Home Style Green

Karen Manson likes thinking about and designing housing, not just houses. With over 15 years of international experience, Karen now has her own practice in Christchurch. She focuses on high performance houses, including Passive House. I had the opportunity to chat with Karen at the pro clima HUB about her journey. In this episode we discuss the urban design, keeping it simple and what can be learnt from the process of designing standard, code compliant buildings.

Nearly all building elements (roofs, walls, floors, window and door joints etc.) will leak at some point. Problems only occur when moisture gets in, and stays in. If moisture is allowed to accumulate for extended periods, then mould grows, timber rots and metal corrodes. Ultimately, people get sick and our buildings start to fail. This can be incredibly disruptive, stressful and expensive! WUFI® was created to allow designers to check their designs before those designs become real buildings. By running scenarios with different combinations of products we can fail in the virtual world until we optimise the design. Then we can build with confidence that our real structure will stay dry, healthy and strong for decades.

How do you make eco, affordable? As project manager for the proposed Lotus Eco Village in Paraparaumu near Wellington, Simon Wallace has some good ideas. In 1971, Eric Doornekamp led a group of yoga enthusiasts to establish the Lotus Yoga Centre and Retreat in Aro Street, Wellington. Almost half a century on, the Lotus Yoga Centre Charitable Trust is branching out and developing an Eco-Village. The Lotus Eco Village will be built in on a 3 hectare site purchased by the Trust back in 1985. Project Manager Simon Wallace shared with me how he plans to create affordable, healthy houses alongside a yoga and community centre in a great location. http://homestylegreen.com/172

Russell Baillie describes the Baillie Eco-Home as a modern, contemporary house that's green under the skin. It's a two storey, three bedroom home in Mt Eden completed in 2016. The house is a showcase of efficiency, sustainability and universal design. http://homestylegreen.com/171

Harpal Kler comes from an accounting background, but during the last four years he's learnt a lot about building and living in a Passive House. Now, he's a big advocate. Their multi-generational family home was completed in December 2015 by ehaus and is one of a growing number of Certified Passive House homes in New Zealand. I asked Harpal how he came across Passive House in the first place, and what he's learnt from building and living in one. 

What can we learn down here in the Southern Hemisphere, about the growth and success of Passive House in Canada? CEO of Passive House Canada, Rob Bernhardt shares his inspiration. 

This week I'm discussing skylights and roof windows. They're great for both light and ventilation, but what should you look out for?

A building surveyor is trained to investigate potential issues and provide a prioritised list of maintenance for a building. When looking to buy a property, don't take the real estate agent's word for it. Find your own, reputable building surveyor to get an honest assessment of the building. You'll still need to make the decision yourself whether or not to buy, but at least you'll be more informed when you make that decision.

The building code is the worst house you're legally allowed to build, yet it's often treated as the target. In this episode, I walk through some building envelope basics and discuss where I think you should invest the most to improve the health and comfort of your new home. http://homestylegreen.com/166

I usually interview designers and builders about what's going on overseas, with a focus on what the New Zealand industry could learn. In this episode, I speak with Damon Gray and Andrew Chapman of NZ Builders. They've turned this idea on it's head and have taken some NZ techniques to British Columbia, with some stunning results. http://nzbuilders.com http://homestylegreen.com/165

I love it when I find new companies that are looking at the design and building process a bit differently and who want to provide healthy, energy efficient homes. That's what Nook is all about. I caught up with their designer, Warren Clarke recently and asked him why he does what he does. http://nook.nz http://homestylegreen.com/164

Walls (and roofs and floors) of buildings have become complicated. As we’ve increased the level of insulation, we’ve created some new problems, like condensation. This has been aggravated by the addition of layers into the wall that reduce air movement. So how do you create a wall that keeps you warm but will also stay dry? I spoke to Jon Davies from Pro Clima to get some facts about airtightness. http://proclima.com http://proclima.co.nz http://proclima.com.au http://homestylegreen.com/163

When I first saw the LUNOS is didn't really believe it was a true heat recovery ventilation system, so I sought out some answers. Wayne Delport is Sales and Technical Manager at The Heating Company International. http://bit.ly/HSGLunos http://homestylegreen.com/162

Imagine having a Fitbit for your home and being able to see, in real time, how it's performing. You could also be notified of any hazards like high levels of CO2 and VOCs as they occur - before you start to get a headache or start having respiratory problems. This week I speak with Dustin Jefferson Onghanseng, a cofounder of uHoo, an exciting new product that could be the Fitbit for your home. http://uhooair.com/ http://homestylegreen.com/161

A first step in making a home healthier is to understand and quantify what might be making it unhealthy. Through her website, Caroline Blazovsky has made it very easy for homeowners to test indoor air quality and test for mould. http://www.healthyhomeexpert.com/ http://homestylegreen.com/160

Darryl Sang is one of only a few Certified Passive House Designers in Auckland. We discuss why he went through this gruelling training and why more of his clients are demanding Passive House standards. http://homestylegreen.com159 http://sangarchitects.com/

Why should we be watching China and what does the growth in uptake of Passive House there mean for the rest of us? We also discuss near zero energy regulations in Europe, developments in the US and Passive House examples from Spain. Passive House expert and architect Elrond Burrell give us his highlights from the 20th International Passive House Conference. http://elrondburrell.com/ http://homestylegreen.com/158

I originally contacted Hitesh Mehta to talk about sustainable landscape architecture, but he offers a lot more than that. Hitesh has travelled the world advising and helping designers of ecolodges. He enjoys all aspects of architecture as well as photography, environmental planning and writing. To find out more about his recent work, visit Hitesh Mehta Design. http://homestylegreen.com/157  

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 Darmstadt, Germany. http://homestylegreen.com/156

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 far as to say, there’s a revolution about to happen! Here are some of my highlights from a well attended and inspiring conference. http://homestylegreen.com/155