Category: Prefab
-
249: How to Build a Healthy Home for an Ideal Lifestyle
I’m sure that many lifestyle block owners have days when they feel like a farmer, though they would rarely claim to be one. Similarly, people who design their own home then pick up the hammer, don’t claim to an architect or a builder. Mike Pickering almost did become an Architect. He changed his mind at…
-
227: Fault Free Carpentry with CarbonLite
When he first arrived in Australia from Germany, Burkhard Hansen thought that the local building industry resembled the “Wild West”. Far from being dissuaded, he has applied his training and knowledge to create a successful prefabricated building company that is now producing Passive House homes from his factory on the outskirts of Melbourne. Burkhard describes…
-
222 Building Better Homes
Simon Wansbrough is the Founder and Director of Third Little Pig, a custom home building company based in Christchurch. I’ve known Simon since before he was a builder and we start our chat talking about why he chose building when he had plenty of other options. Simon also shares how he’s been able to establish…
-
211 Energy Architecture
Guy Shaw originally trained in Architecture in Wellington, New Zealand. But it was his experience working in the UK that introduced him to more sustainable design and lead him to become a Certified Passive House Designer.
-
210: Enduro Builders
Enduro Builders is quickly becoming one of the leading builders of high performance and sustainable homes in Australia. I met up with Jackson while he was nearing completion of another stunning home in the Adelaide Hills during a trip in late 2019. In this chat, we discussed how Jackson got into building in the first…
-
203: modhouse
John McNamara grew up in Auckland. He attended Sacred Heart College before going on to study Architecture at the University of Auckland. In 2017, John moved with his wife Nikki to Hawkes Bay where they created modhouse. Hawkes Bay is a relative idyllic spot. Six hours south of Auckland and four hours north of Wellington…
-
197: Healthiness through Housing
“A lifetime of healthiness achieved through housing” is the mission statement of Phoenix Haus. I’ve interviewed other Passive House builders using prefabrication in the past, such as Collective Carpentry in episode 149. I’m excited by the possibilities of this approach to provide high quality houses and I’m wondering what it would take to get a…
-
196: Why aren’t more houses being built using SIPs?
Phil Nevell has a background in commerce and management. He came across NZSIP as a solution to providing warm and dry social housing. If structural insulated panels (SIPs) can be used in this way, why aren’t more people using them? Barriers to SIPS Phil suggests that engineers and specifiers might be a significant barrier to…
-
194: Ecokit – A DIY, Energy Efficient Home for Everyone
Ecokit, created by sisters Camilla and Pavla Novotna is a DIY prefabricated system of building energy efficient, healthy homes.
-
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…