The results are in on the first-ever U.S. Collegiate Design-Build Passive House Ice Box Challenge with the Pratt Institute School of Architecture. Sto was honored to be a part of this project and attended the reveal event on Monday, May 8 at the Rose Garden on Pratt’s main campus. Esteemed speakers and the weighing of the ice made for an exciting event. Dan Canova, construction design manager at Sto Corp., worked with the students to provide hands-on training and spoke at the event. “Sto’s mission statement is Building with Conscience,” Canova said. “Today’s event represents this concept of being conscious of our future, sustainability and change in building codes. I am confident that this next generation of architects will ensure it happens.”

After sitting for one week, the 1,144-pound block of ice in the Passive House standard box still weighed 900 pounds! The box constructed according to New York standard building codes was still very much intact, at 737 pounds. The remaining ice weight in the Passive House structure was 20 percent higher than the New York building code structure. As In Cho, Pratt Institute visiting professor and founder of the climate education nonprofit Passive House for Everyone, mentioned in her remarks at the event, the hope was that the two structures would perform on par (roughly equal). The New York code has improved since the last time the Ice Box Challenge was conducted in Time Square in 2018, but to see the results at the event emphasizes the benefits of Passive House principles. To see additional information, check out Pratt’s Ice Box Challenge website. You can see the entire event here.