Gregory La Vardera: In Europe, Sweden’s housing market is dominated by industrial production of energy efficient houses. In this mature market fabrication techniques, products, and components have all been optimized for efficient factory building, and the off-site process has been leveraged to make energy efficient construction affordable and universal. Because Sweden and the US share a tradition of wood framed house building their techniques can be readily adopted and suggest a way forward for the North American Housing Industry. Sheila Kennedy: GOING SOFT — Design, innovation and low carbon construction are changing the future of sustainable urban living. The Soft House, a set row houses built for the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg, demonstrates an ‘active’ architecture that responds to environmental conditions and homeowners’ changing needs over time. The Soft House transforms the Passivehaus type, yet exceeds passive-house energy requirements. Traditional wood construction is combined with a kinetic façade and smart building management network. A solid soft wood structure (brettstapel) sequesters carbon, and a responsive photovoltaic textile façade adjusts to sun orientation, creating a soft solar tracking and shading system. Inside the housing units, a low voltage DC ring integrated in moveable household curtains distributes harvested energy for radiant heating, cooling and solid state lighting. The presentation addresses how soft wood construction and integrated design concepts can be taken up in the United States. Accredited for 1 MA CSL continuing education hour in Energy.