Marion Baeli, author of "Residential Retrofit," offers hands-on experience of designing and retrofitting high performance homes. As well as drawing on her personal retrofit she shares the lessons learnt from revisiting properties that took part in the Retrofit for the Future competition over a decade ago. Check out the show notes for more information.
Jeffrey Hart from the Earthen Floor Company gives us the lowdown on natural earth floors, explaining what the components are, how they are mixed and the process of installing them. He also outlines the benefits and limitations, and highlights what makes them a great choice for an eco home. Check out the show notes for more information.
Ben Adam-Smith shares a few thoughts about what to look for in a plot of land for a low energy house build. Check out the show notes for more information
Es Tresidder from Highland Passive explains what an air-to-air mini split heat pump is, why he believes it's a good choice for heating a high performance home and the various pros and cons of going down this route. He also reflects on one of the toughest stages of his retrofit when they took the roof off the existing dwelling and then faced torrential rain. Check out the show notes for more information.
Having spent the last few years working within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, John Palmer explains how building regulations are made and what their role is within the construction industry. Check out the show notes for more information.
Will South from Etude takes us step-by-step through the retrofit of his Victorian terrace house in Brighton, which has improved the health, comfort and energy efficiency of the property. Check out the show notes for more information.
Joshua English, co-founder of Okom wrks labs shares his journey into the creation of a mycelium-based composite material, which has structural and load-bearing properties. Check out the show notes for more information.
Architect Kirsty Maguire shares her experience of designing and building her own Passivhaus on a challenging sloping site in Newport-on-Tay, Scotland. Check out the show notes for more information.
Sally Godber, a Director at WARM consultancy explains why reducing the risks on her own Passivhaus project was so important, what that entailed and how it enabled her to deliver a healthy, comfortable and energy-efficient home on budget. Check out the show notes for more information.
Andy Mitchell, Managing Director of 21 Degrees, explains what factors influence human comfort and how we have tried to make our homes more comfortable through the years. Embracing building physics has been a turning point and while we have the knowledge and skills to create healthy and comfortable homes today, it's still not the default approach. So Andy outlines the options available to get yourself into a better home. Check out the show notes for more information.
Ben Nother, a Director at Hawkland Group, explains the two different roles of Principal Designer in meeting building regulations and addressing CDM health and safety. He also reflects on how this has been integrated into their processes. Check out the show notes for more information.
Phil Neve explains what Passivhaus Premium is and why he chose to target the standard for his own self build in Somerset. He also talks through his biggest project challenge, which was obtaining planning permission to build in open countryside. Check out the show notes for more information.
Heather Johnson from AD Practice explains what Passivhaus Plus is, how it differs from Passivhaus Classic accreditation and what benefits achieving the standard will afford. She also reveals why most of her clients target 'Plus' and outlines the steps to achieve this on a project. Check out the show notes for more information.
Stephanie Kyle from Floyd Slaski Architects explains how we can design for disability, gender, religion, and anything that's considered a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. She also highlights the biggest challenge of inclusive design which is people's differing needs, and suggests how we best go about designing spaces. Check out the show notes for more information.
Guy Harris from AccessiblePRS explains why accessible housing is important, what the key considerations are and how to deliver it well. He also shares his experience of designing his own house as a wheelchair user. Check out the show notes for more information.
Toby Cambray talks about the experience of working on his own retrofit project, and the lessons learnt in the process. Check out the show notes for more information.
Toby Cambray talks about the risks associated with moisture in buildings, and the modelling techniques – like WUFI® – that can be used to assess those risks. Check out the show notes for more information.
Mike Whitfield shares his experience of running a local construction company that specialises in Passivhaus. He explains how the business is structured, and what tasks are tackled on a daily and weekly basis. Check out the show notes for more information.
Mike Eliason talks about his book, Building for People, and the massive opportunity we have to create better places through being more intentional and thoughtful. Check out the show notes for more information.
Laila Dudhill explains some of the challenges she faced when planning her new build home at the bottom of a sloping field. Not only did she have to deal with drainage across the site, diverting the natural flow of water away from the house, but also come up with a foul drainage strategy that would off-set phosphate discharge into the local watercourses. Check out the show notes for more information.