Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Sabine Schoenberg is co-founder of the Smart Healthy Green Living network, a collection of videos and streaming content on everything from tiny homes and carpentry to interior design and gardening. Through her network, Sabine is promoting the 'Do One Thing' campaign to help everyone take a step towards living a more sustainable life.

Direct download: 265_Smart_Healthy_Green.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:08pm NZDT

My third conversation with Simon Cator in our series on the control layers of a well-performing building envelope. In this episode, we cover the why and how of airtightness.

Direct download: 264_Simon_Cator_3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:54am NZDT

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 benefits of building with hemp.
Direct download: 263_Jo_Say.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:54am NZDT

Following my previous chat with Simon Cator we continue our discussion about how to construct a good building envelope. This week we're focussing on keeping the weather out. We cover the benefits of a monolithic membrane instead of a microporous one, the importance of being resistant to water while maintaining permeability to vapour, and how to keep everything connected.

Direct download: 262_Weathertight.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:47am NZDT

Casey Curtis shares tips on how and why to create airtight buildings, the benefits of mid-build open homes, and using collaborative design to create the right house on any given site.

Direct download: 261_Casey_Curtis.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:56am NZDT

Michael Rubino is an educator, author and an expert in mould remediation of homes. In this interview he shares his journey and some tips on how we can make our homes a better, healthier place to live.

Direct download: 260_Michael_Rubino_.mp3
Category:Health -- posted at: 5:06pm NZDT

Simon Cator is passionate about helping people to build better homes. Prior to becoming Regional Sales Manager for the Upper North Island at Pro Clima NZ, he worked for New Zealand's online architectural products library - EBOSS and also HRV before that.

In this introductory episode, I spoke with Simon about the diversity of his role at Pro Clima and how he talks with people throughout the whole building industry to help change the way we do things.

Direct download: 259_Simon_Cator_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:56am NZDT

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.
Direct download: 258_Matariki_-_3-07-21_20.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:50pm NZDT

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 what he describes as the 'warm side of engineering, he's long had an interest in energy efficiency. He didn't expect to be looking so much into human behavior. Germán has made some of the output of his research, freely available - The Atlas of Comfort. Find it at https://buildingsforpeople.org/

Direct download: 257_German_Molina.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:17am NZDT

Tim Ross featured on Home Style Green back in episode 191 to talk about getting starting 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 High Street Co-housing project was well underway.

Direct download: 256_Tim_Ross.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:32pm NZDT

Justine Money describes herself as a British-Maori-Australian Architect. She brings a strong cultural sensibility to her practice. In this discussion, we chat about why Justine decided to take up the challenge of studying architecture as a mature-aged student, and her journey from biophilic design to Passive House.

Direct download: 255_Noho_Architecture.mp3
Category:Architecture -- posted at: 8:51am NZDT

Georgia Ezra has a lot on the go. Based in Melbourne, she's the Founder and Director of her own interior design practice Studio Ezra. She also sources and supplies artisan tiles through Tiles of Ezra and bespoke homewares via AHW. Georgia calls herself a 'treasure hunter and market maven'. She has a passion for pushing the boundaries of modern design to create truly unique interior spaces for her clients.

Direct download: 254_Studio_Ezra.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:48am NZDT

Joe 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 very limited capital.

Direct download: 253_Joe_Lyth.mp3
Category:Passivhaus -- posted at: 1:00pm NZDT

The Ministry of Innovation Building and Employment (MBIE) has released its consultation document for proposed changes to the New Zealand Building Code. This represents a great opportunity to positively impact the future of building standards. But does it go far enough?

Direct download: 252_NZ_Building_Code.mp3
Category:Industry -- posted at: 10:49am NZDT

Danielle King moved into the sustainability field about fifteen years ago and has built up her consultancy Green Move Australia with a diverse range of services. We discuss some of the typical advice she provides to clients and Danielle shares some of her own advice for running a viable sustainability business.

Direct download: 251_Green_Moves.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:46pm NZDT

Stuart Lee loves what he does, which is mostly building Passive House homes in Victoria, Australia. He was an early adopter of sustainable building and it was during a Master Builder Green Living event that he heard Clare Parry speak about Passive House. It all made a lot of sense and Stuart enrolled himself on a Passive House Tradesperson course. In this interview, he describes what makes a home really perform, and why he loves what he does.

Direct download: 250_Enerhaus_Stuart_Lee.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:16am NZDT

Mike Pickering is building an affordable but high quality, healthy and very energy efficient home for himself and his family on a lifestyle block in Napier. He's taken some learning from his experience building tiny homes and is sharing his project online. Check it out at https://ourlifeblock.co.nz

Direct download: 249_Our_Life_Block.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:02am NZDT

Scott Stewart used to fly in high performance aircraft with the Royal Australian Air Force. Now he helps architects, designers and builders with the high performance details of Passive House homes.

Direct download: 248_LAB_Design.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:39pm NZDT

Hamish White is Director of Sanctum Homes, based in Victoria Australia. He's a registered Domestic Builder with a marketing degree! Since discovering Passive House, Hamish has been inspired to become a Passive House business. Architects, designers and other builders can be encouraged that there's a market out there and willing clients who want healthy, comfortable and energy efficient homes. I discuss with Hamish, how he got into the building industry and any advice he has for others interested in building better.

Direct download: 247_Sanctum_Homes.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:48am NZDT

The Hawea Flat Passive House in the middle of the South Island is a very special home. It boasts a number of 'firsts' for New Zealand and the journey of its creation has arguably changed more than just the way Jonathan Holmes lives.

Direct download: 246_Hawea_Flat_Passive_House.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:25pm NZDT

Michelle Rohrer-Lauer is an interior designer and business owner with nearly four decades of experience. She works with discerning clients out of her studio in Chicago, but her approach to sustainable design is applicable everywhere.

Direct download: 245_Michelles_Interiors_-_27-02-21_13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:14pm NZDT

Jason Scheurer has always been a business owner and he's always been motived to learn. Today, he and his wife Penny own and operate Best Techs Contracting where they design, build and remodel homes. But not just any homes. I connected with Jason during an online Passive House event recently. In this interview, we discuss how he's gone from an inquisitive general contractor to a newly elected board member of Passive House California.

Direct download: 244_Best_Techs_Contracting.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:21am NZDT

Richard Keech lives in a zero-carbon home in Melbourne. After some time in the Royal Australian Air Force and then as a software engineering and consultant in the private sector, Richard now helps people to understand energy. Specifically, renewable energy and energy efficiency. We discuss why it's a good idea to get rid of gas and electrify your home.

Direct download: 243_Energy_Freedom.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:06pm NZDT

Susan Inglis has always been a conscious consumer. In 2007 she helped set up the Sustainable Furnishings Council to promote awareness of all the 'stuff' we bring into our buildings. From curtains to carpets, and fittings and furniture, the products we bring into our homes have a huge impact on the environment. The Sustainable Furnishings Council works with industry to help inspire designers and consumers to make better choices about all the products inside our buildings.


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