Like many cities in the U.S., Duluth, Minn., has been experiencing an inflationary and undersupplied housing market. There’s an extreme scarcity of homes suitable for the city’s very cold and changing climate. Drawing from decades of experience in the custom design market, we set out to help fill this gap by creating a series of stock house designs that are net-zero-energy ready and ready to build. Our approach is informed by three primary goals:

1. To develop comfortable and appealing all-electric homes with exceptional indoor environmental quality, durability, and low energy requirements.
2. To use cost-effective assemblies with readily available materials.
3. To create construction documents that are thorough and easy to understand, even by builders unfamiliar with high-performance home building.

The Evergreen House is our one story, three-bedroom, two-bath prototype. At 1500 sq. ft., the Evergreen House is a good fit for, say, an older pair looking to age in place, or a family of five at the start of homeownership, or anything in between. The first Evergreen House was completed in the fall of 2023. Built by a local nonprofit housing developer, it was sold to an income-qualifying, sustainability-minded retired couple. In its first year, the Evergreen House completely offset its consumption with net-positive solar production. In 2024, it used a third of the energy compared to a code-built home in Duluth that was built and occupied at about the same time.

In a climate like Duluth’s (zone 7), an energy-efficient housing stock is deeply needed for the safety, comfort, health, and stability of our community members. For us, the Evergreen House demonstrated that net-zero-energy performance can be achieved with familiar details, assemblies, and building strategies—even with a builder who hasn’t built to this standard previously. In this article we’ll take a deep dive into the Evergreen’s design and construction and…