The past year of the North American Das Haus Tour has certainly been a remarkable journey. In total we welcomed over 16,000 attendees from San Francisco to New York, Vancouver to Atlanta, and everywhere in between. The unique challenges and opportunities of the North American building industry were explored in depth in each city on the tour. Das Haus provided the perfect platform to engage in a dialogue of best practices from both sides of the Atlantic to work towards viable solutions for enhanced energy efficiency and solar energy use in the built environment.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the local partners, attendees and Chamber colleagues that made the exhibition such a success. We look forward to building on these connections and partnerships and continuing the transatlantic dialogue on the future of sustainable buildings.

OCTOBER – FEBRUARY 2012 | SOUTH AND WEST
Das Haus made its official North American debut in the fall of last year, welcoming over 500 visitors in Atlanta at the World of Coca-Cola at Pemberton Place from October 17-26, 2011. Strong partnerships with local universities brought in large student crowds and got the tour off to an enthusiastic start. The exhibition finished out the year at the Houston Permitting Center from November 8-17, 2011, where 400 attendees learned firsthand about new developments in building efficiency and solar energy technologies from Germany.

Starting the New Year off right, Das Haus pulled in over 3,200 visitors to the Tempe Arts Park from January 21-30, 2012. Taking advantage of ideal solar conditions and strong research and business ties in the renewable energy industry, Tempe’s events represented a range of perspectives on what it will take to implement these technologies at a larger scale here in the states. San Francisco hosted Das Haus on the West Coast from February 17-26, 2012, bringing in over 1,000 professionals and leaders from the solar energy and Passive House community. California continued the enthusiasm of the tour and rounded out the first four US stops before Das Haus headed off to Canada for the spring.

MARCH – MAY 2012 | CANADA
The Das Haus Tour headed north to Canada during the spring of 2012, welcoming over 2,100 industry leaders and building professionals in Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal from March through May. A well-informed and interested audience came out in full force to learn about innovative green building technologies from Germany.

Vancouver hosted Das Haus at Concord Pacific Developments from March 12-21, 2012, attracting over 600 attendees for the first stop on the Canadian tour. Coordination with GLOBE 2012, the 12th biennial Conference and Trade Fair on Business and the Environment, brought in an expert audience of architects, engineers and industry specialists. Das Haus then headed east, welcoming over 700 attendees to Toronto’s Exhibition Place from April 13-22, 2012. A packed schedule of events included an opening weekend alongside the Green Living Show and coordination with the 5th Canadian German Solar PV conference.

Longer days and warmer temperatures signaled the arrival of summer as Das Haus arrived at Montréal’s Technopôle Angus for the last stop on the Canadian leg of the North American tour. Drawing in over 850 visitors from May 10-20, 2012 the pavilion garnered a lot of positive feedback from attendees and the press alike. The exhibition coincided with Projet ÉCOSPHÈRE, the largest environmental and green building festival in Québec.

JUNE – AUGUST 2012 | EAST COAST
This past summer Das Haus headed down the East Coast during a very eventful (and hot) three months on the road. Cambridge, Massachusetts, White Plains, New York and Washington, DC hosted nearly 2,000 visitors from June through August.

The campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge welcomed Das Haus and over 750 industry professionals from June 18-27, 2012. Partnerships with key organizations in the region attracted a strong showing of clean energy professionals, researchers, government representatives and Passive House consultants. Industry specialists flocked in from all over New England for events including a packed half-day conference with keynote speaker Roland Risser, US Department of Energy Building Technologies Program Manager.

The exhibition in White Plains, New York added an additional 750 attendees from July 10-19, 2012, relying on close partnerships with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) to give the events a strong regional focus. The third and final stop on the East Coast took place in Washington, DC on the campus of the University of the District of Columbia from July 31 through August 9, 2012. Das Haus brought in over 500 building industry professionals as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy specialists from various Federal agencies. A partner event at AIA DC’s District Architecture Center showcased Solar Decathlon teams past and future, with Das Haus serving as an inspiration for the next generation of research and innovation.

SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2012 | MIDWEST
The Das Haus roadshow concluded the North American tour in the Midwest, stopping by Chicago’s Daley Plaza from September 21-30, 2012 and landing at Denver’s Sustainability Park October 14-23, 2012. These final locations proved to be two of the three most successful stops of the entire tour, a true testament to the excitement and support for building efficiency and renewable energy in the Midwest region.

