Milos Jovanovic’s newest project will be called the Shift House. The name represents the architect’s belief that the next level beyond the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system is the Passive House.

“Passive House is a paradigm shift for us,” said Jovanovic, co-owner of Root Design Build of Portland. “Rather than finding more efficient ways to heat and cool a house, it dramatically reduces the need for energy.”

Jovanovic and several team members from Root Design Build recently finished schematic design on the Shift House in Hood River. He said he and his team, which last year completed design and construction on a LEED platinum home in Portland, are taking lessons from the LEED system to build the first Passive House on the West Coast.

The Passive House system, developed in Germany, creates a nearly airtight interior environment so heat or cool air will not escape. The system uses highly efficient windows, airtight construction, advanced insulation and a heat recovery ventilator – slashing a building’s energy consumption by 90 percent, according to the Passive House Institute U.S.

The slow economy means less work for home builders, but that’s a welcome development for Jovanovic, who said it gives him more time to focus on designing and building the Shift House. A crucial element to completing the design, he said, was purchasing (for $270) energy modeling software from the Passive House U.S. Institute in Illinois.

“We are using the energy modeling software to guide us the whole way,” he said. “The building envelope challenge is to find ways to build the walls and ceiling to be airtight and with no thermal bridges,” said Jovanovic. “Creating solid connections without thermal bridges around the windows, doors and foundations is the biggest challenge.”

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