Home Style Green

Design Basics has as unique point of difference. They value and promote the input of women in the design process. I discuss with Executive Vice President Natalie Wendling, and Vice President of Business Development, Paul Foresman; the concept of 'Women-Centric Home Design' and how it can benefit everyone.

Green certification of building projects faces multiple challenges; from sourcing appropriate products, documenting and verifying materials, through to minimising, sorting and recording construction waste. Compiling all this information in a form that's useful for the certifying agency can be yet another big challenge. Through Green Badger, Tommy Linstroth's goals is to make sustainability in the built environment as easy as possible.

Green Badger is a cloud-based software platform that helps builders and contractors streamline and automate green building compliance. Simplifying these compliance processes allows builders and contractors to focus on building their building properly instead of chasing paperwork.

Jo Woods and Shay Brazier have been saving money on power since they moved into their Zero Energy House. At the same time, their home has been drier, healthier and warmer in winter than most New Zealand houses.

Now Shay is continuing to help others achieve similar savings and benefits by looking into the feasibility of solar and energy efficiency technologies for building products via his new company Revolve Energy.

John Dupra is changing the way people select and buy hardwood flooring. His story about the creation of Revel Woods offers some valuable ideas about how others might bring the building industry into the age of e-commerce.

Rather than a product-based sourcing method, Revel Woods now applies a project-based method to come up with viable solutions for their customers to choose from. Revel Woods asks customers about their project first. The customer is then only given options that will match their location, intended use, and style preference.

John's story is a great example of putting the customer and the project first. Revel Woods have developed a user-friendly website and an algorithm-driven selection process to make a technical decision, accessible to anyone. How could the lessons of Revel Woods and Trunk Club before them, be applied further across the building industry?

What does the future look like for your product or service, and why don't you be the one to create that future?

John and Nikki decided to put all their energy and attention in the home they've created. John gave up the idea of an office in Auckland and saved substantial city rent in the process. Now, rather than having an empty and sterile show home in a remote location, they have their own comfortable home, that's already drawn some attention. And their home is the base of their new venture - a prefabricated sustainable and architecturally designed house called modhouse.

In 2001, Lindsay Schack and Lindsey Love both started a Masters of Architecture at Montana State University. A decade on, the two friends created Love Schack Architecture together, from their respective home towns in Montana and Idaho. Love Schack Architecture combines Lindsey Love's experience and passion for natural materials, with Lindsay Schack's Certification as a Passive House Institute-US, Consultant.

After working as a Building Surveyor for over thirteen years, Nick Gaites is now turning his attention to the positive work of designing really awesome buildings that shouldn't need to the services a surveyor down the track. Nick has become a Certified Passive House Designer.

In 2003, thermal performance requirements for residential buildings were added to the Building Code of Australia for the first time. The initial performance requirement was 4 Stars in the National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) as simulated using the benchmark software AccuRate. In 2006, the requirement rose to 5 Stars, then to 10 Stars in 2010. This all sounds great. The increasing rating requirements of NatHERS provides a measurable and predictable target for improving the energy efficiency of Australian homes. But the building products industry wanted to know, how accurate is AccuRate?

There's a new building enclosure consultancy in town. They're called Oculus and they've got a a great philosophy as well as a lot of international experience. I caught up with James Raimondo, a Senior Building Enclosure Engineer at Oculus to learn a bit more about the engineering and science of what they do.

Within the Passive House Institute in Darmstadt, there is a small group of people dedicated to coordinating the efforts of over 20 Passive House Affiliate organisations around the world. This group is the the International Passive House Association (iPHA). Giorgia Tzar is the head of International Communications for iPHA and I caught up with her following the Passive House Conference in Heidelberg this year.