPP file can be built. Often the initial PHPP model reveals significant design issues, leading to costly rework and client frustration. This seminar will walk through a number of critical conversations and decisions that can help avoid significant redesign at the end of schematic design. During the seminar we will go through an abridged schematic process for a typical single family home, and review the schematic design process for an existing part 9 and part 3 case study.

Simplified Certification Pilot for Single Family Homes
Cameron Laidlaw, Peel Passive House Consulting
Neil Norris, Passive House Canada
Chris Petit, Regenerative Design

This session will discuss a simplified certification methodology for single family Passive homes with several North American certifiers and PHI representative.

Moderator: Marine Sanchez

Functional Space Programming to PHPP with BIM
Kelly Fisher, Kearns Mancini Architects

Through the implementation of BIM for all aspects of project work, from Schematic Design to Passive House Energy modeling, efficiencies to the design process can be achieved.

Working alongside an iterative design development process, allows designers to understand and evaluate the impact design changes can have, as they relate to PHPP Verification. Through the creation of Passive House BIM Content used to quantify and report data for PHPP inputs, significant efficiencies can be made in data collection and entry which is favorable for quick design decisions and energy analysis to be evaluated prior to full Architectural design revision and cost analysis.

Factory assembly: the new way to build PH Assemblies 
Deborah Byrne, Kearns Mancini Architects
Joshua Fede, Coreslab Structure 
Irene Rivera, Kearns Mancini Architects 

The YWCA Project is the first mid-rise precast Passive House building in Canada. The concrete precast panels offer an affordable solution that in one envelope achieves air tightness and continuous insulation. This eliminates the need for multiple trades, reducing the time on site and allows for higher quality finish by manufacturing most of the major building components off site. Factory assembly buildings can be the future of PH envelopes. However, in order to succeed, all the members of the team need to be involved and work together from the beginning.

Moderator: Erika Mayer & Duncan Patterson

Detailing Your Passive House Envelope
Jeremy Clarke, Simple Life Homes
Jonathan Kearns, Kearns Mancini Architects Inc.
Ed Marion, Passive House Ontario
Terrell Wong, Stone's Throw Design & Passive Buildings Canada

Those who have designed and built to Passive House standard are well acquainted with the devil in the details. Passive House construction can be highly technical but there are also ways in which passive house construction techniques can be simplified and adopted into common practice. This session will feature a moderated conversation on the top considerations in detailing amongst peers working in the GTA, including a panelized builder, a PH consultant, and two architects. The panel members will discuss their approaches to successfully implement design detailing into construction and provide their insights for best practices on several common Passive House construction scenarios, with an opportunity for audience members to also bring their own high level detailing questions.

Moderator: Andrew Peel

Riverside Tower Retrofit
Andrew Peel, Peel Passive Consulting

The 255 Riverside Drive Tower retrofit is North America’s first live-in tower EnerPHit project. The challenges of meeting EnerPHit on a large building are compounded by residents staying during construction work. Learn how the team has approached the design and construction to reimagine what’s possible in retrofitting an existing tower.

Market Transformation - Kickstarting Large-Scale EnerPHit Projects in Ontario (Ken Soble Tower) 
Ya'el Santopinto, ERA Architects
Cara Sloat, Reinbold Engineering Group
Graeme Stewart, ERA Architects
Chris Van Dongen, Entuitive Corporation
Joshua Vanwyck, JMV Consulting

Using the 500 MacNab Tower Renewal EnerPHit project as a case study, this session will examine considerations related to: design; approvals; procurement; and construction as compared to a traditional retrofit. Panelists will include the Architect, Passive House Consultant, Mechanical Engineer and Construction Manager. Since large-scale EnerPHit projects are still uncommon in the Ontario market, this session will outline learnings, challenges and recommendations to aid building owners, design teams and constructors in engaging in EnerPHit projects in Ontario.

