Category: Design
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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…
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Start with Why
If you’ve listened to more than a few episodes of the Home Style Green podcast, you’ll notice that I like to start with why? My favourite first question to designers and architects is ‘why do you what you do‘? Simon Sinek – Start with Why Glen Murdoch is a Passive House designer and innovator, based…
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Designing Environmentally Functional Homes
Duncan Firth feels ‘compelled’ to do what he does – designing environmentally functional homes. He’s very conscious of humans taking more than giving from our environment and he sees the potential for architecture to be a positive influence in correcting this balance. Responding to the Environment Many architects (and people writing about houses) talk about buildings…
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How Much Does Homestar Cost?
I read an article in Stuff yesterday that got my heart rate up. I strongly believe that tools like Homestar are needed to help make houses better. And I’m anxious to correct some misconceptions and to address the question of ‘how much does Homestar cost?’ What is Homestar? Homestar is New Zealand’s comprehensive environmental rating tool…
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Q & A
Something a little different this week. I’ve had some excellent questions sitting in my inbox for a while and I thought that many could benefit from them. Here’s just a sample. Got similar questions? Please get in touch and if I can’t help, we’ll put the word out to find someone who can. Got a…
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Design and Construction Project Management
Cesar Abeid is a father, an engineer, a podcaster, mentor and a soon-to-be author. He’s also an expert in design and construction project management. Content Marketing & Construction I was washing the dishes in my kitchen one winter evening, about 18 months ago. I’d given up on live radio years prior and was searching for some fresh podcasts…