DesignByMany issued a challenge to professionals and students in the architectural, engineering and construction community: design a Passive House for New Orleans that addresses the need for affordable, sustainable home design.

Sustainable.TO rose to the challenge with their Low Cost, Low Energy House, which combines the energy efficient rigors of the Passive House standard with a contemporary re-imagining of the shotgun home style typical to the Big Easy.

image via DesignByMany

The project recently took top honors in the competition, sponsored in part by HP, and took home an HP Designjet T2300 PostScript eMFP, the industry’s first web-connected large-format printer with print, scan and copy functionality (valued at $10,000–the envy, no doubt, of architects everywhere).

The home features a simple shape that integrates both passive and active environmental systems with airtight, thermal-bridge free construction. This makes the home both cost-effective and affordable, via the wonders of  higher-quality prefabrication (ie., greenfab).