Author: Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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136: Thermal Mass Is Not That Useful
I recall visiting one of the fist 8 Homestar homes in Christchurch and being surprised that this new show home had a suspended timber floor. The double layer of insulation gave the floor a very impressive R-value, far better than any concrete floor slab I’d seen recently. All well-and-good, I thought. But thermally, surely it couldn’t be…
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135 How to Create A Life More Sustainable
Sydney based firm, PIDCOCK – Architecture and Sustainability is focused on desirable, sustainable architecture. I love the tagline displayed proudly on their site – ‘a life more sustainable’. Caroline Pidcock Director, Caroline Pidcock was heading for a career as an engineer but says she fell in love with architecture, almost by accident and has loved the…
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134: The 10 Principles of One Planet Living
From selling cloth nappies and raising money for Greenpeace in her local community, Sue Riddlestone is now literally taking on the world. Through her organisation, Bioregional, Sue has consulted to the UK Prime Minister and the UN on sustainability and climate change policies. Sue’s work on the sustainability policy for the 2012 Olympic Game, work…
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133: Greenbuilders
Polly Bart loves to get muddy. Despite having an undergraduate degree in architecture and a doctorate in city planning, Polly is not an architect. She’s a builder and founder of Greenbuilders, Inc. She loves creating, lifting rock and building things. In fact, she loves it so much, she can’t understand why everyone doesn’t want to build things!…
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132: Smart, Green and Beautiful Homes
Saskatchewan is right in the middle of Canada and is one of the coldest places where a large number of people live. Through his company, Vereco Homes, Ronn Lepage produces smart, green and beautiful homes. If it can be done in this harsh environment, surely it can be done wherever you live. Vereco Home Values…
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131: How to live rich
Davie Philip feels and lives like a rich man. He’s an educator and facilitator at Cloughjordan (pronounced ‘clock-jordan’), rated one of the top 10 places to live in Ireland. Cloughjordan Ecovillage contains 129 energy efficient houses. It features a biomass-fuelled district heating system and the whole village is designed for biodiversity. Podcast Summary How the green…
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130: Thoughtful Design. Delightful Living.
The philosophy of Albertsson Hansen is summed up in these simple words. Thoughtful design. Delightful living. Christine Albertsson is driven by her passion for creating wonderful spaces for people to live in. She’s also driven by good design and responsible building. Architecture was a natural coming together for Christine of her love of art, photography, science…
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129: Vastu Architecture
This week I discuss Maharishi Vastu Architecture with Jon Lipman. Where ancient philosophy comes together with modern science to make spectacular and enriching buildings. Links http://www.maharishivastu.org/principles-of-maharishi-vastu-architecture http://www.maharishivastu.org/text-book https://www.facebook.com/MaharishiVastu http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/users/jonlipman http://jlipman.com/
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128: Making Green Design Less Boring
Eric Fisher is making green design less boring. Not that green design is necessarily boring in the fist place, but Eric believes in making buildings that are well suited to their location and are interesting for people. To find out more about Eric and his Pittsburg practice check out some of the great images on his…
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127: How Architecture can Help People Create a Better Life
Chris Hays likes to think of Architecture as ‘the mother art’, encompassing sculpture, mathematics, engineering, anthropology, ecology and more. Above all though, Chris likes the fact that architecture can help people create a better life. In this episode, we discuss: Glazing – how much is too much and where can you put it? The value of…