Home Style Green

Wolfgang Feist is attributed as the co-founder of Passive House along with Bo Adamson. Feist, a German physicist collaborated with Adamson from Sweden in 1988 to developed a number of ultra-low energy research buildings. Passive House is now 25 years strong and at the time of recording, Wolfgang was preparing to attend the 20th International Passive House Conference back where it all began in Darm...

It’s tempting to say that Prefab’s time has come, but I don’t think this does justice to prefabricated building. As Pamela Bell has explained previously on the Home Style Green Podcast, Prefab is not new. But the enthusiasm shown during this week’s PrefabNZ CoLab event here in Auckland suggest that prefab will play an increasingly important role in the delivery of buildings. Some would even go so...

Adaptive architecture and innovative insights from California, with Matthew Baran of Baran Studio Architecture. http://www.baranstudio.com/ http://homestylegreen.com/154    

Paul Dowsett and his team at Sustainable. To are dedicate to creating affordable, healthy and energy efficient homes, because that's what Paul believes is 'the right thing to do'. And as for the extra cost? Listen in to find out... http://www.sustainable.to/ http://homesteylgreen.com/153

Remember when the main choice you had for light bulbs was 60 Watts or 100 Watts? Things have progressed a long way since then, and mostly for the better, especially when you consider that the average incandescent light bulb is only about 10% efficient. Most of the energy ends up as heat rather than light. Now we've transitioned through compact fluorescents (CFLs) to light emitting diodes (LEDs), t...

There's so much that could be said about two days of great Passive House presentations in Melbourne, but I've challenged myself to boil it down to one point per presentation. If there was one takeaway from the second South Pacific Passive House Conference, it was that Passive House has arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and it's going to grow, because it works! http://homestylegreen.com/151

Glenn Harley is a builder of energy efficient homes in Canterbury. After being attracted to the natural, healthy feel of strawbale construction, Glenn now produces high performance homes with lots of insulation and airtight envelopes. http://harleybuilders.co.nz/ http://homestylegreen.com/150

In the town of Invermere, about 3 hours west of Calgary in British Columbia, there's a workshop where high performance, energy efficient homes are constructed all year round, regardless of the weather.  http://collectivecarpentry.com http://homestylegreen.com/149

Graham Hunt goes into a lot of detail when researching the local climate that will impact the comfort of a home. Designing for your climate includes an analysis of both the macro - the temperature, rainfall and humidity of the region, but also the micro - the local wind, shading and exposure of a particular site. We discuss why this is important and how to do some of the basics. http://homestylegr...

Who's the most influential person in a real estate development, the architect, the owner, the builder...? What about the developer? Real estate developers are often seen as the bad guys, out to make a bunch of money without really caring about the quality of homes of lifestyles resulting from their work. Steve Glenn's philosophy however is that developers have a huge potential to control what gets...

Angus Crowe believes that you definitely can afford an architect. In fact, you can't afford not to have one. Learning from design homes in the tropics, Angus now uses a combination of orientation, cross flow ventilation, thermal mass and above all - 3D modelling to produce healthy, comfortable homes. http://homestylegreen.com/146 http://truenortharchitects.com.au/

Dennis Dowling creates finely crafted, passive energy homes that you’ll love. From energy efficiency and budgeting advice, through to high quality, Passive House standard construction, DCD offers a turn-key approach to building. I initially contacted Dennis for a comment about why he choses to use pro clima products, but when he started to describe his approach to building homes, I had to turn on...

Beattie Passive is a complete system for a high performance home. I love the idea of thinking of a house as a system. I also love the idea of making it simple and easy to get right, and that's exactly what Ron Beattie has done.  http://homestylegreen.com/144

Foam is an incredible thermal insulator. For the price and size, it's about the best insulation material you can get. But many people are concerned about the chemicals and process used to manufacture polystyrene. I spoke with Curtis VanDyke from RL Adams Plastics about what they're doing to make foam 'green' and therefore make it an even greater building material. http://homestylegreen.com/143 htt...

Bamboo Technologies, LLC (Bamboo Living) design and manufacture structurally certified bamboo homes. Founded in 1995, Bamboo Technologies has produced over 350 homes in Hawaii and around the world. I spoke with founder David Sands about why bamboo is sustainable as a building material. http://homestylegreen.com/142 http://www.bambooliving.com/

I love Rich Williams' enthusiasm for what he does. Even if you don't live in the temperate climate of San Diego, you can learn a lot about the relevance (or not) of concepts like Passive House for a better performing home. Alliance Green Builders are dedicated to 'building tomorrow's homes for today'. As well as being Passive House designers, they also offer LEED, GreenPoint and Zero Energy Ready...

In episode 10 of Home Style Green, I interview Carlin Archer, the creator of Ecobob. Now Ecobob has a completely fresh new look, and is still going strong as New Zealand's leading eco home forum. In this episode, I talk with new owner Kristy Hoare. http://homestylegreen.com/140 http://ecobob.co.nz

The terms 'sustainability' and 'eco' are not obvious on  Adam Taylor's website . They are there (see if you can find them). But perhaps the future of green design is embedded in good design. Not something separate. http://homestylegreen.com/139 http://adamtaylor.co.nz

Dr Allison Bailes III has used his PhD in physics and background in teaching to educate the world about better buildings. Through his company Energy Vanguard, Dr Bailes has been recognised as a great communicator, turning complex ideas like relative humidity and psychrometrics, into understandable fundamentals for better home performance. 

Jeffrey Dinkle brings over two decades of experience in sustainable construction and renovation to his board service at the National Passive House Alliance. Founder and owner of Eco Custom Homes and its parent company ICON Development Corporation, Jeff has become a recognized leader in Atlanta’s green building scene. He holds degrees in economics and sociology from Emory University and has trained...

Passive House vs Passive Solar with Lloyd Alter Much of this comes down to two design principles which are similar in name and have some overlap in their detail, but are fundamentally quite different. As Lloyd Alter points out, the 'Superinsulated' house was really the origin and (along with airtightness) is the basis of Passive House design. 'Passive solar' design is what's in question here, in p...

PIDCOCK - Architecture and Sustainability is focused on desirable, sustainable architecture. http://homestylegreen.com/135 http://www.pidcock.com.au/

Sue co-founded Bioregional in 1994 because she wanted to develop and implement more sustainable ways of producing the products we need and of living our lives to reduce our human impact on the natural world. http://www.bioregional.com/ http://homestylegreen.com/134

Polly Bart loves to get muddy. Despite having an undergraduate degree in architecture and a doctorate in city planning, Poly is not an architect. She's a builder and founder of Greenbuilders, Inc. She loves creating, lifting rock and building things. http://homestylegreen.com/133 http://greenbuilders.com/

Smart, Green and Beautiful Homes with Ronn Lepage.  If these can be built in one of the harshest inhabited climates on Earth, then what would it take to build one where you live? http://homestylegreen.com/132 https://verecohomesinc.wildapricot.org/