Townhouse in Brooklyn, New York

Retrofit to Passive House standard in Brooklyn, New York

This three-storey townhouse was originally built in 1889 and was refurbished by the CO Adaptive architecture practice in 2020. The aim of this project was to preserve as much of the original character of the building as possible, while also reducing the building’s energy consumption. This passive house keeps cool even in the increasingly hot summers in New York City.

  • Year of construction: 1889
  • Refurbishment: 2020
  • Architects: CO Adaptive
  • Construction contractor: LB General Contracting Corp.

The living room in the refurbished house enjoys lots of natural light and provides a cosy living environment, combined with a pleasant indoor climate. In order to retain the character of the original building, features such as the wooden fireplace were removed before the overhaul and then reinstalled.


How was this project implemented?

The interior spaces were dismantled as far as the load-bearing structure.

Insulation and an airtight membrane were then fitted from the inside.

The pro clima INTELLO membrane was used in the creation of the airtight layer. The overlaps were taped with TESCON VANA to ensure airtightness at joints.


The following pro clima products were used in this project: