The WHY House paper was presented at the PLEA Conference 2012 in Lima, Peru.

Proceedings to be published soon.

ABSTRACT: The “WHY house” is a critical response to a call for affordable, low-energy, single-family homes for the communities of New Orleans Louisiana, long after the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina on August 29th 2005. The project was developed as an entry for an international architectural competition. Such competition had the requirement that the post-Katrina building codes should be met while the design should adhere to the Passivhaus Standard objectives. The proposed house is questioning the brief and the implementation of a Passivhaus in a subtropical climate. It aims to achieve a more flexible and adaptable design which would be more financially and environmentally efficient following passive design strategies.

Keywords: low-energy, low-cost, New Orleans, post-disaster, passive design strategies