At least symbolically, it was a refurbished Craftsman bungalow in Santa Cruz, Calif., that helped nudge the total of certified floor area, meeting the Passivhaus standard beyond the 1 million square meter mark, the German-based Passivhaus Institut said.
In updating the 1400-sq.-ft. house, originally built in 1922, the owners were looking to combine energy efficiency with the Arts and Crafts style. Complete specs on the house are posted in the Passivhaus data base, and you can read a blog about the project here.
The bungalow is one of more than 10,000 buildings certified to meet the standard. Although most of them are in central Europe, according to the Institut, they’re also popping up with increasing regularity in North and South America, Asia, and Australia.
Certified buildings include public and private buildings and come in all sizes. The largest built to date is an office tower in Vienna with usable floor area of nearly 21,000 square meters (226,000 sq. ft.). The smallest is a tiny house near Rennes, France, with a floor area of 11 square meters (118 sq. ft.).
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This bungalow in Santa Cruz, Calif., was retrofitted to the Passivhaus standard in 2012, helping to push the worldwide certified floor area past 1 million square meters.
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This is the smallest Passivhaus building in the world, a 118-sq.-ft. house in France.
