North American Passive House Network Conference 2018

In tropical countries, hot and humid climate present different challenges than those the Passive House standard has dealt with so far in heating dominated climates. These challenges, in addition to coping with local building practices for affordability, are what a group of developers are facing designing an affordable multifamily suburban village, 4.5 miles from the Caribbean city of Cartagena, Colombia, one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites, where the temperature at 85F db and the RH at 85% are constant throughout the year. Traditional cooling practice is natural ventilation coupled with air conditioning, and the building practices do not consider either envelope insulation nor air-sealing of the standard reinforced concrete structures.

These practices create the need for high capacity multiple sources of air conditioning systems that cool below the dew point and create mold growth conditions without achieving comfort or humidity mitigation inside the conditioned space.
Traditional construction poses a competitive challenge to utilizing PH components.
A complete innovative new design approach was required since the greatest challenge in this climate is air infiltration together with supply of cooled and dehumidified ventilation air.
This project would be the first PH project in the country, and probably the first of this magnitude in a tropical climate.

Construction will start mid 2018 with 4 six-story buildings, 48 apartments per building, ranging from 635 sqft to 743 sqft per unit, on 42 acres of land with a green building urban approach.
This Project incorporated innovation in financing as it has been financed in part by crowdfunding.

Learning objectives
1) Hot and Humid Climate Specific Case
2) Ventilation, Dehumidification and Cooling in Hot & Humid Climate
3) Reinventing the Thermal Envelope to Oversees Local Practices
4) Innovation in Financing and Overcoming Market challenges