31 January 2019 Consumer’s James le Page: Fixing the New Zealand Building Code

“Each newly built house that that only just meets our meagre Building Code potentially leaves the new and successive owners living in uncomfortable, unhealthy conditions.  “ “Having proper ventilation is essential to creating a healthy home. Removing moisture-laden air improves air quality, making the home healthier and easier to heat. Our older pre-1990s homes are full of gaps and are …

29 January 2019 Scoop: Insulation boost means more warm dry homes

Good to see after all the research that has been done about poor quality of housing impacts on health that the government is up to speed. Now we need to: 1. at least build the new stock so it is healthy as well and, 2. change the building code so new homes are designed and proven to be warm healthy …

29 January 2019 Boston Green Ribbon Commission’s Miriam Wasser: Boston aims to be carbon-free by 2050. Here are 5 takeaways from a new report

NZ is in the lucky position to already have a significant ~80% of our energy from renewables. Given that and lacking a full engineering analysis city-by-city report we can tell our NZ cities to focus on these three things: 1. Maximum energy efficiency in buildings – we don’t have to call it Passive House (or Passivhaus) but it will look …

19 November 2018 The Green List’s The Fern: These Redfern apartments will change your life, and save a motza

Ouch. “Even for supposedly sustainable houses and apartments. The rating tools are good he says, but their problem is “too much greenwash”, not enough post-occupancy evaluation, and an almost “criminally” low standard of compliance. Result? (And he’s seen this with his own eyes) clients in highly rated green housing call the architect after they’ve moved in to say they are …

23 October 2018 ArchDaily: Sri Lanka Passive House / JPDA

Certified Passive House is not only for cold climates but that is still where you find most of them. This Certified Passive House Factory is located in Sri Lanka which is a hot monsoon climate. The design team focused on heat gain reduction but still had to deal with the very high local humidity and internal loads of running a …

Passive House Classes Classic, Plus and Premium

Passive House Classes Explained: Classic, Plus and Premium

Honest and fair net zero buildings   Sometimes you need to explain complicated technical topics in a very simple way. Like how you would speak to your 95 year old Italian grandmother, Rita, who grew up before TV was a thing. How the hell do you explain Passive House. Better make it simple or she will ask again in about …