Custom Passive Homes

Artisans Group Custom Passive Homes

Your - Beautiful, Personalized, Sustainable, Elegant - Home

We love the Pacific Northwest as much as you do. As an Architecture & Design firm specializing in Passive House design our team is passionate about using the best available science to design healthy, artful, and custom sustainable homes in our communities. 

With 20 years experience in custom home design our Architecture & Design firm has designed more Passive Houses than any other Pacific Northwest architect or firm. From Seattle and the San Juan Islands through Olympia and Portland, Artisans Group designs homes to celebrate your individuality, unique wants and needs as well as urban or rural green living lifestyle.

We are the preferred Certified Passive House architecture firm of our region and we believe the best Passive House design for each client should also be beautiful. 

Your goals are at the heart of our relationship, so we listen and then we design a home together with you that celebrates how you want to live and meets stringent Passive House building requirements.

Artisans Group Passive House architects provide start-to-finish innovative and award winning contemporary architecture to create sustainable homes. Our expertise as a full service Puget Sound, Olympia and Seattle Passive House designer is at your service.  

With community minded and forward thinking licensed architects, designers, project managers, and permitting specialists all under one roof, we offer a full service experience that means your home, your time, your custom details, and your budget remain central to the conversation. From the first napkin sketches through the years and the stories you create, we’re here to ensure that your home is a revolution in green architecture and a joy to live in.

What is Passive House (PH)/Passivhaus?

The goal of an Artisans Group Passive House is to achieve a home with outstanding energy savings and efficiency without artistic compromise.  Passive House is a building science developed to create more comfortable, ecological, and healthy homes.  Our team decided to pursue Passive House technology not because we think it's trendy, but because it represents the best available building science.  With proper designing and planning our architects achieve a consistent and comfortable indoor temperature throughout t home. 

You can have view windows without overheating by employing thoughtful architecture and design.

With a collaborative process our team of Olympia and Seattle Passive House architects design your ultra energy efficient home to work for you.  

Whether traditional or modern architecture, the integrated design elements of your choice make it personalized for you and your green lifestyle. Using revolutionary building science and low-impact and low-maintenance materials, our green building Seattle and Olympia firm employs licensed architects to artfully create Passive homes of unparalleled quality, durability, comfort and sustainability.

Imagine breathing freshly filtered indoor air while relaxing next to your floor-to-ceiling window view, or kicking back on your spectacular deck overlooking Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound. 

We listen to your dreams and then we design and build a beautiful, healthy home perfect for your needs.

What are you waiting for? Contact us today and let’s get the conversation started.

Click here to learn about our custom Design+Build process.

Artisans Group Seattle Passive House Retrofit

Our Seattle green home solutions allow clients to revolutionize the energy performance and air quality of their home with a Passive House retrofit. 

Unlock the true potential of your home with an eco-friendly remodel. Add more natural light and solar heating with strategic placement of triple-pane windows. Reduce the monthly drain of energy bills with upgraded insulation.  Install a cutting-edge Heat Return Ventilation system (HRV)that filters and cycles indoor air throughout the house, dramatically improving air quality.  

Our clients enjoy significant reductions in carbon emissions, heating, and cooling costs even before investing in solar panels. For those who wish to pursue solar panels and maybe even seek a net-zero home, all of our projects feature solar ready design.

A passive house retrofit is a substantial upgrade from a non-passive house; it is a staging exercise with each stage carefully scheduled to ensure that the project build will meet green building standards.

If you are ready to convert your home into a healthy living paradise, let’s get the conversation started. 

Contact us today!

Artisans Group Seattle Pocket House

If you have been itching to decrease your housing footprint and simplify your life, a contemporary pocket house on a smaller urban lot may be the solution. Small space doesn’t have to mean a downgrade in lifestyle; our high-end pocket houses are built with integrity and designed to impress.

Pre-designed pocket houses mean fewer decisions and small design cost/time. That means you can move into your dream home on a quick turnaround! Ask us about customization options and Passive House certification.

If you are wondering if a Pocket House would be just right for you; contact us today. Let’s get the conversation started!

Check back soon for exciting details about an amazing opportunity to purchase your custom Artisans Group prefab Passive House right here in the Pacific Northwest!

The Artisans Group Passivhaus Process

Whether retrofitting a home for green living, building a pocket house or designing a new Passive House from the ground up, our clients rely on us to honor their vision and to be kept informed and educated; starting on day one.

