Pratt Ice Box Challenge

The first-ever collegiate Ice Box Challenge took place at Pratt Institute, demonstrating the advantages of Passive House in a student-led design-build project. Two boxes were built, one to NYC Energy Code, and the other to the Passive House Standard. They were filled equally with ice and displayed at Pratt for a week. The challenge, was brought to Brooklyn by a Pratt Institute architecture professor, who discovered Passive House while confronting mold-prevention challenges during a major renovation. She was drawn to the strategy, which centered building health, performance, and resilience while reducing energy use. She launched the project at Pratt, where her students constructed the two Ice Box structures in the Spring of 2023. At the end of the week, the Passive House structure retained far more ice than the standard enclosure, offering a visible demonstration of the benefits of high-performance building for decarbonization, health, and affordable clean energy.