Design of a four-unit Passive House building that efficiently maximizes the small open parking lot which it replaced

This beautiful, comfortable, healthy, and quiet residential building at 369 Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is Passive House certified, using strategic design with common building materials and construction methods. Achieving carbon neutral performance and utilizing an iterative design and analysis process, every aspect has been carefully designed to reduce the building’s energy use intensity (EUI) and carbon footprint. Street Smart uses on-site solar photovoltaics (PV), eliminates gas usage with all-electric appliances, and uses domestic hot water (DHW) equipment. It consumes 90 percent less energy to heat and cool than a typical code-compliant building. Constructed to last 100 years, it is durable and cost effective to maintain.

And most importantly, we hope this building can act as a model to demonstrate the benefits of sustainable residential buildings, helping to bring awareness to the benefits of building that is economical to build, easy to replicate, desirable to live in, and transformative in its efficiency and resource use.