Innovation project to serve as a starting point for the new construction industry
North America’s first passive house is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The BioHaus on the Waldsee Campus of Concordia Language Villages was built at the time by Stephan Tanner and his team at Intep. It also served as the starting point for the company TANNER Building Products.
The BioHaus am Waldsee in the US state of Minnesota has turned 20. The building, located on the Waldsee campus of Concordia Language Villages, is the first building in America ever to be certified as a Passive House by the German Passive House Institute. The project was originally realised by Stephan Tanner and his team from Integrale Planung GmbH (Intep) in Zurich. It also served as the starting point for TANNER Building Products and its related ventures, according to a press release.
The BioHaus is characterised by materials and technologies such as Passive House-certified windows and doors, high-performance ventilation systems, external shading elements and vacuum insulation panels, which were imported from Europe to the US for the project at the time. It was built at a time when the Passive House standard was still largely unknown in North America and the necessary materials, technologies and construction expertise were lacking locally.
The project was supported by the German Federal Environmental Foundation and was intended to demonstrate that advanced environmental technologies can also be successful abroad. “BioHaus has not only proven that Passive Houses can work in America. It has also helped others to follow this example,” the statement reads.
The project also gave rise to Stephan Tanner’s company, TANNER Building Products. Based in Watertown, Minnesota, the company started in 2006 as Peak Building Products and supplied the advanced materials for the BioHaus. “What began as a necessity – importing components that no one else had – sparked an entire industry,” the company explains in the press release.