Passivhaus design incorporates the latest generation of green building innovations. By combining excellent insulation with passive solar heating, natural cooling and other design strategies, passivhaus buildings can often achieve energy savings of up to 90% of that used in a conventional building.

But how do they do it? Many of the discussions of passivehaus design are somewhat-to-extremely wonky: full of talk of building skins, exhaust systems and insulated foundations. Even when I understand these solutions in principle, I have little grasp of what they actually look like or how they work in practice.

That's why this slideshow is so cool. It details, step by step, the design and construction of a new passivehaus duplex in Vancouver, showing exactly how the project came together. The architects (VERTdesign) make the construction process extremely real. It's not necessarily where you'd start to learn about the concepts involved, but it's a really compelling way to understand what an extremely energy-efficient future feels like on the ground.