House Planning Help Podcast

Architect and author Sarah Susanka shares why scale is such an important aspect to consider when building a house. She also explains how a 'not so big' philosophy can be applied in many areas of our lives.

Mark Westcombe, one of the founding members of Lancaster Cohousing , explains the cohousing concept and why creating an intentional community like this has many benefits.

Mike Jacob from Trunk Low Energy Building provides an insight into the benefits of hiring a project manager for a house build. Also Ben Adam-Smith reflects on the UK Passivhaus Awards 2013 .

Paul Jennings from Aldas explains why airtightness is an important factor to grasp when constructing an energy efficient home. He also shares how forward planning, attention to detail and teamwork are imperative for achieving good airtightness results.

Elrond Burrell from Architype helps bust some of the common myths that surround the Passivhaus standard.

Jonathan Hines from Architype explains the concept of eco-minimalism and also the very different approach that guides them as a business. We discover how this design philosophy has helped shape an exciting new scheme of 150 Passivhaus homes for the village of Kingstone, Herefordshire. One the day this podcast was published the development - in conjunction with ArchiHaus - was granted planning appr...

Kingsley Barraclough shares his experience of building a house and explains why he decided to use structural insulated panels (SIPs).

Mark Saich from Green Building Solutions gives an insight into why straw bale building is becoming popular. He also addresses some of the issues that we may harbour around the safety and durability of this low impact and low carbon material.

Matthew Cutler-Welsh from Home Style Green explains some of the challenges of creating sustainable urban systems. He also shares his goals as a podcaster, including championing healthier, better homes for New Zealand.

Andy Simmonds from Simmonds Mills Architects explains ventilation in the home, why it's important and what the options are if you're looking to retrofit a property for energy efficiency.

Mark Brinkley considers why the UK has the smallest proportion of self build across Europe and what changes might need to occur if we wanted to adjust the balance. Mark shares why Germany's system is more likely to lead to higher standards and communities that embrace development.

London's Ecobuild has just concluded for another year and Ben Adam-Smith shares his experience of the event. In this episode he chats to four people he met there - Janet Cotterell from Passivhaus Homes , Jon Bootland from the Passivhaus Trust , Jo Gooding from the UK Cohousing Network and Robert Stern from Litmus Films .

Justin Broadbent from isoenergy explains what a ground source heat pump is and how it could be used as a solution to make a period property energy efficient.

What's more important - preserving heritage architecture or retrofitting it to high energy efficiency? In our first forum on a Google+ Hangout we discuss some of the issues. The Panel Writer and blogger  Roger Hunt  ( who appeared in our 10th podcast ) Writer and Passivhaus consultant  Adam Dadeby  from  Passivhaus Homes  ( who appeared in our 5th podcast ) Homeowner Ross Atkin (who has recently ...

Ben Adam-Smith shares an idea he has about using the Internet to communicate the need for incremental lifestyle change as an action to combat climate change. This one-off episode focusses on how you could use content marketing to get your message across. Cesar Abeid from The Construction Industry Podcast  is Ben's guest and helps explain how content marketing works.

Bill Butcher from Green Building Store shares his approach to creating a low energy barn conversion by building a box within a box. Stirley Community Farm will meet the EnerPHit standard.

Jason and Lucy Reeve share what preparation was necessary to commission their new-build home and Ben Adam-Smith considers what's more important in renovation, preserving the past or creating a sustainable future.

Dr Derek Taylor from Altechnica weighs up the pros and cons of various renewable energy sources and shares his thoughts on whether you should be generating at home. He also talks about his role in creating one of the UK's most energy-efficient homes.

Dr Brenda Boardman reflects on the world's energy situation, climate change and the growing problem of fuel poverty. She gives practical advice on how this affects building or renovating a property.

Roger Hunt explains how to make a period property energy efficient without damaging the building or creating problems for yourself in the future. Also House Planning Help gets its first guest blogger, Paul Mallion from Conker Conservation .

Alex Rice, Senior Engineer at Green Tomato Energy, explains that there are few technical challenges that remain when retrofitting a period home into a low energy building and it is a case of how you apply those solutions to the given building.

Tom Pakenham from Green Tomato Energy describes the practical challenges of making a Victorian house energy efficient. Plus how passive house principles helped a Norwegian explorer in the 1890s.

Tahir Sharif talks about how he built up his knowledge in order to commission an energy efficient home, while Ben discovers some great thinking from the Home World Exhibition of 1981.

Ted Stevens, Chairman of the National Self Build Association in the UK, gives his advice on how to find a good plot of land at a reasonable price. Plus, why Almere in Holland could be a blueprint for other large scale self build developments across the world.

Adam Dadeby from Passivhaus Homes talks about some of the challenges he faced when retrofitting his own home to the Passivhaus standard. He's also co-author of a new book called The Passivhaus Handbook .