Author: Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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101: Vernacular Construction
Episode Foundations (the bottom line at the top) Invest up front in a good designer and you’ll save during construction. Vernacular construction is about designing and building appropriately for the local conditions. For a sustainable home, focus on insulation and ventilation.
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What would you do to make a better place to live?
It’s episode 100! In this week’s special show, I turned the microphone around to hear from past (and future) guests and listeners answering the question “What would you do to make a better place to live?” What would you do to make a better place to live? Click To Tweet Here’s who we heard from:…
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Prefab, Passive House and Passion
As a founding member of PassivHaus Maine, I should have guessed that Chris Corson would be pretty passionate about why and how we should build better homes. A quick look at EcoCor’s website suggests they are a good place to start for achieving a practical solution to a sustainable home. I caught up with Chris to talk…
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How 475 can help you achieve a high performance home
So, you’ve decided you’d like a really good home. One that’s comfortable, healthy and energy efficient. That’s great, but unfortunately it’s not (yet) standard practice. Hopefully you can find a good designer to help (try this list if you like). But you’ll also need some good, non-standard products. This week I spoke with Ken Levenson…
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Sustainable Building with Logs
Three years ago, John Donovan built a demonstration log house on his property in Waitakere, Auckland. The images in a recent newspaper article caught my attention, as did the mention of ‘eco’ and ‘efficient’. So I tracked John down to get his thoughts on sustainable building with logs. And we talked about pyramids… Te Huia Log Homes…
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The Business of Architecture
Mark R. LePage is Director of Fivecat Studio, specialising in high end residential rebuilds and renovations. He is also the Entrepreneur Architect and is passionate about the business of architecture. Mark R. LePage @EntreArchitect is passionate about the business of architecture Click To Tweet Getting into Business Mark experienced the joy or running a successful business…
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How to get a Passive House
In episode 30, I spoke with Elrond Burrell and asked if Passive House (or Passivhaus) was really relevant to some parts of the world. This sparked some great debate and I subsequently caught up with Jon Iliffe of eHaus to find out how to get a passive house in New Zealand. European Inspiration Jon’s training is in mechanical…
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Back to Earth
After studying chemistry, Chris Brookman completely changed course and went to learn the art of cob house building using traditional techniques with clay. Now Chris supplies modern clay and timber products, including phase change materials, to the building industry through his company Back to Earth. A quick look at the Chris’s website shows where his passion lies… “We…
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Homestar Mandatory Minimums
The Homestar mandatory minimums are a series of benchmarks that have to be achieved in order to progress up the Homestar scale. They’re important because if they are are not achieved, your score will be held back. So what are the Homestar mandatory minimums, and how can you achieve them? What are @HomestarNZ mandatory minimums…