January’s devastating Los Angeles fires set off flashbacks for many long-time residents of Southern Colorado who recall the horrors inflicted by the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Although plenty of resources are available for fireproofing existing homes or business buildings, some may find a new trend, called Passive House, well worth the investment.
Passive House is a building design standard born in Germany in the early 1990s. The method creates heavily insulated and airtight buildings with a specialized focus on incorporating ventilation. The resulting structures prioritize occupants’ health and comfort while reducing energy use and carbon emissions. Despite its name, it’s not just for homes. Passive House standards are also applied to churches, schools and office buildings.
The standards have been growing in popularity, but according to The Passive House Network, Colorado has only 16 certified Passive House designers. Lauren Shadid is one of them.
Passive House Makes Structures More Resilient to Fire
“The benefit of the air tightness found in Passive House design is that it keeps out pollutants like smoke, pollens and just regular pollution,” says Shadid. “Sometimes, if homes don’t succumb to the actual flames, they can still have a lot of smoke damage, which makes them uninhabitable.”
Smoke damage is what destroyed many homes in the Marshall fire in 2021, which surpassed the Black Forest fire as the most destructive in Colorado’s history.
“It’s something we really have to consider here in Colorado,” she says. “The Marshall Fire illustrated that you’re not just at risk if you’re in what we call the wildland urban interface. That was a community that felt a little bit more suburban. It wasn’t up in the mountains, but the winds just carried the embers and carried the flames very quickly.”
Keeping fire embers out is another way Passive House design can protect a home.
“When you’ve got high winds, those embers can travel for miles and miles,” notes Shadid. “So even if the fire is not right next to your building, you could still be at risk when the embers get sucked up into the home and into the attic, and the house can literally start burning from within.”
Shadid says Passive House features tighter screens and fewer entry points for embers than more traditional construction, which has more attic vents and vents under the eaves.
Insulation is another key element. Passive House designs contain wood and all of the framing in something called a thermal envelope. By design, it keeps the home comfortable and energy efficient, but with the added benefit of fire resistance.
Shadid is based in Castle Pines and provides architectural and interior services up and down Colorado’s Front Range and in the mountain communities. Learn more about her services here: laurenshadidarch.com
She is also doing her part to add more Passive House standards to her former state of California, where she is redesigning a home lost in the Palisades fire and designing an addition for a separate client to house a family whose home was lost in the Altadena fire.
“I really love getting to know my clients and helping them create the best possible home for their family,” she says. “I’m a champion for the environment and I care a lot about it, and people’s health and well-being. That is what I really love about Passive House, that it addresses all of those things and gives people a wonderful home that’s comfortable and healthy and saves them on energy bills.”
