Author: Matthew Cutler-Welsh
-
193: High Quality Building Products, Made in China.
Judging by it’s scale, it’s hard to believe that China International Windoor City is a family company. Based in Gaobeidian, the organisation includes the largest window, door and curtain wall exhibition in Asia. Windoor City has a total construction area covering 50 hectares, with a focus on energy saving products. Windoor City facilities produce everything…
-
192: Making Passive House Fun and Famous
After he won the Inaugural Passive House Slam during the Heidelberg Passive House Conference in March this year, I sat down with Marius Şoflete to talk about how he’s inspiring people to build better places to live. Marius has a contagious enthusiasm which he’s using to make Passive House fun. It also helps to have…
-
191: New Zealand’s First Passive House Cohousing Project
The first New Zealand Passive House was completed in 2012. Since then, about 20 more individual private houses have been Certified using the internationally recognised standard. Now, New Zealand is about to get its first Certified Passive House Cohousing project and Tim Ross has been involved almost right from the start. Becoming an Architect Tim…
-
190: What can learn from over thirty years of airtightness testing?
Paul Jennings needed a project for his dissertation on fuel poverty in the UK when he came across some charity work funded by the then ‘Greater London Council’. This was back in the 1980s. Not many people had heard of Blower Doors or airtightness testing. But a team from the suppliers in Canada were willing…
-
189: How to Build Your Own Tiny House
Natural. Passive. Tiny. This is what Ever Homes is all about. Founder and builder Everett Norris created Ever Homes to build Tiny Homes and to help people learn how to build their own Tiny House. The Dream of Home Ownership Everett Norris always wanted to build his own house. As a boy, he also assumed…
-
188: How to Have a Comfortable, Safe and Affordable Home
Paul Hennessey has an inspiring vision of a thriving community in which people live in their own warm, dry comfortable and affordable homes. He’s partnered with his wife, Pascale to create Park Homes in order to turn that vision into reality. But is it really possible to have an affordable and a comfortable home? Affordability…
-
187: Building to Inspire and Nurture
Dolores Davis is part of a building legacy. It began in 1957 with Clarence and Stella Guerrero when Clarence started fixing up homes in Austin Texas. 60 years on, Dolores now leads a design-build company with thirty team members and a strong desire to inspire and nurture. Note: In the podcast episode, I mistakenly introduce…
-
186: Beautiful High Performance Windows
Where do you go to get beautiful, high performance doors and windows, made in New Zealand? In 2005 Christian and Sandra Rampe moved to New Zealand from Germany. Despite the milder climate of New Zealand, they were surprise just how cold they were here, inside their house. They were also surprised how much condensation there…
-
How to Become a Certified Passive House Professional
Are you interested in becoming a Certified Passive House Designer, Consultant or Tradesperson? It’s a tough road that usually includes a challenging exam. But I for one would like a world where there are more Passive House Professionals. Here’s how to do it. Certified Passive House Training My brain feels stuffed with fluffy insulation. I’ve…
-
185: What is Airtightness and Why do we Need it?
The topic of airtightness keeps coming up. Derek Ward of Clioma House shared his thoughts on the topic back in episode 103 and Jon Davies of Pro Clima went into some detail in episode 163. This episode is a reading of a presentation I prepared recently on the topic of airtightness, why we’re scared of…