Barbara Gehrung is one of the pioneer Passive House designers in the United States and has won several awards for her Passive consulting projects, including affordable multi-family buildings for Habitat for Humanity in Washington D.C. and the ecoMOD South prefabricated passive house project for the University of Virginia.
Growing up in Germany, Barbara developed a passion for architecture, energy, and sustainability while the green building movement there grew from exotic to the mainstream. First as an architecture student, then as faculty at Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUD), she focused on energy-efficient building design. Following an internship at the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University, she initiated and led Germany’s first participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in 2007. Both of TU Darmstadt’s winning Solar Decathlon entries of 2007 and 2009 are certified Passive Houses. These two vanguard projects demonstrate an aesthetic and functional integration of renewable energy technologies while drastically reducing energy consumption.
Barbara has guest lectured internationally both at universities and professional events, such as USGBC Greenbuild and the German-American Chamber of Commerce. She has authored and co-authored several publications and served as a guest critic at the University of Virginia and the University of Kentucky on sustainable building design projects.
Upon moving to the United States, Barbara worked for Hays-Ewing Design Studio, before founding bg design & consulting llc in 2010. In 2016 she and Mark Graham of Liminal Architecture joined forces as Gehrung + Graham Energy Positive Architecture. Together with their team, they design net-zero projects for clients in Central Virginia and beyond.
Barbara lives in Belmont, a historic neighborhood within the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband, children & Airedale terrier.