Home Style Green

There are eco labelled paints, and then there are eco paints. What's the difference?

So, you know you want a sustainable (healthy, efficient, affordable and desirable) home, but where do you start? I've covered the fundamentals  of what makes a good energy efficient home, but these are details. What's the big picture? Where do you start a sustainable house? http://homestylegreen.com/93

Group or volume builders get a bad rap sometimes for perpetuating bad building practise. But it is possible to get a good home from a group builder. This week I talk with someone who's doing just that and her explains how.

Glenn Murdoch was a regular house designer until he watched Simon Sinek's TED talk. Then Glenn asked 'why'? In this week's show we talk Passive House and how to architecture can create a better society.

Duncan Firth feels 'compelled' to do what he does - designing environmentally functional homes. How can architecture truly respond to the environment?

Homestar is New Zealand's comprehensive environmental rating tool for homes. It's Green Star for the residential sector and is not some crazy Kiwi start up idea. It's very closely related to successful international precedents such as LEED and Code for Sustainable Homes. But how much does it add to the cost of building a home?  There are some inaccuracies out there that I think need addressing. 

Something a little different this week. I’ve had some excellent questions sitting in my inbox for a while and I thought that many could benefit from them. In this Q&A session I cover Homestar, thermal mass, heating and cooling options and small, affordable home design. 

Do you need a professional project manager for either the design stage or the construction stage of your building project? I discuss the basics of good project management with podcaster, engineer, business owner and soon-to-be author, Cesar Abeid. 

Eaves are the classic case of form following function. In this podcast I lay out my three key reasons for having them, but a key question is, 'how big should eaves be?'

Resilience and sustainability are different. Sustainability feels more long term to me. It's about using resources wisely with future generations in mind. Resilience is more about weathering the storm. There is an overlap and so both are important. If being resilient encourages people to invest in rainwater harvesting and solar panels with battery backup, thereby also being more sustainable, then surely that's a good thing for everyone.  Is one more important than the other, or can resilience be a really handy way of selling sustainability? Plus, my top five tips for having a resilient home. 

Over the last few years, I've developed this model for good home design: Map, wrap, gaps, taps and apps.  Find out more at: http://homestylegreen.com/84

Most of us are familiar with leaky buildings - the perfect storm of poor design, poor cladding systems and poor workmanship, culminating in allowing rain to get in. Now we've moved on and have cavities, more stringent weather-tightness checks and hopefully we like eaves again. So what's leaky buildings 2.0? If we've dealt to the risk of moisture coming in from the outside, where else can moisture come from? http://homestylegreen.com/83

Natalie Cutler-Welsh spends some of her time helping small business owners who are just getting started with social media. This can be a daunting task yet important step for your business. I wanted to get some tips for building professionals on the 'why' and 'how to' of basic social media.  This week, we look at Facebook and LinkedIn http://homestylegreen.com/82 http://gotogirl.co.nz

Ian McHugh's specialisations include Code for Sustainable Homes Assessor, and 'Eco-Refurbisher'. I want to know how good designers and architects can do more work involving energy efficient, sustainable, eco buildings. As a building professional, how can you get more of this type of work? Also, we discuss Ian's mass customisation 'IKEA-style' concept for climate adaption, the IDEAhaus. http://homestylegreen.com/81

What's earth building and why is it just as relevant today as it has been for centuries? Can you get it wet, and can you get a consent for it? These are just a couple of the questions I ask Verena Maeder, chair of the Earth Building Association of New Zealand and owner or Solid Earth.  http://www.homestylegreen.com/80

The BRANZ House Insulation Guide Fifth Edition includes waffle pod slab systems, and a concrete slab edge insulation update. I review the options.

Lesley England knows how to design eco friendly homes and importantly for her, she knows how to attract the right clients who want her to design eco friendly homes. It's all in the name - ecohabitats. Three key factors for designing eco friendly homes are: Size Orientation Materials Find out more at http://homestylegreen.com/78

What exactly is uPVC and is it a good option for window frames? I speak with Oleg Tolmachev of www.warmwindows.co.nz to find out if uPVC windows are a good fit for New Zealand conditions. 

Mark experienced his own building project as a client in 2004 and recognised the need for better information. He was handed a copy of the Building Guide from the local Council.  The Building Guide was a different publication then and Mark saw potential for how it could help prospective homeowners get better information. So in 2006, Mark Graham bought the magazine.  He explains to me why he hated advertising - the very industry he worked in for 14 years, and how he now relies on it. What's the difference?

What's self-help housing and why is it important? Canopy Housing Project is a self-help housing organisation based in Leeds, U.K., creating decent homes by renovating derelict ones. Steve Hoey has been running Canopy Housing for the last six years and I asked him why he does what he does.  Also in this episode, the five essentials of self-help housing and Steve's great book recommendation. http://canopyhousing.org