海角大神

Affordable, self-heating homes of the future, inspired by the past

Rubbing their hands and breathing dragon smoke into the cold air, residents rush inside the bright green building. The temperature outside has barely hit double digits, so the warm lobby inside Bayside Anchor, a low-income apartment building in Portland, is a happy reprieve.

The lobby is also an architectural feat, as Bayside Anchor has no centralized heating system. It is a certified 鈥減assive house,鈥� which means the building has airtight insulation and thick windows to keep the interior warm and heating costs low.

This energy-efficient design has been gaining ground in American architecture among wealthy homeowners. But some cities like Portland, Maine, have realized this energy-efficient design for the affordable housing sector 鈥� for residents who can really benefit from lower heating costs.

Passive house-certified buildings are slightly more expensive to build upfront, but the heat and electricity bills are less than half of what it typically costs to heat a similar building in Portland.

Passive house design is more than just an architectural novelty, says the team behind Bayside Anchor. It is also a necessary tool for residents or homeowners who care about long-term affordability. As the need for affordable housing , proponents say cities should move beyond building low-income housing as cheaply as possible.

鈥淚n the affordable housing sector, this kind of forward thinking is critical,鈥� says Greg Payne, director of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and development officer at Avesta Housing, the nonprofit affordable housing provider that manages Bayside Anchor. 鈥淲e have to promise that [the building] will be affordable for 45 years.鈥�

A home that looks after itself

Before moving to Bayside Anchor two years ago, MD Islam, his wife, and their two young children lived in a home without heat.

鈥淲e had to suffer a lot,鈥� says Mr. Islam, who works at a local recycling plant. 鈥淣ow my family 鈥� everybody 鈥� is happy. We feel very comfortable.鈥�

A high-tech ventilation system exchanges indoor air with fresh air from outside, all while retaining the temperature of the indoor air. Thick walls (with 10 inches of insulation, in Bayside Anchor鈥檚 case) and triple-pane windows keep the building airtight so very little heat escapes. Instead of a central heating system, each apartment has a small electric baseboard heater.

Combine all these elements, and you have windows that feel warm to the touch 鈥� even as the outside temperature is in the single digits.

鈥淪ometimes we turn off the heater because we feel so good,鈥� says Mr. Islam.

In addition the building aims to be an 鈥渁nchor鈥� for the community. The first floor has a colorful common space, as well as a Portland Housing Authority office, a Head Start preschool, and . Mr. Islam also raves about the help he receives from the staff at Bayside Anchor, such as Avesta property manager Lucy Cayard.

Ms. Cayard says the passive house design has helped her build a deeper connection with the residents. Since much of the building takes care of itself, the building鈥檚 staff can put their time and resources elsewhere.

鈥淲e get to focus more on people鈥檚 needs and not the building鈥檚 needs,鈥� says Ms. Cayard. 鈥淲hen we don鈥檛 have to go into their apartment for maintenance, we can spend that time getting to know them.鈥�

The concept of passively heating and cooling a building is probably as old as architecture itself. Writing in the first century B.C., the Roman architect and military engineer Vitruvius that buildings in warmer climates tended to have northern exposures, with windows facing away from the sun, while those in cooler climates had southern exposures. Modern passive house techniques trace some of their history to energy-efficiency efforts in the U.S. during the OPEC oil embargo. The principles underlying Bayside Anchor鈥檚 design are further based on techniques honed by scientists in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bayside Anchor became the first multifamily building in Portland to receive, a nonprofit that has set passive house building standards in the U.S. for more than a decade.

The building鈥檚 45 apartments 鈥� 36 of which target individuals and families making between $19,000 and $54,000 鈥� are desperately needed by locals like Mr. Islam. As the city鈥檚 first new affordable housing , Bayside Anchor is partially funded by the city and the state, but the development was jump-started in 2013 after the project won Enterprise and Deutsche Bank鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� and a $250,000 investment.

It鈥檚 not just Portland experimenting with this design. Philadelphia has long been considered a leader in . Village Centre, a 48-unit apartment building north of Portland in Brewer, Maine, is one of the largest passive house buildings in the country, and a building currently under construction in Boston passive design office building in the world.

But with a national shortage , according to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, new building approaches need to be explored. For example, says Mr. Payne, almost 600 households are currently on the waitlist for one of Bayside Anchor鈥檚 36 affordable units.

鈥淲e are watching it happen all across the country,鈥� says Jesse Thompson, the Portland-based architect behind Bayside Anchor. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 different about Maine is that it鈥檚 the affordable housing folks who are the most progressive, who are moving the most quickly.鈥