04/22/2024
On Earth Day 2024, we are reflecting on one of our successful, highly-sustainable projects, the Kiln Apartments 🌱🌍♻️
We place a high priority on creating healthy, durable, and highly energy-efficient buildings. Kiln Apartments is located in a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly neighborhood in North Portland and features 19 units with ground floor retail. Energy performance goals for the project were ambitious—with the project earning 'Passive House' distinction, making the project the first and largest, new construction market-rate apartment building in the U.S. to achieve Passive House certification. “Passive House” was originated in Germany in the 1990’s as Passivhaus. There are approximately 20,000 buildings constructed to meet this standard. As a point of reference, certification for this building required energy performance to be approximately 65–75% better than Portland’s already industry leading code requirements.
The Kiln project features a highly insulated envelope; high-performance triple-pane wood windows; space heating through wall-mounted, hot water radiant heaters served from solar thermal roof panels; continuous ventilation through centralized heat recovery ventilator; and deeply inset, south facing windows protected from unwanted solar heat gain by sunshades.