Posts for building
Auckland Housing crisis – all the wrong assumptions and information
The median house price in Auckland is now at $750K, a number that our family would probably struggle to afford with us two parents working in well advanced positions. Clearly investors are currently setting the market price as they have access to the required funds,…
BBE Certificate in Ecological Building and Design
Registrations are open for the online course: BBE Certificate in Ecological Building and Design at http://bbe.org.nz/education This online study programme covers the fundamental concepts of Ecological Building and Design. It is suitable as a complement to existing careers in building and design, or for those…
Government partnership kickstarts Wynyard Quarter’s push to be exemplar of sustainable city building | EECA: Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
Some great news. And an amazingly well done website for the Wynyard Quarter in Auckland. Maybe we will be getting a good waterfront after all… A quest to make Wynyard Quarter an international exemplar for sustainable development has had a major boost today with the…
Council and privacy
Our assumption is that council is passing on all the building consent application and is making it public. You will find it on websites like Whatson. However, there is a privacy act in New Zealand. So I wonder how that ties in.
Banking on green – but how to develop
I am hearing a lot about great sustainable buildings, however in 99% of all cases the articles fail to deliver some hard fact, ie numbers. What is sustainable about them, what is their water use, energy use. What materials have they used? What great features were…
Do we rate environmentally?
A nice summary of our sustainability status can be found in the build magazine. I would generally agree with the article. While we have an abundance of materials, knowledge and tools, we still struggle to deliver.
Rural America’s Silent Housing Crisis – just like NZ
A very interesting article about the housing crisis in the US. Interestingly enough, New Zealand is not the only place with a discussion about affordable living and house prices. However this article touches on a slightly different matter, namely the housing crisis in rural areas.
Significant amendments to the Resource Management Act signalled by Government
According to my experience over the last ten years, it is not the act being the issue, it’s the people interpreting it. Any overhaul should address arbitrary interpretation. When we talk about resources, we should be discussing effects on land, air, water predominantly, not the…
Solar Thermal Is Really, Really Dead – or isn’t it?
A very interesting article on solar thermal and solar PV. it’s now cheaper to heat water with a photovoltaic array than solar thermal collectors. It would be quite interesting to make up some numbers and comparisons for New Zealand since the install cost for a…
What is Building Biology
Building biology researches the impact of the building environment on human health, and applies this knowledge to the construction, or modification, of homes and workplaces and the holistic interaction between human life with our environment.