This Passive House model was carefully customized and calibrated to accommodate a cacophonously coniferous cut of land in upstate New York.  If you know Passive House, you know that trees are a mixed blessing—we want the shade AND the sun and we won't take "no" for an answer.  So a site peppered with pines (365.25 days of shade per year!) presents a potent problem, especially when cutting down an old-growth tree is simply not an acceptable option.  We were fortunate to have a large site and flexible zoning laws, which meant we could place and position the house to maximize solar heat gain and minimize tree clearing. With careful adjustment of window sizes, angles and spacing of shading louvers and a little tweaking of the exterior envelope, we were able to meet the Passive House pre-design certification requirements.  That's a celebration in and of itself, but doing all this in collaboration with the local Habitat For Humanity chapter makes it all the more exciting.  Stay tuned for construction updates!