Central to this is Passive House design.  A passive house is an ultra-insulated, air-tight building with high performance, triple glazed windows that is built with a high degree of detailing and quality control.  As a result, the large mechanical system of a traditional house is sized down considerably yielding energy savings.  Added benefits include higher quality indoor air due to filtration through a ventilation system with heat recovery, enhanced sound deadening, and low operation and maintenance costs.  Regardless of budget, site conditions, or programmatic constraints, MVA approaches all its projects with these sustainability and energy efficiencies in mind, weighing long term operating costs versus initial constructions costs.  High quality design conception and construction practices are essential to achieve these ends.

Passive house strategies will be employed in all sectors of the building industry and will not be limited to individual houses.  They can be implemented in any project.  Because buildings and building functions use 50% of the total energy usage in the US, building codes are only now beginning to make greater demands on designers on the energy performance of the building.  MVA is keen to surpass these standards on every project.