Tag: New Zealand
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272: A Passive House in Taupō
In 2007 when Kim Feldborg arrived in New Zealand he was surprised at how cold and inefficient the houses were, despite growing up in much colder European climates. Originally from Denmark, Kim has built houses in Greenland, Norway, Germany and England. He now enjoys life in a Certifed Passive House he built himself in Taupō.…
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270: From Villa to Very Nice House
Richard Houghton now lives in a very good, healthy home. But that wasn’t always the case.
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268: Common Ground
Zola Rose has a vision for regenerative housing as a solution for improving communities and sustainability. She brings diverse and international experience to Aotearoa New Zealand where she now calls Nelson her home. Real estate has long been used as an investment and a means of making a profit in New Zealand. Zola explains how…
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263: Building with Hemp
Hemp is an extremely versatile material. It may have a complicated recent history due to medicinal and other uses, but the benefits of industrial hemp have been known for a long time. Jo Say, co-founder of the Hemp Building Association New Zealand explains why it’s a great time to start rediscovering some of the many…
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261: Casey Curtis
“You could be an architect one day,” was a comment made by an school teacher that has influenced the life of Casey Curtis. Out of necessity, Casey joined a group home builder after completing her deisgn degree in Christchurch. It was 2010 and she felt fortunate to have a job at the time as the…
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258 Matariki and Architecture
Matariki is a festival that makes sense for New Zealand. It feels good to respect and learn from the wisdom of those who have inhabited this place for generations. It may have taken us 200 years, but we’re creating our own vernacular; our own geographically appropriate culture of design.
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257 The Atlas of Comfort
Germán Molina trained as an engineer in Chile and has recently completed fascinating research posing the question ‘what is comfort?’ at Victoria University in Wellington. Having come from ‘the warm side’ of engineering, Germán has long had an interest in energy efficiency. He didn’t expect to be researching human behavior and social science.
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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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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…