Cesar Abeid has recently written a book called ‘Project Management for You’. He explains how his simple steps approach to project management can help bring an idea into reality, whether in your personal or professional life, and how this methodology can be applied to organising a self-build project without being overwhelmed!

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Ben Adam-Smith has been frustrated by his lack of progress in finding a suitable building plot and has been wondering whether there is anything he can be doing in the meantime to help his project. Kirsty Maguire of Kirsty Maguire Architect Ltd explains the steps that he could be taking now to put him in a stronger position for when he has a site and the project goes live.

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Jon Broome from Jon Broome Architects explains how to create sustainable neighbourhoods and why they make better places to live. He also shares progress on a group self build scheme in Lewisham, London, which is embracing these principles.

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Professor Phil Jones from the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University explains how SOLCER House exports more energy to the grid than it uses and addresses fundamental issues relating to affordability, buildability and performance. With governments around the world committing to deliver zero carbon housing by 2019, this project has been designed from the outset as a practical solution.

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Prewett Bizley Architects specialises in low energy architecture and Bob has a particular interest in retrofit. He explains that housing is responsible for around 27% of the UK's carbon emissions, so buildings of all ages and styles have a part to play in terms of energy efficiency.

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Arun, Nicki, Donal, and Glen share their stories of how they successfully bought their plots of land. With four case studies to evaluate from three different countries, there’s lots to be learned from our guests today.

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Geoff and Kate Tunstall explain how they were able to create a fantastic Passivhaus in Denby Dale with a modest budget of around £150,000. They also share how they got caught by a 6-inch ransom strip and what options were open to them.

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The residents of Fintry, Scotland, were approached back in 2003 by a developer that was looking to set up a wind farm in the area and was seeking local support. After years of negotiations the community agreed to the wind farm on the proviso that they install an extra turbine on the site, for the Fintry community. The wind farm developer paid for the additional turbine, which the community are gradually buying back over 15 years, together with paying maintenance, interest and land rental costs.

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Michaela Benson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has spent the last three years working on a research project called 'Self-Building - The Production and Consumption of New Homes From the Perspective of Households'. She wanted to understand the diversity of the houses people build, their motivations for doing it and their experiences of the process. Her interviews with twenty individual self-builders and five group projects during that time have led her to notice characteristics that these people share. 

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We catch up with Alex Baines, a Passivhaus consultant who you may remember from episode 74. We spoke to him then about how gaining support for his semi earth-sheltered rural self-build from his local community helped him achieve the necessary planning permissions. Almost a year on we spoke with him again to see what progress he has made on the build so far.

Check out the show notes to see some pictures of the progress.