<a href="http://www.nkarch.com/2013/07/park-passive-project-selected-for-aia-explore-design-home-tour/" target="_blank">Park Passive</a>, Seattle's first certified Passive House located in the Madison Park area, is a striking four bedroom home for a young family. Designed by <a href="http://www.nkarch.com/" target="_blank">NK Architects</a>, the super energy efficient home uses 80% less energy than other homes built to today's standard codes. Daylighting, a high performance envelope and energy efficient mechanical systems all play a critical role in reducing the urban home's energy use.

Park Passive is a 2,710 square-foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bath house on an urban infill lot in the Madison Park area.

It is the first house in Seattle to be certified by the <a href="http://www.passivehouseacademy.com/" target="_blank">Passive House Academy</a> and authorized by the <a href="http://passiv.de/en/" target="_blank">Passivhaus Institut</a>.

The home was designed by Marie Ljubojevic and Lauren McCunney at NK Architects in partnership with <a href="http://www.cascadebuilt.com/projects/park-passive-2/" target="_blank">Cascade Built</a>.

“Inefficient buildings are the number one consumer of energy in the world, and the largest contributor to climate change,” said Cascade Built founder <a href="http://www.cascadebuilt.com/about/" target="_blank">Sloan Ritchie</a>.

“Passive House design standards offer a way forward towards net-zero building with strategies that are relatively easy to implement – better windows and doors, more insulation, improved air sealing. Unlike asking people to stop driving their cars, Passive House reduces our carbon footprint while increasing comfort and quality of life.”

The home maintains a constant 70 degrees internal temperature with the help of operable <a href="http://intuswindows.com/" target="_blank">Intus high performance windows</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation" target="_blank">heat recovery ventilator</a> when it is colder out.

Carefully placed windows and skylights fill the home with lots of natural daylight and provide views to the street. A tree salvaged from the site during construction was felled and milled to to be used as stair treads and a live-edge bathroom countertop.

Energy efficient appliances like an induction cooktop, Liebherr refrigerator and Bosch ventless clothes dryer reduce energy consumption.

The opportunity to design the city’s first certified Passive House on an incredibly challenging lot was instrumental in our decision to partner on this project,” said <a href="http://www.nkarch.com/people/" target="_blank">Boyd Pickrell</a>, Principal at NK Architects. “Passive House’s focus on performance, human comfort and simplicity aligns well with our approach to design. It supports our mission to create dense urban housing that is responsive to people’s needs and supportive of highly sustainable lifestyles. We work on a variety of housing scales, and we intend to apply this expertise not only to future single-family projects but also to our larger multi-family projects nationwide where even greater energy efficiency gains can be realized.”

Park Passive will be open for public tours during the <a href="http://www.aiaseattle.org/hometour" target="_blank">Seattle 2013 AIA Explore Design Home Tour</a> in September.

Section.

First and Second floor plans.

3rd and roof floor plans.