Canada's Largest EnerPHit Study: Twin Towers, North Vancouver, BC
Jeff Clarke-Janzen and Ben Mills, HiH Energy

If implemented, Twin Towers in North Vancouver would be the world’s largest multifamily EnerPHit project (combined 26 stories and TFA of 9,760 m2). HiH Energy and Morrison Hershfield performed a feasibility study for BC Housing & Affordable Housing to outline a retrofit pathway to meet EnerPHit requirements as well as complete operational de-carbonization. At 42 years of age, the envelope components require attention and mechanical systems are end of life. HiH will discuss the approach to this challenging problem, results (including 3rd party costing) and recommendations to assist other groups to get the most out of their EnerPHit project.

Moderator: Chris Hill

The Pretty River Passive House – Challenges and Solutions
David Hill, Builder & Homeowner

When designing and building a Passive house for the first time there are several challenges that you may be faced with. This presentation brings the audience through the life of the successful Pretty River project, with detailed photos of every stage of the build, along with highlighting the challenges faced when it comes to achieving the rigorous Passive House standard. Having been heavily involved in both the design and construction of the building, homeowner David Hill is the perfect candidate to discuss the dos and don’ts when taking on a project such as this.

Re(de)fining affordability: a PEI Passive House case study
Lorrie Rand, Habit Studio Inc., Passive Buildings Canada

House 7 is a modest, 2 storey, single family home, constructed in rural PEI in 2018 by Trout River Homes. As Trout River Homes' seventh Passive House, the details and construction methods were informed by their experiences on preceding projects. House 7 meets PHI targets but is not a certified project. After construction a SEEFAR case study was done by SRP Canada, analyzing the total cost of home ownership of the house, compared with the same design built to code minimum. Technical details, economic data and projections will be shared by the designer and energy modeler.

Passive House on Reserve
Crystal Sedore, Yale First Nation

Yale First Nation completed 2 certified Passive buildings in 2017 in partnership with Metric Modular. There was a severe housing crisis that needed to be addressed in a hurry. Our tenants are all lower income and our existing homes on reserve were costing up to $800/month to heat. We had to do something fast!

*TICKETS REQUIRED TO ATTEND THIS SESSION*
Lessons learned from building to high levels of air-tightness for over a decade, tips & tricks for success during planning and construction. The audience will learn hands-on some membrane & tape installation skills during the session.

Moderator: Michael Lam

The Application of the Passive House standard to Health Care Facilities: Lessons Learned from a Feasibility Study and a Post Occupancy Evaluation
Ghazal Ebrahimi & Alex Hutton, Fraser Health Authority

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) has been looking for ways to build facilities that perform beyond LEED Gold, which is the provincial mandate in BC. As part of this effort, a Passive House feasibility study was conducted for a residential care facility in Vancouver. The results of this study will be discussed and energy, carbon, and cost related findings will be compared with a LEED Gold scenario. The presenters will also explain how a post occupancy evaluation of another of VCH’s Passive House facility helped the organization to recognize other co-benefits of Passive House such as occupants’ health and future climate adaptation.

Panelists: Marianne Touchie, Kady Cowan

Moderator:  Pamela Doherty

Infill Passive House Design in Toronto - Challenges and Solutions
Melissa Furukawa, Peel Passive House Consulting
Germain Vaisman, Cool Earth Architecture

The density and spread of already established neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area has resulted in a large quantity of sites that may not be ideal for Passive House design. Infill Passive House projects present new challenges to meeting the Passive House Standard. Key among these are optimizing solar heat gains during the winter, planning constraints, and competing client requirements. This session aims to lead a discussion on the challenges and design solutions for infill Passive House design in Toronto via three case study examples.

Eugenia Lake House
Andrew Peel, Peel Passive House Consulting 
William Dewson, Dewson Architects

Eugenia Lake House is a 370 m2 (TFA) Passive House nestled against the shores of beautiful Eugenia Lake in Flesherton, Ontario. This session explores the design challenges and solutions to creating a Passive House that achieves a superior aesthetic and unusual functionality in a demanding climate. Navigating requirements for specific lake views, interconnecting corner sliding doors, a tailored HVAC, a pizza oven, a curved clerestory ceiling and intermittent occupancy required creativity, a fine attention to detail, and a deep commitment to performance. What emerges is a multi-generational home that is a beacon of possibility for the area.

A celebration of market transformation! There are numerous components that have been recently certified by the Passive House Institute - come and hear about them at the reception. In addition, you will hear about recently certified Passive House projects!

