Passive (Aggressive) House
CATEGORY: Architecture (Professional)
LOCATION: Torrance, CA
TYPE: Residential (Major Renovation/Addition)
PROGRAM: Single Family + ADU
HEIGHT: 2 stories; 25 feet
AREA: 3,000 sf
FIRM: Zlatan Sehovic Architects
TEAM: Zouhair Shehab (Owner); Raed Aboulhosn (Structure); Wentao Wu/Tennessee State University (Mechanical, Passive House Analysis); Newton Energy (Title 24)
PHASES: Concept, Schematic, Design Development, Construction Documentation
DURATION: 12 months
STATUS: Permitted/Unbuilt
DESCRIPTION:
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are emerging as a critical housing solution in California. ADUs have the potential to serve as an innovative, affordable, and effective way to add more dwelling units to the state’s depleted housing stock.
This project takes a conventional single family residence in a suburban area of Southern California and transforms it into a contemporary and comfortable high performance house with an integrated ADU above the rear yard garage by aggressively incorporating passive design strategies along with the family’s unique needs and tastes.
ROLE/CREDITS:
As one of my first major solo projects, I led all aspects of the design and delivery process from obtaining initial planning approvals and consultant coordination to construction documentation and securing final building permits. The thermal mass graph and calculations were produced by Dr. Wentao Wu and his team at Tennessee State University while I finalized the version below.