I'm always interested in the perceptions of architects and builders who have been trained or have experienced living in Europe and then come to the Southern Hemisphere. Their reaction to typical houses in New Zealand and Australia usually involves a level of disbelief. A common sentiment is that they've never been colder, despite this being a milder climate.

216 Why don't we know about thermal bridges down here?

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While researching a presentation to open the NZGBC 2024 Housing Summit, I looked into the climate initiatives of Europe and the US.  In Europe, over €83b has been recently been committed by the European Parliament as part of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The ultimate goal is that the building sector will be climate neutral by 2050. Importantly, there are interim goals for 2030 and 2040, which encompass both new buildings and retrofitting existing buildings.   https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-efficient-buildings/energy-performance-buildings-directive_en Over in the US, there is the Inflation Reduction Act which will see a staggering $783b invested into energy security and climate change initiatives.   https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/inflation-reduction-act-guidebook/ Back here in Aotearoa, aside from recently updating H1 Energy Efficiency in our building code, MBIE has laid out a programme called Building for Climate Change.   https://www.building.govt.nz/getting-started/building-for-climate-change The implementation plan for BfCC has reporting requirements suggested for 2025. 

Build Aotearoa 11 Global Climate Progress

This week I attended a BRANZ seminar titled 'Building for our changing climate'. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland was the last stop on the BRANZ seminar tour of the country and it's encouraging to think that rooms of designers, builders, product suppliers, building officials and others, were interested enough in this topic to take four hours out of their week.  A key takeaway is that we're not prepared. We're already handicapped by having insufficient standards in our building code to deal with our current climate. With the forecast being 'warmer and wetter', the situation is set to get worse. https://homestylegreen.com/?p=5936

Build Aotearoa 10: Warmer and Wetter

Steve Penny is the founder and director at Honoris, a building services consultancy in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is also the host of his own podcast,  A Penny for Your Thoughts.

Build Aotearoa 9 with Steve Penny

 Many people might be surprised to know that the New Zealand Building Code does not require any consideration of overheating in homes. The energy efficiency requirements in our code are based only on the ability of buildings to keep warm without excessive heat loss. There is nothing to prevent homes from being designed with large areas of unshaded north or west-facing glass.   Siân Taylor is an Architect and Passive House Designer based in Queenstown. She has experience creating homes that are designed to perform well all year round, in some of the most challenging and spectacular locations.   Follow Siân on Instagram and check out Team Green Architect's latest work at https://www.teamgreenarchitects.co.nz/. 

Build Aotearoa 8: Cool by Design with Siân Taylor

Stärke has been in the window industry in New Zealand since the 80s. They were at the forefront of supplying aluminium frames to the building industry but have recently made some big changes. With a focus on building performance, Benjy Simmons describes the new direction of Stärke as a 'once-in-fifty-year' change. While the company has a long legacy, they've experienced rapid change over the last few years.  Benjy credits some of the openness to change to him being from outside the industry. He's come in with a different perspective. "We're beginning to see ourselves as a building performance company not just a window and door company", says Benjy.  Check out the full range of Stärke products along with their education pages and other resources.

216 Why don't we know about thermal bridges down here?

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