Moderator: Jenny McMinn

Be Smart - Build Smart
Christian Cianfrone, Zero Emissions Buildings Exchange (ZEBx), Executive Director
Zachary May, Director, Building Codes & Standards, Province of British Columbia 
Richard Yancey, Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex), Executive Director

Zachary May developed and introduced the BC Energy Step Code - providing a roadmap in the code to Net Zero Energy Ready buildings by 2032. Fostering innovation, industry knowledge and capacity building is critical to the successful advancement of low-energy building construction. For a particular construction market, these objectives can be greatly accelerated through the creation of Building Centres of Excellence. Christian Cianfrone, Executive Director of The Zero-Emissions Building Exchange (ZEBx, Vancouver) and Richard Yancey, the Executive Director of the Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex, New York), along with Zachary, will discuss the important role Centres of Excellence can play to support policy making and market transformation for low-energy construction.

Moderator: Dan Gronross

Balancing Passive House with OBC in Multi-Residential Buildings
Niall Byrne and Christian Tirona, Toronto Design Studio

This presentation will provide an overview of the MEP system design for a Passive House Multi-Residential Community Housing project in Windsor, ON. Focusing on the system selection rationale and how the Passive House requirements can be integrated with OBC needs as well as the MEP strategies, this presentation will also touch on the challenging plug-load, DHW and occupancy rate considerations for community housing projects and its impact on the primary energy demand requirements of Passive House.

Lessons learned from overheating at a multi-unit Passive House residence in BC
Monte Paulsen, RDH Building Science

Passive House and other high-performance multi-unit buildings are more prone to overheating than single-family residences. This session will review lessons learned after an overheating incident at a multi-unit building in Northern BC: What design errors contributed to the incident, what operator choices contributed to the incident, what steps will be taken to avoid a repeat of the incident.

Free Cooling options for Passive House Multifamily Residential Applications
Hugh Crowther, Swegon

The outstanding thermal performance of a Passive House envelope can cause a multifamily building to require cooling at ambient temperatures as low as 0 C. Introducing mechanical cooling to resolve over heating will make it almost impossible to achieve the energy performance goals for the project when it is considered how many BIN hours there are between 0 and 25C. This program will review current methodologies being used on a range of PH multifamily projects to achieve free cooling by leveraging the ventilation system and apartment control systems. Integrating free cooling with mechanical air conditioning will also be discussed including control algorithms.

Moderator: Evelyne Bourchard

Advancing Building Standards
Lisa King, City of Toronto
The City of Toronto is part of a cross-Canada movement among cities to advance energy codes and standards in new and existing buildings to make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. This session will provide an overview of the recent changes in requirements for new construction under the Toronto Green Standard V3, in effect for over one year, and the implied shifts and design implications for the building industry. The session will also highlight how the City plans to tackle emissions from the existing buildings sector. What are some of the emerging trends, challenges and achievements so far? Join the conversation about what you think needs to happen next to advance building standards.

PER Calculation Updates
Neil Norris, Passive House Canada, 
Elena Reyes Bernal, Passive House Institute
Andrew Peel, Peel Passive House
As a greater number of large multi-unit residential projects aim for Passive House Certification, achieving set PER targets can be a challenge. This is especially true for projects with greater occupant density, where appliances, hot water usage and plugs loads are all contained within a smaller treated floor area and where elevators, hallway lighting and other building systems used for normal building operation also need to be factored in. This can create uncertainty as to what types of large residential projects designs can reasonably achieve the PER targets. As such, the Passive House Institute (in collaboration with ZEBx, the City of Vancouver and other partners) are currently developing a new PER target tool to allow for methodical adjustments of the PER targets. This presentation will outline the information behind the PER tool as well as how it can be used in future projects to provide greater assurance that well designed larger multi unit residential buildings can achieve certification.

Exploring Passive House Technologies in the College Sector
Shannon Pirie, School of Architectural Technology at Sheridan College
The rapid pace at which building science evolves provides many opportunities for faculty in the college Architectural Technology sector to expand the boundaries of standard course content. This session will present a unique design-build project that was completed in 2017 at Sheridan College in Mississauga. Beginning with a virtual build that included story-boarding, materials research, and energy calculations, and ending with a day of construction in partnership with our Skilled Trades faculty, students were led on a journey highlighting Passive House methodology. The purpose of this session is to reinforce the relationship between the Passive House community and post-secondary education.

