Cycle House: Building Comfortable, Climate Resilient Homes
Cycle House is an eighteen unit mixed-use affordable housing community in Washington, DC’s Truxton Circle. Once a vacant lot owned by the District, the development is the first net-zero energy, fully affordable housing project and the first net-zero mixed-use building in DC. The building takes its name from its bicycle-friendly design, which incorporates bicycle storage, a bicycle elevator, and its convenient location where residents can walk, bike, or take public transit throughout the District.
Delivering healthier, climate-resilient affordable housing with long-term energy affordability
In Washington, DC, the rising cost of housing can make it difficult for working households to find homes that are both affordable and built for long-term efficiency and resilience. Without intentional support for this kind of housing, access to stable, sustainable homes can remain out of reach for the residents who need them most. Cycle House represents a different kind of investment in housing, pairing long-term affordability with net-zero energy performance. It shows that housing can be designed for superior energy performance, resilience, and affordability at the same time, demonstrating how affordable housing can improve resident wellbeing, lower long-term costs, and establish replicable models for equitable urban development.
- Affordability: 18 affordable units available to households making 30%-60% of the local median family income
- Performance: Net-zero homes produce as much energy as they consume, with rooftop solar and solar renewable energy credits offsetting 100% of the electricity use
- Housing Quality: High-performance ventilation, airtight construction, and passive survivability features support resident comfort, climate resilience, and the ability to thrive during both everyday living and extreme weather events
- Housing Stability & Affordability: Turned a vacant site into housing and neighborhood-serving commercial space, connecting residents to the community at large while providing much-needed affordable housing.
- Energy Performance: LEED Homes Gold (anticipated) and LEED Zero Energy (anticipated after a year of operation) certifications focus on superior energy performance.
- Housing Quality & Climate Resilience: The high performance building envelope allows apartments to remain within a comfortable temperature range for several days without power. This passive survivability is a result of the extra attention to air sealing and insulation during design and construction.
- System Change & Replication: Demonstrated that net-zero, affordable multifamily housing can be delivered at scale, creating a replicable model for future equitable housing development in urban areas.
By combining long-term affordability with on-site renewable energy and high-performance building strategies, projects like Cycle House expand what is possible for healthy, equitable, resilient, affordable housing in DC. Its completion marks an important precedent for future housing efforts seeking to minimize carbon emissions, lower energy use, and support long-term building performance. Cycle House offers a replicable, market-shaping example of how affordable housing can advance climate resilient communities, support resident wellbeing, and ensure long-term affordability simultaneously.
The transit-oriented Cycle House was formerly a vacant site.
Partners include Urban Green LLC, Heleos, VNV Development, participating contractors, and New Ecology.
Rooftop solar panels contribute to the building offsetting 100% of its electricity use.