Ever since the first OPEC oil crisis of the early 1970s, I have been fascinated by the concept of the ?urban farmhouse??an urban yet off-grid, self-sufficient entity. In the urban farmhouse, all the fundamental elements required to support life are incorporated into one ecosystem, including greenhouse food growth, composting, and the harvesting of rainwater and energy provided by the sun and the wind.
Over the course of time, I discovered the work of Malaysian architect Ken Yeang, a pioneer of ecology-based architecture. I studied Ken?s work in considerable detail, reading and studying his treatise on designing sustainable intensive buildings (The Green Skyscraper, 1999). In the late 1990s, I had the fortune of not only meeting Ken Yeang but collaborating with him on the Canadian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur (completed in 2001). And while in Malaysia, I visited several of his projects which further intensified my interest in the role that architecture plays in ecology. Nearly five years ago, my business partner Tony Mancini returned from a conference lecture and excitedly told me about passive energy and the theory that one can heat their home using only a hair dryer. ?It was then that I was compelled to explore the world of passive energy and quickly discovered the International Passivhaus Institut (PHI) based in Darmstadt Germany. A few months later, after taking all ?of the available PHI training, we began a Passivhaus renovation (EnerPHit) of a small 19th century far...