Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Home Style Green is here to help people build homes that are good for people and good for the planet.

In episode 30, I spoke with Elrond Burrell and asked if Passive House was really relevant to New Zealand. This sparked some great debate and I subsequently caught up with New Zealand based Passive House designer, Jon Iliffe of eHaus.

eHaus is New Zealand's first building company solely dedicated to building homes to the Passive House Standards.

Among other things, Jon discusses:

  1. How Germany is managing to decrease energy consumption while growing their GDP. 
  2. What was good about 1920s houses and are they still good?
  3. How can you justify the cost of building better?

Related Posts:

References:

Direct download: 34_eHaus_the_NZ_Passive_House_experts_with_Jon_Iliffe.mp3
Category:Passivhaus -- posted at: 11:00pm NZDT

What would you do if you had 6 months to go away and study whatever you wanted? 

Phil McLean is a secondary school teacher who's passionate about design. He was given the challenge to go and find a topic that would put in the shoes of a beginner learner. 

The result is a fresh perspective on solutions for our building industry. Phil's made his outputs freely available, including a Google Map of the most innovative houses in New Zealand, plus a SketchUp model of his 'Stretch and Grow' concept. 

Links:

Other Resources:

Direct download: 33_The_Stretch_and_Grow_House_-_Phil_Mclean.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:11pm NZDT

Prefab, (short for prefabrication), offers significant advantages to buidling. House can be:

  • Higher quality, with improved finishing and attention to detail without deterioration from being exposed to the elements
  • Produced quickly, being assembled in a matter of days or even hours
  • Very resource efficient, producing little construction waste (a big environmental problem for the sector)
  • Affordable!

So why are we not doing more of it? 

Bell has lead PrefabNZ since it was conceived and then incorporated directly as a result of her research as part of a Masters in Architecture. She's arguably New Zealand's most expert voice in the industry and is motivated to share the many benefits and some of the challenges of prefab. 

Links

Pam's Book recommendations:

Direct download: 32_PrefabNZ_with_CEO_Pamela_Bell.mp3
Category:Building -- posted at: 10:26pm NZDT

Jonny Parker is a Homestar Homecoach, a home assessor at Home&Dry, and also runs Attic Island in Wellington.

Listen in to find out what Attic Island is and how it can help ensure insulation stays effective, while providing much more usable space if your attic. 

http://www.­atticisland.­co.­nz

In this week's show, I also mention:

- Great comments and discussion happening both on homestylegreen.com: 

http://homestylegreen.com/what-is-the-best-form-of-heating/

and also over at Ecobob.co.nz:

http://www.ecobob.co.nz/Forum/ForumPosts/13187/Re-Is-Passivhaus-Relevant-to-New-Zealand.aspx?ShowForumPostId=13207#ForumPost13207

- Want to buy Ingo's house? Ingo Ratsdorf, who we interview in episode 19 is putting his passive solar house on the market. Let me know if you're interested and I can put you in touch. http://homestylegreen.com/passive-solar-house-riverhead/

- Big thanks for Thomas van Raamsdonk and Pro Clima for hosting an extremely informative workshop on WUFI and house ventilation this week. I hope to bring you more about this in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out http://www.wufi-pro.com/

Direct download: 31_How_to_store_stuff_in_your_roof_with_Attic_Island.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:12pm NZDT

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