Moderator: Sandra Rohler

Review of Certified Passive House Details for Commercial Buildings
Peter Barrett, Dörken Systems Inc.
Alejandra Nieto, Rockwool

Designing to Passive House standard with steel studs and mass type assemblies requires increased attention to thermal bridging and air tightness detailing. To assist designers and builders in achieving passive house enclosure targets, working with Passive House Academy and Passive House Institute, a series of certified details and calculations have been developed using stone wool insulation for commercial type buildings. This session will examine thermal-bridge free details for both steel stud and mass wall types, discuss proven thermally efficient insulation attachment methods, and review air tightness strategies using vapour permeable water resistive /air barrier membranes.

A Design Guide for Passive House: Estimating the Efficiency of High Performance Non-combustible Wall Assemblies
Thomas Moore, Steven Winter Associates, Inc.

With the combination of multiple cladding products and back-up walls it has become challenging for the PH consultant to estimate the effective thermal resistance of wall assemblies and make informed modeling assumptions early in design. To anticipate the thermal efficiency ‘de-rate’ of non-combustible assemblies and to assist the development of a PHPP a supporting wall guide has been prepared utilizing 3-D heat transfer modeling. This wall guide captures assembly variables such as back-up wall, attachments, shelf angles, and unique thermal bridges. It informs PHPP users with effective thermal efficiency values and helps make Passive House more approachable at scale.

Moderator: Ted Kesik

Embodied carbon and real zero carbon building
Chris Magwood, Endeavour Centre

If we are attempting to prevent runaway climate change, our buildings must strike a balance between embodied carbon emissions – created during the harvesting and manufacturing of materials – and operational emissions. There's a lot to consider, including the carbon intensity of the fuel source, the carbon intensity of the materials and the operational efficiency. This presentation compares multiple scenarios for the same four-story, eight-unit residential building, and shows how the same building can either be a climate change driver or a climate change cure by striking the right carbon balance at the design stage.

Resilience Planning in Passive House Design
Alexander Hay, Risk, Resilience & Security Planner, Southern Harbour
Bala Gnanam, Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Toronto Area (BOMA Toronto)

The combination of Passive House with resilience planning allows one to realise far greater benefit than their sum. To be sustainable, you must be resilient. A high performance envelope enables resilience by buying time when resources are most critical during an event. Conversely, resilience planning identifies what design arrangements are required where to what purpose. High performance in practice is realized through a synergy of resilience planning and building/ envelope design.

Moderator: Scott Kennedy

Radiance Cohousing – Collaborating to Build Passivhaus in Saskatoon
Michael Nemeth, Bright Buildings

Radiance Cohousing is a 9-unit townhouse-style cohousing development located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Completed in the fall of 2018, it’s is on track to becoming Canada’s first Passivhaus certified cohousing project. Residents worked together to manage the development of their own homes. Sustainability and building community were priorities for the group. This case study will explore the features of the project including:

• participated in wood-fibre insulation pilot, fastening 28cm of low-embodied carbon rigid insulation onto 2×6 walls insulated with mineral wool (R60)
• Canadian manufactured Passivhaus-certified windows, oriented for solar gain
• each unit served by a Passivhaus-certified ERV for constant fresh air. A centralized air-source heat pump system (VRF) provides heating and cooling for all the units.
• with a compact, multi-family built form, cohousing complements Passivhaus well

Platforms for Life: New Models for Affordable Net Zero Projects
Clayton Blackman, LWPAC
Troy Grant, Standing Stone Developments
Monte Paulsen, RDH Building Science
 
​​​​Platforms-for-Life is a generative mixed-use urban housing system for sustainable carbon neutral buildings, with a primary focus on affordability while accommodating evolving desires and needs of individuals, families, and communities. It is systematically driven by digital design, customization, adaptation, automation and collaboration.
Corvette Landing is a 12-storey development designed to transition the still low-density Township of Esquimalt BC. Planned and developed as a prefabricated mass-timber hybrid building, it combines a low carbon footprint with a high level of livability and expedited construction.
The presentation will discuss the convergence of design, systems building, Passive House, digitally assisted prefabrication and automation with sound economics.

