House Planning Help Podcast

Ian McKay from BBM Sustainable Design shares how to find a property that will lend itself well to an eco retrofit. He also contrasts two very different projects, the retrofit of a 1960s terraced house and the upgrade of a Victorian villa from the 1890s.

Diana Woodward explains how her house was first modelled on a computer and then the 3D digital information was transformed into exact physical replicas. The components were fabricated out of WISA board on-site using a mobile manufacturing facility.

Upgrading your property so that it is more comfortable and costs less to run makes sense. If we're serious about tackling climate change then retrofitting has to be undertaken on a huge scale. So if it looks good on paper, why are very few people doing it? In this discussion (which was one of our Google+ Hangouts) we consider some of the barriers that may be putting people off.

Mark Siddall from LEAP (Low Energy Architectural Practice) explains the circumstances under which poor ventilation can occur and why the control strategy becomes increasingly important the more airtight the building is.

David and Penny Learmonth share their experience of building an ultra low energy home on a budget. They also project managed this themselves.

Fran Bradshaw from Anne Thorne Architects shares her experience of building an ultra low energy home using natural materials such as straw bales, lime render and clay plaster. The house is also aiming for the Passivhaus standard.

Ben Adam-Smith looks at some of the essentials that you need to understand if you are going to create an energy-efficient house. There is more detail in Ben's new e-book: Why Most People Don't Build Energy-Efficient Homes.

Martin Holladay from Green Building Advisor talks about the pros and cons of the Passivhaus standard. He also explains why he believes the German standard is not the best approach for the North American climate.

Mark Elton from Sustainable BY Design explains what a phased retrofit of a house entails and the steps necessary to make it a comprehensive set of measures. He also shares his views of which properties make the simplest and most cost effective retrofits.

Bronwyn Barry from One Sky Homes explains the evolution of windows and why modern windows are really pieces of equipment. She also shares what's involved when it comes to choosing high performance windows for a project.

Jason Orme, editor of Homebuilding & Renovating, shares some of the key challenges that self-builders face and what can be done to make sure they don't become pitfalls. He also explains how custom build might be a good option to explore for those who want a bespoke home but without the same level of risk.

Cath Hassell from ech2o consultants shares why saving water - particularly hot water - is something we should all be doing. She also explains how we can achieve this in our houses through a mixture of technical solutions and behaviour change. *A lot of the information in this episode is specific to the UK. This is because it became difficult to keep answering in general world terms because in each country it would be slightly different.*

Lloyd Alter, Managing Editor of TreeHugger, explains how worldwide trends in green building have developed. He also shares his tips for self build success as well as some pitfalls to avoid.

Architectural designer Wilf Meynell explains the concept of environmental design and why it is not the same thing as low energy design. He also shares how he has tried to balance these two approaches in one of his upcoming projects, Springfield House.

Douglas Kent from The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings explains how to look after period properties and what advances are being made with conservation techniques in order to achieve greater energy efficiency.

Tim Hulse from EcoVert Solutions explains what insulation is and why there are often trade-offs to be made when selecting insulation.

Architect, planner and author Graham Towers explains the fundamentals of housing density and why we really need to get it right in future developments.

Mark Wilson from BuildingDesignExpert.com shares why he believes there is no such thing as a sustainable material and why it is our environment we are really hoping to sustain.

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.