Category: Affordable Housing
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Build Aotearoa: Quality and Quantity
One of the biggest local news stories this week was the news itself. I listened to Tova O’Brien’s take on the announcement of the proposed shutdown of NewHub and what it could mean for journalism in New Zealand. As someone familiar with the relatively close-knit journalism community in this country and as someone who went…
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256: An Update on New Zealand’s First Passive House Co-Housing Project
Tim Ross featured on Home Style Green in episode 191 to talk about getting started on New Zealand’s first Passive House co-housing project. I interviewed Tim again a year ago as we were kicking off the Passive House Podcast, and the Dunedin Toiora High Street Co-housing project was well underway. My apologies to Tim for…
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253: How to build a Passive House family home on a tight budget
Joseph Lyth is building his family home on a very tight budget. He’s also building to the Passive House standard. In this interview, he shares some of his insights into why we must change the way we’ve been building ‘wooden tents’ in New Zealand, and how to go about creating a fit-for-purpose family home with…
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214: Energy Efficient Homes
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Robert Whitehouse is Director of Whitehouse Builders and Energy Efficient Homes. He started as an apprentice carpenter in the UK where he gained experience in a range of building work from making kitchens through to working on commercial sites. He also did a bit of building in Germany. When he came to New Zealand, he…
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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…
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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…
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174: Housing, Not Just Houses
Karen Manson likes thinking about and designing housing, not just houses. With over 15 years of design experience, include 10 years overseas, Karen now has her own practice in Christchurch. She focuses on high performance houses, including Passive House. I had the opportunity to chat with Karen at the pro clima HUB about her journey.…
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172: The Lotus Eco Village – How to Create Affordable Healthy Houses
In 1971, Eric Doornekamp led a group of yoga enthusiasts to establish the Lotus Yoga Centre and Retreat in Aro Street, Wellington. Almost half a century on, the Lotus Yoga Centre Charitable Trust is branching out and developing an Eco-Village. The Lotus Eco Village will be built in Paraparaumu, on a 3 hectare site purchased by…
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Home Ownership is the Goal of KiwiBuild
When did home ownership become the holy grail? KiwiBuild is stepping up today, with Hon Phil Twyford’s announcement of the criteria for the Government’s ‘affordable’ housing programme at Buildnz | designex summit. There’s talk, and even some decent plans, for making space and resources available. Prefabrication is being suggested as a likely pathway for New…
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144: A System for High Performance Homes
Beattie Passive is a complete system for high performance homes. I love the concept of ‘a house as a system’. I also love the idea of making it simple and easy to get right, and that’s exactly what Ron Beattie has done. As explained in their technical information, “The Beattie Passive system achieves superior levels of…