With a packed schedule of events and perfect location in the heart of the city, Chicago broke all previous attendance records by welcoming over 5,200 visitors to Daley Plaza over the course of the 10-day exhibition. Denver followed up this strong showing with over 1,500 attendees and a very successful conference to close out the final days of the North American tour on a high note. Local partners played a pivotal role in bringing the right people into the dialogue to exchange ideas and innovations across industries. A variety of events with our local partners at the Passive House Alliance chapters in Chicago and Denver kept the focus on energy efficiency innovations from Germany being put into practice here in the states and set the tone for continuing conversations around the further development of these concepts going forward.

This past month in Chicago the Das Haus pavilion landed at Daley Plaza from September 21-30. With a packed schedule of events and awesome location in the heart of the Windy City the pavilion broke all previous records, welcoming over 5,200 visitors and event attendees over the course of the 10-day exhibition!

A number of events focusing on the Passive House building standard kept the focus on energy efficiency innovations here in the Midwest. Our local partners at the Passive House Alliance – Chicago (PHA-C) were instrumental in helping to organize several great events around the theme of Passive House. The opening weekend’s events included an introductory presentation on the Passive House standard and a guided open house of a Passive House home currently under construction in River Forest, IL by PHA-C President Tom Basset-Dilley and PHA-C Vice President Eric Barton. Passive House Institute – US (PHIUS) Executive Director Katrin Klingenberg, the woman who brought Passive House to the United States, delivered an insightful presentation on the past 10 years of the Passive House movement in the United States and upcoming goals for the next decade early. Presentations by Jeff Kocinski, PHA-C Secretary, at the dasHAUS Chicago Conference and University Day kept the focus on energy efficiency innovations from Germany at work here in the Midwest and set the tone for continuing conversations around the development of these concepts in the United States.

Local partner events with organizations including AIA Chicago, CNT Energy and the Goethe Institute rounded out the rest of the week’s programming and got a lot of conversations started around the theme of improving energy efficiency and renewable energy measures here in the Midwest.

If you have not yet taken the opportunity to visit us, now is your last chance to join in the dialogue and experience the Das Haus Tour’s packed schedule of events before the North American roadshow concludes on October 23 in Denver. Join us next week for our Grand Opening on Monday, October 15 and dasHAUS Denver Conference on Thursday, October 18. As always, be sure to check out our complete lineup of events and RSVP to take a tour or attend an event at http://denver.dashaustour.com. We look forward to meeting you in the Mile High City!

This summer Das Haus headed down the East Coast during a very eventful (and hot) three months on the road. Cambridge, Massachusetts, White Plains, New York and Washington, DC hosted nearly 2,000 visitors from June through August during one of the most exciting stretches of the tour thus far. As we get ready for the final two locations in Chicago and Denver this fall, here is a quick recap of Das Haus in the Nation’s Capital earlier this month.

The third and final stop on the East Coast tour took place in Washington, DC on the campus of the University of the District of Columbia from July 31 through August 9. Nearly 500 attendees representing local architects and building professionals, as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy specialists from various Federal agencies, learned firsthand about Germany’s innovations in sustainable building design. AIA DC’s District Architecture Center hosted a night devoted to the Solar Decathlon, with presentations from the University of Maryland’s first-place 2011 team, Team Germany’s award winning 2007 and 2009 entries, and a look at Team Capitol DC’s plans for the upcoming 2013 competition.

If you missed us on the East Coast, not to worry! Das Haus is headed for the Midwest as Chicago’s Daley Plaza gears up to host from September 21-30 and Denver’s Sustainability Park is set to close out the tour from October 14-23. Stay tuned to our website for updates on programming, events, and conference details. We’ll see you in the Windy City!

The campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology welcomed dasHAUS and over 700 industry professionals from June 18-27. Partnerships with key organizations in the region brought in a strong showing of clean energy professionals, researchers and Passive House consultants over the course of the 10-day exhibition. Attendees representing MIT, local architecture and engineering firms, and state and local government flocked to the pavilion to discover current German technologies for achieving low-energy buildings.

The Passive House community was well-represented in Cambridge as the evening networking reception on Tuesday, June 19 reached capacity weeks in advance, necessitating a second and just as well-attended reception the following Saturday, June 23. Industry leaders to the north also took note of the dasHAUS tour in their neck of the woods, and we were delighted to host VIP tours for members of the Portland Society of Architects and Passive House Maine during the exhibition in Cambridge. A packed house attended the Building Technologies Symposium, where by Roland Risser, US Department of Energy Building Technologies Program Manager, delivered the keynote address. Networking receptions and presentations with partners including the City of Cambridge, Fraunhofer, NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) and former Solar Decathlon team participants made for a very successful stop in New England for the dasHAUS tour.

