Sustainable Architecture in Portland, OR

Passive House is the world's most rigorous building-performance standard. In practice it means a home with a super-insulated, meticulously airtight envelope, high-performance windows, and continuous heat-recovery ventilation, designed so it needs almost no active heating or cooling. The result is a house that holds a gentle, even temperature year-round with tiny energy use, always-fresh filtered air, and remarkable quiet and comfort. It's a performance target, not a style — a Passive House can look like anything, and ours look like warm, light-filled Northwest homes. As certified Passive House designers, we design and model to that standard so the performance is real and verified, not aspirational.

Less than most people expect, and it pays back. A high-performance home carries a modest premium up front — better insulation, windows, and detailing — but that's offset by dramatically lower energy bills for the entire life of the house, often reaching near-zero, plus lower maintenance and greater durability. Over the decades you own the home, a Passive House frequently costs less in total than a conventional one. We design to your budget and are candid about the numbers from the start, and we'll show you where the performance investment returns the most. For most clients, the comfort and health benefits alone justify it, with the savings and the carbon reduction as substantial bonuses.

Absolutely — and dispelling the idea that it can't is central to our work. Nothing about high performance requires a home to look technical or austere. Our houses read as warm, timber-framed, daylight-filled Northwest homes with honest materials and generous light; the efficiency is felt as comfort, quiet, and clean air rather than seen as gadgetry. We're designers first and building scientists second, so beauty and performance are developed together as a single design, never traded off. If you love the idea of a radically efficient home but worry it'll feel like a lab, that's exactly the fear our portfolio is built to put to rest.

Yes — deep green retrofits are one of our specialties and some of our most rewarding work. Many older Northwest homes are leaky, drafty, and expensive to heat, and a thoughtful retrofit can transform them: we rethink the envelope, air-sealing, insulation, windows, and mechanical systems, often alongside a renovation that improves the daylight and layout. The difference is dramatic — comfortable in every season, far cheaper to run, healthier air, and a home that finally feels right. It's also the greenest choice, since reusing an existing house avoids the carbon of building new. We'll assess what's possible and worthwhile for your specific home.

The whole way through. High-performance design lives or dies in the details and the execution, so our involvement doesn't stop at pretty drawings. We produce detailed construction documents that get the airtightness, insulation, and thermal-bridge details right, carry the project through permitting, and stay engaged during construction and testing to verify the home performs as designed. We also work closely with builders experienced in high-performance construction, or help you find one. Having your architect involved from goals through verification is how you make sure the comfort and efficiency you were promised are the ones you actually get.

Our studio is on SE Division in Portland, and we design sustainable homes throughout Oregon and the Northwest — Southeast Portland, the Northwest District, Sellwood, Lake Oswego, and out to Hood River and Bend are all regular territory. The Northwest's climate and values make it a wonderful place for high-performance architecture, and we know the local builders, energy programs, and conditions well. For a compelling sustainable project a bit further afield, we're glad to talk. If you want a home that's beautiful, healthy, and radically efficient, wherever you are in the region, we'd love to hear about it.