House Planning Help Podcast

Elly Deacon Smith and Kirk Rushby from Arbor Architects explain why they consider the embodied carbon of their projects, how they do it and how it is balanced with competing factors.

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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.

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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.

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Ben Adam-Smith shares a few thoughts about what to look for in a plot of land for a low energy house build.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Architect Kirsty Maguire shares her experience of designing and building her own Passivhaus on a challenging sloping site in Newport-on-Tay, Scotland.

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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.

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