After a brief trip down the coast, the ninth stop on the dasHAUS tour got underway as White Plains, New York welcomed over 700 attendees. The exhibition took on a local focus, partnering closely with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) located just a few blocks from the pavilion, as well as a local LEED for Homes retrofit project just reaching completion in White Plains which was open for tours on Saturday, July 14. VIP tours and networking events for industry professionals and local organizations included the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA), NYPA and Green Drinks Westchester. Attendees hailed from a wide array of professional disciplines, including consultants from the New York Passive House chapter, architects, realtors, engineers, solar installers, students and members of local government, including Thomas M. Roach, Mayor of the City of White Plains. The 10-day exhibition concluded with a VIP tour and networking lunch for members of the local Rotary Club.

If you missed the roadshow’s Cambridge and White Plains stops, not to worry, dasHAUS is not taking a vacation just yet. The third and final stop on the East Coast debuts next week in Washington, DC on the campus of the University of the District of Columbia from July 31 through August 9. This is your last chance to catch dasHAUS on the East Coast before the roadshow embarks on the final leg of the tour in the Midwest this fall. Come visit us and see what all the buzz is about, we’ll see you there!

Vancouver welcomed the dasHAUS pavilion and over 500 attendees for the first stop on the Canadian tour from March 12-21 at Concord Pacific Developments. Coordination with GLOBE 2012, the 12th biennial Conference and Trade Fair on Business and the Environment, attracted an expert audience of architects, engineers and industry specialists. dasHAUS was even featured in an episode of Ahorn TV, a weekly German-language television program produced in Vancouver.

From April 13-22 over 600 attendees flocked to Toronto’s Exhibition Place to tour the dasHAUS pavilion, with even more taking part in workshops, conferences and other events held in conjunction with the exhibition. The busiest ten days of the exhibition thus far included an opening weekend alongside the Green Living Show, site visits to a Passive House construction site and the Kortright Centre’s ArchetypeHomes and coordination with the 5th Canadian German Solar PV conference.

Longer days and warmer temperatures signaled the arrival of summer as the dasHAUS pavilion arrived at Montréal’s Technopôle Angus for the last of three stops on the Canadian leg of the North American tour. Drawing in over 700 visitors from May 10-20, the pavilion and events attracted a large representative audience of architects, engineers and industry specialists and garnered a lot of positive feedback from participants. The 11-day schedule of events included a Grand Opening Ceremony, Net-Zero House Conference and Green Retrofitting Workshop, as well as a number of VIP tours with prominent organizations including the City of Montréal, attendees of the Carbon Footprint Conference, CBDCa, the Goethe-Institut Montréal, the Québec Real Estate Association and the Québec Association of Consulting Engineering Companies. The exhibition’s closing weekend coincided with Projet ÉCOSPHÈRE, the largest environmental and green building festival in Québec.

Next month the dasHAUS Tour heads back to the States. Set to spend the summer on the East Coast, the pavilion will open June 18-27 in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the campus of MIT, and round out the summer portion of the tour in New York from July 10-19 and Washington, D.C. from July 31-August 9. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to catch the German exhibition when the tour comes to a city near you. We’ll see you this summer!

The busiest ten days of the tour thus far included an opening weekend alongside the Green Living Show, site visits to a Passive House construction site and the Kortright Centre’s ArchetypeHomes, coordination with the 5th Canadian German Solar PV conference and partnership with the Goethe Institut and York University as part of “The Future of Cities” lecture series. Toronto’s University Day was our most successful yet, attracting over 60 attendees from five local colleges and universities for student presentations showcasing innovative design projects and new research.

The media coverage in Toronto took things to a new level as Project Coordinator Meredith Marsh and the dasHAUS pavilion joined the ranks of Ziggy, Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes by getting featured in a comic strip for the National Post! You can see it for yourself here and to keep up on all the latest coverage of the dasHAUS tour check out our media page.

Next month dasHAUS will complete the Canadian leg of its North American journey with a stop in Montreal at Technopôle Angus. As always, the pavilion will be free and open to the public from 10:00am-6:00pm, May 10-20 (closed Monday, May 14). This is your last chance to see dasHAUS in Canada, so be sure to catch it while you can!

