The first certified passive house in Arkansas
Michael Cockram the principal designer of Bowebird Design LLC initiated the first-ever certified passive house in Arkansas. It was built near the historic center of Fayetteville, Arkansas. It spans 1780 square feet with three-bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and a carport.
In 2011, Cockram founded Bowerbird Design LLC in Fayetteville, Arkansas. While Cockram described an interest in sustainable design since he graduated with a master’s of architecture from the University of Oregon in 1989, “I never had the chance to do a fully certified Passive House project until now.”
Magnolia House
The project began in November 2023 and completed in July 2024. While Cockram designed the home, Alex Munson of Munson Construction built the home. Munson Construction previously built several houses in northwest Arkansas that were built to the Passive House standard but were not certified.
This project required to be extremely airtight, .69 air changes per hour @ 50 pascals of pressure. While typical code built home might have 4 times that at 3 ACH @ 50 pascals. They used an air-to-air heat exchanger, Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) to bring in fresh air. The ERV pulls air from odorous rooms and exchanges the heating or cooling energy with the incoming fresh air. Cockram found this to be a challenge, “There was a learning curve with the air sealing.”
The orientation of the vaulted living space drove the interior layout of the house. Cockram wanted as much south sun as possible for passive solar gain, but did not want to sacrifice the view the creek and the woods to north. By placing the kitchen on the south side, it allowed him to put large clerestory windows for generous light.
His favorite feature of the interior is an open tread spalted pine stair between the living areas. At the top of the landing and through high windows the trees to the north and south are visible. The project also includes walls with 2×6 construction and 1 1/2” XPS rigid insulation reused from deconstructed chicken houses. “Poultry is big here,” elaborated Cockram.
In addition to being passive house certified, the project is also a certified Zero Energy Ready Home,EPA Indoor AirPlus and Energy Star Certification. The achievement of Bowerbird Design is pioneering a new standard across the U.S, that sustainable design is worth it.
