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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Phil Neve explains what Passivhaus Premium is and why he chose to target the standard for his own self build in Somerset. He also talks through his biggest project challenge, which was obtaining planning permission to build in open countryside.

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Werner Brouwer explains why being able to build a house without restrictions in Oosterwold is also about working together to build a community.

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Self-building an annexe in an area of coastal erosion meant a low-cost but high-performance build was a priority for architect Colin Rice.

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Author Roger Hunt explains why period properties need treating differently when it comes to achieving successful retrofit projects.

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Architect Russel Hayden explains how he sought to renovate a derelict 1960s house to EnerPHit standards.

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Russell Smith of Parity Projects explains why a whole house plan is the best way forward for tackling a renovation.

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Martin Brown from Fairsnape explains how the Living Building Challenge is a holistic standard that benefits health and the environment.

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Dr Judith Thornton of Aberystwyth University explores how plant-based materials are being used in the building industry, and why they are so important for our future.

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Calum Taylor and Opinder Liddar talk through the design and construction of the 'Self Build Education House' at Graven Hill.

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Tim Martel explains how to model the embodied carbon of your build using PHribbon, a tool that plugs in to PHPP (Passive House Planning Package).

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Nick Grant shares his thoughts on the lessons learned from 30 years of the AECB (Association of Environment Conscious Building).

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Heather Johnson from AD Practice explains what Passivhaus Plus is, how it differs from Passivhaus Classic accreditation and what benefits achieving the standard will afford. She also reveals why most of her clients target 'Plus' and outlines the steps to achieve this on a project.

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Tully Gallagher of Beartooth Passive House, explains what it was like to take a leap of faith in swapping a desk job with building a 'forever home' for his family.

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Chief Executive of the Passivhaus Trust, Jon Bootland, explains the processes and benefits of building your house to the Passivhaus Standard.

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Lee Fordham from Architype simplifies some of the terminology you might come across if you're thinking about doing a sustainable self build.

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Having worked on his own hands-on group self build project, and site managed others, Geoff Stow shares his experience on where to start when it comes to self build.

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Professor Fionn Stevenson explains why building performance monitoring and post-occupancy evaluation should be mandatory on new homes.

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Tracey and Roman Iwanczuk explain how they managed to build a Passivhaus on a sloping site in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

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With 14 projects under his belt, author and serial self builder David Snell explains how you can stop costs from running away from you.

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Award-winning Cork House was the world's first to use a solid cork construction system. Matthew Barnett Howland explains the concept and how he managed to build it himself.

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Architect Paloma Gormley of Practice Architecture explains how versatile hemp can be as a building material, and how plastic use can be reduced on site.

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Skipper and oceans advocate Emily Penn explains the damage that plastic pollution is having on our oceans, and how we can find solutions.

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Stephanie Kyle from Floyd Slaski Architects explains how we can design for disability, gender, religion, and anything that's considered a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. She also highlights the biggest challenge of inclusive design which is people's differing needs, and suggests how we best go about designing spaces.

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Ben Adam-Smith shares some of the questions that got asked about the Passivhaus standard during a question and answer session at the National Self Build & Renovation Centre.

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Olga Turner Baker describes the WELL Building Standard and explains how the principles can be applied to improve health and well-being on individual projects.

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Chris Parsons returns to Ben Adam-Smith's self build home after a year to look for defects. He explains what snagging is, how the list is compiled and how the rectification process works.

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Self-builder and renovator Jason Orme reflects on the main challenges you face if you want to tackle a house build in the UK.

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Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs shares practical advice on how to approach an ecological build, and comments on how architecture needs to change to address the climate emergency.

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Client Ajay Boardman and her builder/carpenter Nigel Bowley share their experience of working together on her self build project. In addition to project managing Ajay is labouring for Nigel. We look at why this relationship has worked well and consider how much money she is saving.

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Jonathan Kearns of Kearns Mancini Architects, describes how he tackled a high performance retrofit of a century-old building.

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Mark Siddall from LEAP explains his framework the 'Forever Home Lifestyle' and how he uses it with his clients.

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Harry Paticas of Arboreal Architecture explains why care and hard work have been so important to the retrofit of his 1978 mid-terrace townhouse.

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Dr Mike Page explains how The Cube micro home project developed and why land availability turned out to be a major issue for those that liked the idea of tiny house living.

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Guy Harris from AccessiblePRS explains why accessible housing is important, what the key considerations are and how to deliver it well. He also shares his experience of designing his own house as a wheelchair user.

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Duncan Baker-Brown from BBM Sustainable Design explains how we can reduce waste on our projects, given a little more time and with a different approach on site.

With the construction industry being such a big contributor of annual waste, he also shares strategies for how we could transform things if we treat buildings as material banks, which are built with deconstruction in mind.

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Managing Director of Potton Homes, Mark Stevenson, looks at how self build, custom build and speculative development differ.

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Mike Coe has a progress report from Portree Passivhaus, which is now almost watertight. We pick up the story as the groundworks begin and look at some of the challenges as the superstructure has gone up.

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Neil Sutherland explains how using a design, manufacture and delivery company can give you a better quality of construction.

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Ben Adam-Smith runs through the biggest problems you could face on your self build journey. He also looks at what can be done in those situations.

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Tom Heywood from Green Building Store explains why we need mechanical ventilation with heat recovery in high performance homes and why it needs to be well designed.

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Chris Herring, Director at Green Building Store, explains why careful consideration should be given when specifying windows.

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Jeremy Lent, author and integrator, looks at how and why we should transform the fundamental basis of our civilisation.

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Property developer and podcaster, Rob Bence, advises on what's needed for undertaking a successful building development project.

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Chris Magwood, a director at the Endeavour Centre in Canada, explains the importance of embodied carbon and how building with plant-based materials could transform our new homes into carbon sinks.

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Toby Cambray talks about the experience of working on his own retrofit project, and the lessons learnt in the process.

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Charlie Luxton shares lessons he's learnt from visiting projects on Building The Dream, running an architectural practice and completing his own self build.

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Ben Adam-Smith picks out ten of his favourite new build homes. These are all homes he has visited and which have impressed him in different ways.

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Danny Luhde-Thompson explains why he chose to demolish the bungalow he was renovating, to build a contemporary Passivhaus.

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