Flooring includes Teragren bamboo, cork in the kitchen, and porcelain at entry points. American Yellow Birch was used for the cabinets and trimming. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

Oriented to absorb the afternoon sun, floor-to-ceiling doors comprise two-thirds of the home’s west-facing walls, which open to an elevated deck overlooking Island Bay. Combined with extra-thick building insulation, this passive element provides sufficient heating for the home, even during winter months—a true feat given the region’s cold seasonal winds.

Thanks to passive solar and radiant floors, the metal-clad home is comfortable year-round.

The south windows provide much of the winter-free heat as well as the opportunity to break down the wall’s mass into a dynamic composition. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

The traditional massing masks a super-performing house, built to last for centuries. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

The exterior was clad with LP SmartSide in alternating bands of textured and smooth siding and basement areaways are constructed of site-salvaged brick-filled gabions. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

Find out how Passive House standards are being integrated into affordable housing projects in the United States.

Aluminum-clad wood Zola European windows provide Passive House performance. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

The entry sequence was designed to allow accessible entry, creating a sense of shelter and highlighting the thickness of the super-insulated ICF walls.

Floor-to-ceiling glass walls help the house connect to the landscape and also offer a material contrast to the oak floors and concrete.

Arango worked with Maine-based firm GO Logic on the design and construction of the house.

The American Yellow Birch-clad staircase was designed as a screen inspired by light filtering through a forest. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

Arango describes the perks of living in a house that runs on passive principles, including lower energy bills and less noise from heaters.

A cedar deck and beams create the transition to the back entry. Photo by: Eric Hausman Photography

A 3,120-square-foot 19th-century brownstone building in Park Slope, Brooklyn—the first certified Passive House in New York City—was one of three finalists in the retrofits category. Fabrica718, an environmentally focused Brooklyn design practice, renovated the house starting in 2009.

To adhere to Passivhaus standards, the house has a tightly-sealed shell, a smart ventilation system, and plenty of windows to let in natural light.

Located on an infill lot, the house is clad with Anthra Zinc panels by VMZinc.

First things first: What's a Passive House? They're well insulated, virtually airtight buildings who must meet strict energy efficiency requirements. The benefit is that building passive can decrease home heating consumption by an astounding 90% and decrease overall energy consumption up to 75%. Here, a mixed-use building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a single-family home atop a retail space, all designed by Loadingdock5. Photo by: Raimund Koch.

With an airtight building seal and triple-glazed windows, the structure receives all the heat it needs from the sun.

This house in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, designed by BLAF Architecten, is a finalist in the single-family homes category.

Pikaplant and Pikaplant One Water is free, but your time isn’t. If you’ve suffered through the guilt of letting houseplants brown and yellow due to lack of attention, the Dutch company Pikaplant has two products that do almost all of the work for you. The glass-and-steel Pikaplant One shelf is designed with a passive watering system that only requires a occasional fill-up, and the Pikaplant Jars are all-in-one terrariums for the watering deficient. Unless you’re clumsy enough to knock it down, you’re set.

Kimmo Lylykangas Architects designed three two-story passive houses in Espoo, Finland, near Helsinki, as a pilot project for the Finnish social housing company TA Asunnot.

X-Line 016 House in Lethbridge, AB is a cedar-clad passive home with a two-story living room, artist's studio, and three-car garage with windows creating a "chimney effect" ventilation system that allows the air to move without using power. Photo by: Clayton Strong

Located in Los Altos, California, Curt Cline's modern house seeks to respect the neighborhood fabric. By keeping the abode low-slung, using a few simple geometries, and the leaving the facade spare, Cline helped the structure blend in with the 1940s and 1950s structures around it. The materials—board-formed concrete and cedar slats—instill a contemporary California aesthetic.

A frosted-glass partition separates the living spaces.

Cline incorporated a number of green features into the design including a super-insulated envelope, ultra-efficient heat pump, and skylights for natural daylighting. "It approaches standards," he says. Pavers lead to the front door.

Arango's 1,000-square-foot home in Amherst, Massachusetts is run entirely by solar power. He uses the home as an example in the class he teaches on renewable energy.

Here's the rear of the residence.

The kitchen boasts maple wood, modern Radianz quartz countertops, along with a Pental tile backsplash and Moda Vetro Glass Stone tile. “The homeowners really wanted the space to glow and one of the best ways to do that is to keep the finishes light,” Smith said. Custom cabinets throughout the house were designed by the Artisans Group and built by Beech Tree Woodworks.

Passive Voice-Julie Torres Moskovitz created New York’s first passive house using a tightly sealed envelope around an aging Brooklyn brownstone’s exterior. Her clients requested a home that was simple and low-maintenance and Torres Moskovitz brought them just that, with the latest energy-efficient appliances and minimalist palette. Photo by: Hai Zhang

Architect Paul Castrucci found that when designing a passive house for an urban environment, he didn’t have to take many extreme measures as long as the apartment layout was smart and strategic. Like many efficient homes of this caliber, the 13-16 inch thick walls provide serious insulation and a tight envelope.

As far as Castrucci is concerned, he’s a modern architect with a modern view of the world, and that includes sustainability and aesthetics. “Good architecture will always relate to the sun and light; that’s important,” he says. In addition, with a solar array on the roof providing about a 4.2 kilowatt system per apartment, it’s like each resident has their own utility company.

An additional benefit of this kind of home construction is the quiet produced by triple-glazed window and a thick building envelope. For those wanting to escape the noise of the city, there's nothing better.

The showcase of Norwegian design talent continues at WantedDesign. In the "Calm, Cool, Collected" exhibition, catch new works by Everything Elevated (pictured), Anderssen & Voll, Lars Beller Fjetland, and more.

“We estimate for a high-quality, efficient project like this, there will be a five percent premium on standard costs,” says Castrucci, who worked with Further Inc. on the project. “It’s not an extreme cost.” The kitchen includes white oak flooring, stone countertops, and Electrolux appliances.