A Passive House Prefab Home?

*Update - Visit Our New Passive House Prefab Homes page*

Yes!

Just like Zaha Hadid’s tireless search for the perfect architectural curve, we in the building sciences constantly seek ways to deliver you innovations in design and construction.

Crafting a building is filled with challenges.  From site development, to constraints of time and budget - creating something amazing is all about addressing the issues with skill and ingenuity.  Take, for example, a modern Passive House; rather than ignore heat loss in the winter and overheating in the summer, we model the building site so that we know exactly where the sun will be, then we can harvest its heat and provide shade as needed.  

Prefabricated Passive House systems offer another innovative opportunity:  we can speed up the design and construction process.  For some, this is the classic time-is-money calculation.  For others, the reduction in labor can make a project possible when highly skilled builders are difficult to find.  If you decide on a pre-designed home, you save time on design.  And, as with all prefab homes, instead of needing to wait for the foundation before we start building everything else - the walls, roof, and foundation are built at the same time.

We have had success with this in the past; the national award winning Island Passive features prefabricated wall assemblies that meet stringent Passive House standards.  Historically, though, reliable production of prefabricated Passive House assemblies from job-to-job has been a difficult hurdle to surmount.

We’re excited to announce that we found a great partner able to reliably produce and deliver Passive House certified wall and roof systems!

We’d like to introduce you to a company dedicated to sustainability - a company we are partnering with to bring you Passive House prefab homes.

Phoenix Haus & Artisans Group

Phoenix Haus is a U.S. based family owned company.  

Like us, they realized that the first approach to true sustainability is to cut down on wasted energy.  It was this approach that led them to Passive House; the fully verifiable Passive House standard reliably and dramatically cuts energy waste.  Inspired, and in the best of American traditions, they searched out how they could contribute, and they recognized a lack of high quality prefabricated energy efficient building components.    

Phoenix Haus spent the last couple of years refining their business model and building out their state-of-the-art warehouse to reliably produce high quality foam free Passive House wall and roof assemblies.  

Their dedication to develop a passion for a better future into a business that creates Passive House certified prefabricated homes resonates with us, and is why we're so excited about our partnership.

In cooperation with Phoenix Haus we now offer the opportunity to provide you with award winning Passive House architecture and save you design and construction time on your amazing, health promoting, and sustainable new home.

We’re two forward thinking companies who want the opportunity to work with you to create your dream home.     

What is a Prefab Home?

Prefab does not mean the entire home shows up at your site, that’s a manufactured home.

With a prefabricated home, your building site still gets leveled, your foundation still gets poured, and your plumbing and electrical still get built into the site; it’s the rest of the process that begins to look a bit novel.  

Instead of a crew of framers showing up to build the walls of your home one board at a time, the walls and roof are constructed off-site (often in a warehouse), then delivered to your site where the construction crew puts it all together.  

Because the walls and roof are built in a controlled environment there’s less material waste and a greater opportunity to streamline the entire process.  Think about the revolution in manufacturing with dedicated assembly lines, and you can begin to see how that same efficiency can benefit building construction.   

Prefab buildings are all about saving materials, labor, and time.  

In a busy urban setting, the savings on labor and time-on-site can add up to significant savings for your budget.  In a remote setting where laborers are difficult to come by, prefab can make your get-away home feasible.  

This is a big part of why we kept searching; there are some situations and scenarios where being able to provide our clients with a prefab home is the make-or-break answer to a project’s obstacles.

What is a Phoenix Haus Prefab Passive House, then?

A Phoenix Haus prefab Passive House is a home constructed of prefabricated foam free wall and roof assemblies designed and built to the highly energy efficient Passive House standard.

As with all prefabricated homes, construction of the walls and roof do not need to wait for the foundation to be built.  Phoenix Haus even delivers the exterior walls with the triple paned windows and air sealing already installed.  

We Think A Better Future Is Worth Hard Work

Building a Passive House takes extra training, time, and care.  An Artisans Group Passive House means quality and aesthetics are also important considerations.  You value quality, which is why our passion for not just getting the job done, but getting the job done well, brought us together.

Our collaboration with Phoenix Haus is a continuation of the Artisans Group promise to deliver our clients beautiful and sustainable homes using the best available science.  

We’re excited to provide you with another option in healthy and sustainable architecture, and we look forward to hearing from you.