House Planning Help Podcast

Self-builder and renovator Jason Orme reflects on the challenges of house builds in the UK. Topics include finding land, changes in planning permission, the fascination of self-building, choosing the right team for a passive house project, and the importance of developing tastes in contemporary homes.

Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs shares tips on ecological build and architecture's role in addressing the climate emergency. They discuss selecting projects, using low chemical products in green builds, and tackling the housing crisis through empowerment and planning. Future plans for the podcast include a focus on community and ecological building.

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. Check out the show notes for more information.

Jonathan Kearns of Kearns Mancini Architects, describes how he tackled a high performance retrofit of a century-old building. Check out the show notes for more information.

Mark Siddall from LEAP explains his framework the 'Forever Home Lifestyle' and how he uses it with his clients. Check out the show notes for more information.

Harry Paticas of Arboreal Architecture explains why care and hard work have been so important to the retrofit of his 1978 mid-terrace townhouse. Check out the show notes for more information.

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. Check out the show notes for more information.

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. Check out the show notes for more information.

Managing Director of Potton Homes, Mark Stevenson, looks at how self build, custom build and speculative development differ. Check out the show notes for more information:

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. Check out the show notes for more information.