Libsyn Directory

239: How to Build the Right Home

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Release Date: 12/05/2020

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Steve Penny is the founder and director at , a building services consultancy in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is also the host of his own podcast, .

Build Aotearoa 8: Cool by Design with Siân Taylor

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Many people might be surprised to know that the New Zealand Building Code does not require any consideration of overheating in homes. The energy efficiency requirements in our code are based only on the ability of buildings to keep warm without excessive heat loss. There is nothing to prevent homes from being designed with large areas of unshaded north or west-facing glass. Siân Taylor is an Architect and Passive House Designer based in Queenstown. She has experience creating homes that are designed to perform well all year round, in some of the most challenging and spectacular locations. ...

Build Aotearoa: Changing the Window Industry with Benjy Simmons

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Stärke has been in the window industry in New Zealand since the 80s. They were at the forefront of supplying aluminium frames to the building industry but have recently made some big changes. With a focus on building performance, Benjy Simmons describes the new direction of Stärke as a 'once-in-fifty-year' change. While the company has a long legacy, they've experienced rapid change over the last few years. Benjy credits some of the openness to change to him being from outside the industry. He's come in with a different perspective. "We're beginning to see ourselves as a building...

Build Aotearoa 6: Framology with Pete Hammond

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

More is not always better, especially regarding the amount of timber in the frame of a house. The more timber there is, the less space there is for insulation. The way this is measured is called timber fraction. Most homes in Aotearoa are designed using the assumption that timber will make up around 14% - 18% of the area in a wall. A found that in reality, the average timber fraction is closer to 40%. This means there is considerably less space available for insulation. Unfortunately, this is not always picked up during the consenting or pre-lining inspection process. H1 Energy Efficiency...

Build Aotearoa: 5 Building Science with Denise Martin

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Denise Martin has been involved with many of Aotearoa's Passive House projects. As one of the most experienced blower door testers in the country, she's been involved with verifying a range of residential and commercial buildings both in New Zealand and Australia. I caught up with Denise to chat about how she got into building science in the first place and some of the challenges and opportunities facing the building sector in New Zealand. We also discuss the building code, energy modelling, thermal performance and air tightness. If you don't already, I highly recommend following Denise...

Build Aotearoa 4: Quality and Quantity

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

I found it confronting guest this past week as she described the experiences of staying in motel emergency accommodation with a young daughter. From my relative privilege (of choosing the right parents and having things turn out ok for me so far), I find it hard to imagine being in this situation. But it's the reality for nearly 6,500 people across Aotearoa, half of whom are children. This is an emergency, and the problem is complex. The solution will require more than simply building more houses because the underlying issues are more complex than that. Related to this is a proposal...

Build Aotearoa on Safe(ish) Ground

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

Last week, February 22nd rolled around. This was a significant date in the Cutler-Welsh household thirteen years ago when our house was located close to the Avon River in Christchurch. While it was a life-changing day for us, life has gone on. We ultimately lost our recently renovated home in Richmond as a result of the Canterbury Earthquakes, but many lost so much more. What would a moratorium on , tsunami or fire risk areas, look like? How would the resulting plummet in land values impact the economy and further inflate the cost of housing? But if not now, when? The risks are likely...

Build Aotearoa 2 Principles and Performance.MP3

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

There are fundamental gaps in what the New Zealand Building Code covers and how well it covers the aspects that are included. These reasons should be enough to justify using standards like Passive House or Homestar to go above and beyond the building code. In this series, I'll be looking at reasons why it's better to ask about the value and risk minisation resulting from higher performance standards rather than focussing only on perceived upfront cost.

Build Aotearoa

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

As I draft this episode, there's a chorus of cicadas outside my window. The sun is shining and there's a faint breath of a breeze. It seems calm where I live, here in a relatively leafy part of Tāmaki Makaurau. But all is not calm everywhere in Aotearoa today, Waitangi Day 2024.

274: Doing Windows Well

Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

There are not many new ideas in the building industry. The basic concepts have been around for a while. 'High-performance' products and design details that might be described as 'innovative' here in New Zealand are likely to be standard practice somewhere else. With building his experience in Europe and Scandanavia Richard Eden is well placed to help New Zealand builders do things better. He can often be found teaching builders around the country how to do a good quality install of good quality windows.

More Episodes

Jennifer Crawford first appeared on Home Style Green when Our New Home Coach was just getting started. Six years on, she's back to discuss her journey and why she still believes strongly in helping people build the right home.

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