Blog

How to Keep Floor Beams Where They Should Be Inside the Airtight Layer You know the air barrier must be continuous, without interruption around the entirety of the conditioned space - inboard of the main insulation layer, thereby keeping the conditioned air within the conditioned space, optimizing efficiency and minimizing the chance … read more

Elevating the Performance of our Brooklyn Headquarters At 475, we preach that a continuous, airtight, insulated, and thermal bridge free envelope is essential for high performance buildings. While our old, retrofitted Brooklyn garage falls short of the level of performance we would typically like to see, that didn't stop us from imple … read more

The Future of Ecological Living On Display While active opposition to all climate progress reverberates from US leadership, the imagination of those plotting a course for a better future is not deterred. The Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (CEA) has partnered with Gray Organschi Architecture to create a display project desi … read more

Smart Walls For Smart Kids: Okanagan College Child Care Centre Sustainable Architecture & Building Magazine (or SABMag for short) announced the Canadian Green Building Awards for 2018, including a personal favorite of ours among the winners: the Okanagan College Child Care Centre in Penticton, British Columbia. This project was nam … read more

5 Steps For Sealing Intentional Holes in Your Air Barrier A continuous air barrier is one of the defining design details of Passive House and high-performance building. The red line that many of us draw on blueprints to indicate the air barrier separating the interior conditioned space and the exterior environment, provides comfort, opt … read more

The Value of Air and Vapor Control Foundational Elements Of High Performance Enclosures We’ve heard the chorus of misinformation throughout years of speaking to builders across North America: “Buildings need to breathe – you’ll destroy them if you make them airtight”. “In a cold climate, if you don’t put a vapor barrier on the inside o … read more