With our full service approach you can be as involved in the process as you would like. 

Review and approve plans, choose sustainable and eco-friendly materials that meet your preferences, see all the angles and experience your design before it gets built with our computer models and sketches; or sit back, relax, and enjoy the show as we ensure the success of each integral detail. 

Your project is our passion. 

Its importance and the commitment necessary to see it through from your dream to your daily refuge and achieving that reality is why we’re in this business.   

Our process begins with the pre-design phase that builds trust and sets the home building or green retrofitting process up for success. From architectural design through permitting, communication with your contractor and quality assurance walk-throughs; Artisans Group designs your dream Passive House, remodel or custom home with less stress on your already busy life.

Pre-design:

During the pre-design phase we establish our relationship, conduct initial site feasibility checks, write our design contract, create a massing model of your concepts, and work out initial ballpark pricing. 

With construction experts on your team from the beginning, real-world cost projections and buildability are part of the package. By conducting thorough site feasibility analyses we save you headaches and disappointment down the road by eliminating sites that are unbuildable, unsuitable for your needs, or have other potential issues (we’ve seen a lot of things over the years). 

A realistic projection based on our experience is developed early on and provided as part of our service.

Design:

Each step represents a significant value added aspect that comes from working with an experienced Certified Olympia and Seattle Passive House firm. 

After meeting each other to discuss your hopes and needs in an eco-friendly home (your “program”) we then develop your schematic design.  This conceptual design allows us to problem solve together as we work toward your ideal layout that maximizes the value of your property for you. 

Our open and early budget communication also makes this phase an ideal time for you to make changes and customize with higher quality materials, integrate more green design options or, if necessary, pare down your list of wants. Once the changes have been established, a full schematic design is created along with a refined ballpark budget.  

We know that the building budget is a major source of stress for most people - and that it can feel unstable or out of your control - so we work with you to make the budget feel understandable. When it’s smooth sailing, we let you know. When there’s a rough patch ahead, we let you know. Our open communication gives you solid footing throughout our work together.

After Design Development documents are created for Passive Houses and Passive House retrofits, the fun of Interior Design development begins. 

Our award winning Passive House Certified Architect and design experts help guide you through the maze of choices and layouts.  We help you settle on what works best to support your lifestyle. 

And because your Interior Designer is with us from the start your vision remains a consistent and understood part of your whole home design.   

Site approval is then handled, as is the necessary plan for stormwater. We conduct energy modeling of your extremely energy efficient Passive House through the highly accurate Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) system. The PHPP system provides verification of the energy efficiency of the building concept with the goal of optimizing costs and achieving the most durable, resilient and energy-efficient building possible. In addition to PHPP, we utilize the best available building science to design better, more resilient, and eco-savvy homes for our clients.

Next, we employ engineers to review our work and ensure seismic integrity.  With our many years of Pacific Northwest experience, we know that sometimes the earth moves a bit so we design and build for beauty, durability, and resiliency.

From here it’s time for our team to handle the construction documents (CDs) and permit development. 

You relax while our experienced crew takes care of the necessary bureaucracy to get a construction permit; just another part of your full service experience.    

Construction:

With our designers involved in all phases of the project, your design principles are not up for reinterpretation. This consistent reinforcement of your vision means you get what you want in your home.  We communicate with the craftspeople who build your home so that they understand the intent of your vision and our designers make frequent visits to your site during the building phase to answer any questions and attend to the finest of details.  

Post-construction:

Post-construction is the ultimate excitement of you walking into a house customized to your green lifestyle, and calling it home. Together, we conduct the last walk through with an architect's eye for details.  At this stage we pursue final Passive House accrediting if you are interested as Passive House certification is a voluntary accreditation. Once accreditation is granted, the home will be certified as one of the most energy efficient buildings in the world.

When we hand the keys to you, we’re not finished.  Our relationship is extremely important and often extends for years. 

We recognize that designing and building a home is a phenomenal commitment and we have been honored to work with a number of clients through multiple occasions and changes in their lives.  

We’re invested in the quality of your experience today and tomorrow.

Contact

If you are ready to start building the high-end, Passivhaus of your dreams to fit your lifestyle; let’s get the conversation started. 

Our passive house architects and designers are here to help you through the process.  

Contact us today!