having high performance tripleglazed windows all play a role to ensure the building performs as intended. Kearns Mancini innovates on every Passive House project. They are responsible for what is currently Ontario’s largest Passive House complex under construction – Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation’s new Affordable Passive House at 3100 Meadowbrook Lane. Located amidst single family homes and other multi-unit residences in a Windsor neighbourhood, this 10-storey residential complex brings much-needed affordable housing to the City of Windsor. The 143,000 square foot building has 145 affordable housing units, as well as shared community spaces on each floor. The building creates a comfortable and healthy environment for all residents with a strong emphasis on creating community through vertical neighbourhoods. “We worked on this project at the same time as the YWCA Hamilton,” says Deborah Byrne, “only here, rather than a modular concrete panel, a local manufacturer developed a modular steel wall system with us. They developed this completely to Passive House certification and it was the first certified wall component in Canada, Modpanel.” All the pieces are in place to design and build Passive House in Canada. The innovation will continue, but Passive House, a concept first developed in Saskatchewan and then refined by a German physicist, looks like our way to innovate out of building’s massive contribution to the climate crisis. Kearns Mancini has learned that building differently results in increased simplicity: a massively insulated, thermally broken airtight envelope; triple-glazed airtight, thermally broken windows; optimized orientation to catch southern solar energy; mechanical ventilation energy recovery; and optimized functional design. “A Passive House design allows for the building to heat and cool itself most of the time,” says Jonathan Kearns, “providing significant occupant comfort for 90 percent less energy compared to conventional building methods. In a Passive House, you can sit next to a window in the dead of winter and not feel a draft, and then sit next to that same window at the height of summer and not feel overheated.” For Kearns, not only is Passive House a better way to build, but it should also be the only way we are permitted to build. He should know. Kearns Mancini has been constantly innovating and collectively working on Passive House since 2009. They are Ontario’s leading Passive House architects. “It is not a brand,” he says, “It is a building standard, balancing energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and affordability. The Passive House Standard should not be a privilege; it should be a right.” FEBRUARY 2022
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