Moderator: Deborah Byrne

Streetsville Library : A Feasibility Study 
Shalini Srivastava-Modi, City of Mississauga

The City of Mississauga targets to achieve massive Corporate GHG reduction by 2050. In order to keep working towards this goal, several projects are being evaluated; one of those was the feasibility of retrofitting Streetsville Library, a standalone building, to EnerPHIT standards and eventually Net-Zero by installing solar panels on the site.
This paper presents the entire process of this undertaking and explains why this Feasibility Study was not deemed successful. The discussion focuses on road blocks and lessons to be learnt to work with the vast pool of existing municipal buildings that are inefficient.

IPD Integrated Project Delivery as a procurement model for Passive House Project
Joseph Day, EllisDon Corporation
Nigel Tai, Diamond Schmitt

Passive House projects are a result of carefully engineered design (consultant input) executed with high-quality site control (constructor input). Collaboration between the two-halves of our industry is fundamental.
IPD, a new project procurement model in Canada, is an inclusive process where all disciplines work as one, creating faster delivery times, lower costs, and a more enjoyable process for the entire team, including the owner. It aligns with the necessary components to a successful PH project:

• Front end engineering design;
• Early trade input and constructability review;
• High-quality construction;
• Collaborative environment of learning and innovation;
• Deep understanding of project objectives across disciplines

*TICKETS REQUIRED TO ATTEND THIS SESSION*
Lessons learned from building to high levels of air-tightness for over a decade, tips & tricks for success during planning and construction. The audience will learn hands-on some membrane & tape installation skills during the session.

Building as a Conscious Act: Finding Opportunity in Health, Resiliency and Community
Eric Corey Freed, Morrison Hershfield
100,000 years ago, humans had a near extinction. From those 2000 people came the billions we have today. Now we are facing a new threat of extinction.

In the next decade, more than 6,000 cities, states, and provinces around the world will try to do something that has eluded humanity for 50 years: reduce their carbon emissions. But at our rate of urbanization, we’re building the equivalent of a city the size of New York every five weeks.

Ideas that seem crazy today will seem sane in 10 years. In a world where we will “do anything” to end homelessness (except build homes); will “do anything” to end hunger (except provide food); and will “do anything” to cut emissions (except use less coal), we need new, bold solutions to our address our built environment.

In this talk, we’ll journey through an inspirational look at the global crises facing the world and a variety of ways to transform your business to adapt to a warmer, wetter world. Learn from our work with hundreds of municipalities, agencies, and companies to reduce their carbon, boost their performance, slash their operational expenses, and provide healthy spaces for everyone. Learn how to link design to outcome and uncover new ways to expand your business.

Design affects everything. The typeface in your child's textbook affects their ability to comprehend the information. The ceiling height of your office affects the productivity of your employees. Imagine how you can use design to transform your business to improve outcomes in health, energy, carbon, and more. If you plan cities for cars & traffic, you get cars & traffic. If you plan for people & places, you get people & places.
Hear from an award winning architect and author in a lively discussion that will change how you look at the near future.

The first stop on this tour is the Swegon Manufacturing Plant for a factory tour followed by tours of Hamilton Passive House Projects including Parkdale Landing, Hughson St. Baptist Passive House and the Ken Soble Tower Transformation.  Transportation is provided and a boxed lunch is included. Tour tickets are non-refundable.

Tickets available for purchase via conference registration site.

Ticket holders please meet at 8:15am in the lobby of the Westin Prince Hotel. Bus departs at 8:30am.

The tour will start at the  Swegon Manufacturing Plant for a factory tour followed by tours of The NX Building at Humber College and the Sammon Passive House  in the Danforth. Transportation is provided and a boxed lunch is included. Tour tickets are non-refundable.

Tickets available for purchase via conference registration site.

Ticket holders please meet at 9:15am in the lobby of the Westin Prince Hotel. Bus departs at 9:30am.