Category: Society
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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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Eco Designer Advisor Conference 2017
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in Blog, Design, Draughts, Health, Heating, Housing, Industry, Insulation, Prefab, Renovating, Society, Sustainability, VentilationPrefabrication, high performance homes, indoor air quality, Homestar, sustainable concrete and airtightness are just some of the topics presented at this year’s Eco Design Advisor (EDA) Conference in Wellington, May 1st – 2nd. Some fortuitous free time allowed me to attend this small conference once again. And once again, I was impressed. Eco Design Advisors…
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Earth Day 2017
April 22nd is Earth Day and Earth Day 2017 seems like a very appropriate day to start writing on Home Style Green again. I’ve been away from writing and podcasting for a little while. I’ve been working full time in the construction and building industry, and the experience of the commercial realities of traditional business has…
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Sustainable Building Against Climate Change
Stemming the Tide – Sustainable Building Against Climate Change Sustainable building is the key to ensuring that America’s cities are prepared for the future. In an article on the top climate change news of 2016, The New York Times stated that this year was following the trends of previous years. The world was getting warmer…
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157: Sustainable Landscapes with Hitesh Mehta
Hitesh Mehta I originally contacted Hitesh Mehta to talk about sustainable landscape architecture, but he offers a lot more than that. Hitesh has travelled the world advising and helping designers of ecolodges. He enjoys all aspects of architecture as well as photography, environmental planning and writing. To find out more about his recent work, visit…
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Eco Christmas Gift Ideas
Back in 2012 Sam Judd gave his ‘top ten eco-friendly gifts‘ for Christmas. Here’s my updated list of eco Christmas gift ideas to make your home (or someone else’s) a better place to live. Eco Christmas Tips Christmas time is a great time to be around family and to do some projects around the house. My…
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134: The 10 Principles of One Planet Living
From selling cloth nappies and raising money for Greenpeace in her local community, Sue Riddlestone is now literally taking on the world. Through her organisation, Bioregional, Sue has consulted to the UK Prime Minister and the UN on sustainability and climate change policies. Sue’s work on the sustainability policy for the 2012 Olympic Game, work…
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131: How to live rich
Davie Philip feels and lives like a rich man. He’s an educator and facilitator at Cloughjordan (pronounced ‘clock-jordan’), rated one of the top 10 places to live in Ireland. Cloughjordan Ecovillage contains 129 energy efficient houses. It features a biomass-fuelled district heating system and the whole village is designed for biodiversity. Podcast Summary How the green…
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126 What’s the Responsibility of Architecture?
Dominique Gettliffe and Alejandra Baltodano believe in the responsibility of architecture to make spaces that are good for people. Architecture shouldn’t be about the ego of the artist. The responsibility of architecture is to be a catalyst for people to create amazing spaces. Spaces Make a Difference to Life What is it about a building…
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My Insulation Experiment
Overhead, the rain pelted down on the metal roof just above my head. I later found out that it was a record rain storm for Auckland. I believed it. The roof of the circa 1920s house I was crouched in bore an almost identical resemblance to the construction and thermal performance of the simple corrugated steel…