Prescott Passive House: A Class Project

One major source of pride in the Prescott neighborhood of south-central Kansas City, Kansas, is a 1,700-sq.-ft. home that may be the most energy efficient residence in the state. Called Prescott Passive House, it is the product of careful design, stretches of frenetic on-site activity (between snow storms), and construction methods aimed at bringing the home to Passive House performance standards.

The house is, in fact, a product of University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Planning’s design-build program, Studio 804. As class projects go, its performance target made it ambitious. But Prescott Passive House’s creators also had an equally ambitious, tandem goal: affordability. As Jetson Green points out in a recent post, a lot of student labor and donated materials factor into the $180,000 price of the three-bedroom, two-bath house, which is targeting prospective buyers earning 80% or less of the area median income. Studio 804 said it worked with Community Housing of Wyandotte County and the Prescott Neighborhood Group to produce a home that would serve as “as a catalyst to both educate the homeowner and the community.”

Groundbreaking was February 1, and the students documented the project’s progress with weekly updates and photos on the Studio 804 website. Based on the photos, it seems the students did a good job adding a sense of opulence to the open interior and concrete floor and countertops. The near-black exterior siding, matched in color by operable exterior louvers, is actually Douglas fir that has been charred according to the Japanese shou-sugi-ban method, which includes brushing and washing the charred planks, then treating them with a natural oil.

The Studio 804 team chose windows made by Austria-based Zech Group, which is expected to begin production in the U.S. this year.

Remaining tasks for the students: documentation for Passive House certification and LEED Platinum certification.