ARCHITECTURAL RECORD features Passive House

By Passive House California , February 12, 2026 - Featured Articles, Member News, News

PHLA+, Certified Passive House Plus, Los Angeles

The January 2026 issue of Architectural Record features an article by Joann Gonchar, FAIA, exploring how the International Passive House standard is shaping fire-resilient rebuilding efforts one year after the devastating Altadena and Pacific Palisades fires. The article highlights the California Rebuild Competition, organized by Passive House Network (PHN) and Passive House California (PHCA). The competition challenged architects to demonstrate how high-performance design, airtight construction, and balanced ventilation can contribute…

The California Passive House Rebuilds Catalog

By Passive House California , February 5, 2026 - Featured Articles, News, Press Release

Last year, the Passive House Network, in collaboration with Passive House California, held the California Rebuilds Design Competition to challenge and inspire the rebuilding efforts in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. We received dozens of entries from designers around the world, and now we’re thrilled to be able to make those entries accessible to everyone. We’re launching The California Rebuilds Catalog, available for free online, to show what Passive House…

PHCA Community Meeting | “Fire-Wise Property Hardening: Life Safety, Insurance, and Passive Building Design”

By Passive House California , December 3, 2025 - Community Meeting, Featured Articles

Description Wildfire risk in the built environment is rapidly increasing, bringing serious implications for life safety, property protection, insurance availability, and modern building standards. Architects, designers, and building professionals can’t afford to wing it—evidence-based strategies are essential for reducing vulnerability at both the building and community scale. Learn how to spot and shut down critical ignition pathways. Understand how Predicted Fire Weather conditions and Early Alerts can be used to…

Governor Newsom signed into law AB368

By Passive House California , October 2, 2025 - Featured Articles, News

On Monday October 1st,  CA Governor Newsom signed into law AB368.  Authored by Assembly Member Christopher Ward the law directs the California Energy Commission to study the cost effectiveness of the Passive House Standard.  This is a first step toward including Passive House standard in the CA building code.  The CEC has until July 1st 2028 to complete its study. The major effort to see this bill come to life and…

Passive House & Fire Resilience (PHN)

By Passive House California , January 19, 2025 - Featured Articles, Webinar

Growing wildfire devastation demands better-protected buildings – better protected by building design and better design of their surrounding landscape. Yet, after fire events, like in Los Angeles, there is a need to rebuild quickly. Just build it back, the thinking goes, but we can do better. Let’s build forward with fire-safe strategies integrated with Passive House building design to drive down our dependence on fossil fuels, protect people’s health, and…