The pavilion’s Vancouver stop coincided with GLOBE 2012, the 12th biennial Conference and Trade Fair on Business and the Environment. To take advantage of synergies between these two events, the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce hosted a booth at the three-day tradeshow from March 14-16. The Net-Zero House Conference and Workshop on Green Retrofitting were also held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in conjunction with GLOBE to capitalize on and attract an expert audience of architects, engineers and industry specialists.

Throughout the course of the North American tour dasHAUS has garnered a lot of media attention, and Vancouver was no exception. Project Coordinator Meredith Marsh and the dasHAUS pavilion took center stage during the March 17 episode of Ahorn TV, a weekly German-language television program produced in Vancouver. The show was broadcast on OmniTV in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario and has been posted to the dasHAUS Media Library.

The dasHAUS pavilion is now making its way East towards Toronto just in time for the sixth annual Green Living Show, to be held at the Exhibition Place with dasHAUS. Visitors to the Green Living Show will have the opportunity to visit dasHAUS and gain a behind-the-scenes look at German technology for solar energy production and energy efficient building systems.

The dasHAUS tour will also feature a number of exciting events including a grand opening ceremony and half-day conference on net-zero houses, workshops on green retrofitting and LEED for homes, expert guided tours by Passive Buildings Canada and the Ontario Power Authority, and a special day for members of the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc.

To take advantage of all that the dasHAUS Tour has to offer, schedule a guided tour for you and your colleagues and sign up to attend one of our many great events . If you just want to drop by, the pavilion is open daily 10:00am-6:00pm from Friday, April 13 through Sunday, April 22 (closed Monday, April 16). As always, the pavilion is free and open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there!

Project Coordinator Meredith Marsh and the dasHAUS pavilion will play leading roles in this week’s episode of Ahorn TV, a weekly television show in English and German, produced in Vancouver, Canada.   According to their website, Ahorn TV tells “success stories of people, events and entrepreneurs, particularly in arts & culture, economy, tourism and green technologies.” The show will be broadcast on OmniTV (ch. 8) at the following times:

• in British Columbia: Sat 3 pm and Wed 11 am
• in Alberta: Sat 2:30 pm
• in Ontario: Sun 9 am (Omni 1)

An online version will be available early next week on www.ahorntv.com.  For German speakers, a blog article is already available online.

The dasHAUS pavilion will remain in Vancouver until March 21^st.    This is your opportunity to see solutions aimed at reducing a building’s energy demand and maximizing the efficiency of energy generated on–site.   Take advantage of all that the dasHAUS tour has to offer. Schedule a guided tour for you and your colleagues or sign up to attend one of our great events including:

• Saturday, March 17^th: Expert Guided Tour
• Tuesday, March 20^th: Sustainable Vancouver Business Network monthly meet-up
• Tuesday, March 20^th: University Day
• Wednesday, March 21^st: “LEED for Homes” Workshop

If you just want to drop by, walk-up guided tours are offered daily 10:00am-6:00pm until March 21st (closed Sunday, March 18^th). As always, the pavilion is free and open to the public.

Looking back on the great success of this event, the dasHAUS team would like to take a moment to thank all of those who made it possible.  Visit the Media Library to see pictures from the San Francisco events.

Das Haus is now headed across the border into Canada, where Vancouver is set to host the first of three Canadian stops from March 12 to 21. The pavilion will be located on the premises of Concord Pacific, North America’s largest master-planned community,  and will showcase innovative energy efficiency solutions perfectly suited for the Canadian climate .  For more information and to register for a tour or one of our many events, please visit http://vancouver.dashaustour.com/.

The pavilion is located at the Fort Mason Center, a complex of renovated military buildings at the hub of an urban National Park.  The nonprofit Fort Mason Center has 28 venues providing flexible meeting rooms, theaters, and exhibit halls used by groups of five to 20,000.

This is your opportunity to see solutions aimed at reducing a building’s energy demand and maximizing the efficiency of energy generated on–site.   Take advantage of all that the Das Haus tour has to offer. Schedule a guided tour for you and your colleagues or sign up to attend one of our great events.

If you just want to drop by, walk-up guided tours are offered daily 10:00am-6:00pm from Thursday, February 23^rd – Sunday, February 26th.  As always, the pavilion is free and open to the public.