Author: Matthew Cutler-Welsh
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EcoFest 2014
Louisa Chase is the Project Manager for EcoFest 2014. The festival runs from March 15th through to April 13th and has everything from films, to gardening and composting seminars, eco-house tours and even a sustainable fashion show. From Native Plants to ‘Nana Technology’ Kaipatiki started 15 years ago with one person planting some native trees…
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Starting a Home Renovation
Adrian Feasey has worked as a solar consultant and is establishing himself now as a home performance consultant. New Zealand definitely needs more home performance consultants to help improve the standard of our houses. And raising the standard of his own home is one of Adrian’s current projects. A Weatherboard Villa in Birkdale Adrian and…
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Collaborative Construction
James L. Salmon is the President of Collaborative Construction, an organisation he created to encourage a better way of building. After spending much of his legal career helping sort out disputes between building owners, contractors and suppliers, James is convinced there’s a much better way of organising, communicating and conducting the design, procurement and building processes. …
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Building a Better New Zealand
It’s been recognised that a ‘successful and innovative’ building industry is very important to New Zealand. Defining and achieving this amidst the backdrop of a Christchurch rebuild and 40% population growth in Auckland, is the subject of the Building a Better New Zealand conference. The Building a Better New Zealand Conference will take place on 3rd –…
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What is Good Home Improvement?
Good home improvement doesn’t have to be just about energy or water efficiency. This is something I struggled with when selecting this year’s DIY project for Dad and me. [portfolio_slideshow] I feel very fortunate to have a Dad who’s a great handyman and ‘fixer’. I’m also grateful for all the time I spent in Dad’s…
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Energy Efficient Homes with Dean Buckeridge
Dean Buckeridge has been designing energy efficient homes for nearly two decades. Along with Russell Devlin, and now also Bob Burnett, I’ve regarded Dean for long time as one of the prominent house designers in Christchurch who has been leading the way in good, solar design. It was a privilege to talk with Dean and…
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Metrapanel
What’s a great way to build a house quickly, with nearly zero waste and at a reasonable price? Prefab of course! And Metrapanel is a prefab solution created and produced right here in New Zealand since 1994. Who is Metrapanel? The original company was started in 1994 by Melissa Savage’s father, Les Wykes. The current…
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Good Homes
We pretty much know what’s in them, but where are all the good homes in New Zealand? And what is it specifically that makes them good? A common response from a survey I posted recently, was that people want to know about other people who have designed and built ‘good homes‘, and how they did…
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Go Green Expo
Who’s going to the Go Green Expo? I just had a quick Skype chat with Operations Manager, Damien Hochberg about why he created the expo and what it’s all about. Unfortunately this means that my blog posts are a bit out of order (I’m yet to write up my interview with Mark R LePage from…