Summertime, and the Livin' is Easy (by Meredith McDaniel)

(Rose Palmer drink, Amara Kitchen)

MAAM has spent the first half of the summer kicking back with a Rose Palmer in hand (shout out to Amara Kitchen, IYKYK), with the ceiling fan on full-blast, watching World Cup soccer. However, when back at our desks, MAAM’s current obsession is finding new ways to marry sustainable building materials with Passive House construction techniques. Can we make a Passive-House-Quonset-Hut with something other than recycled steel? Can we insulate the walls with a non-toxic, bio-based foam? Can we use discarded oyster shells to create cladding?

(https://designwanted.com/discarded-seashells-innovative-projects/)

This June, at the Passive House Conference in New Haven, CT, MAAM teamed up with Joubert Homes to make the case for Passive House design as essential to building (and especially re-building!) in fire-prone areas like Southern California. Big thanks to our moderator, Annie Barrett, for facilitating a great conversation after the lecture. We are currently working with Joubert on a Passive House certified rebuild in Altadena and we are developing a pre-approved standard plan for a Passive House in LA County. If you’re interested in learning more, reach out! 

(https://ambassadair.com/vandalia-coastal-maine/)

Funnily enough, we traveled to the east coast to meet other west coast Passive House enthusiasts! We met Leo Cheng and Jaime Rodriguez from Resilient Haus who have formed a collective of fellow re-builders in Altadena who are interested in Passive House construction. We also got to meet some amazing designers like our co-presenters Edie Dillman and Jonah Stanford at B. Public who are bringing their environmentally-sensitive pre-fab Passive Houses to sites across the western US but specifically to Altadena and the Pacific Palisades including a stunning design by Here/About.