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. 

Check out the show notes for more information.

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.

It has been almost a year since Luke Mahon took ownership of a new-build developer house, which he soon discovered lacked insulation! He talks us through his experience and the ongoing battle to get the house completed.

See the full show notes: http://www.houseplanninghelp.com/99.

Architect, builder and Passivhaus Consultant, Christina Snyder shares the story of the experimental zero-energy Passivhaus self-build that she and her husband have undertaken in Michigan, and explains why they are in no rush to complete it.

Peter Warm from WARM: Low Energy Building Practice explains why building to Passivhaus standard is desirable, how certification comes into the equation, and what steps will increase your chances of reaching certification.