Author: Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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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…
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Where do you start a sustainable house?
So, you know you want a sustainable (healthy, efficient, affordable and desirable) home, but where do you start? I’ve covered the fundamentals of what makes a good energy efficient home, but these are details. What’s the big picture? Where do you start a sustainable house? Start with ‘Why?’ In episode 91, Glenn Murdoch spoke about…
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How to get a good home from a group builder
Group or volume (project) builders get a bad rap sometimes for perpetuating bad building practise. But it is possible to get a good home from a group builder. Why build? I started out by asking Tim why he was building. Like anyone involved in Christchurch any time since 2011, he has quite a story. After…