Natural Materials Episodes

Sigi Koko is the principal designer of Down to Earth Design, which she founded in 1998 to help her clients manifest their dreams of living in a natural, healthy home. She works exclusively on projects that are natural, ener...

Well, there's a title I didn't expect to write when I started this podcast! Today I'm talking to Danny and Zach from Terran Robotics about their work training AI drones to build cob homes. Now this might sound a little crazy ...

With energy prices soaring, everybody has good reason to be thinking about adding more insulation to their home. In this episode we are discussing the best types of insulation for your home and the pros and cons of some diffe...

Part 2! (Check out episode 67 for Part 1) With energy prices soaring, everybody has good reason to be thinking about adding more insulation to their home. In this episode we are discussing the best types of insulation for you...

We discuss the report created by Material Cultures and ARUP which examines the potential positive impacts of a bioregional construction economy, from improvements in biodiversity to an increase in construction jobs and securi...

John Butler is back for another episode, this time focussing on 'natural' materials and their whole life carbon. Topics include: What natural means, is it a useful descriptor? The results from a new UK Straw Bale Environmenta...

In this episode John explains the principles and requirements of Passivhaus construction. He dispels some common myths and goes into some of the nuances of how its achieved. Does living in a passivhaus mean living in a bubble...

The construction industry needs a shake up. Not just in the materials that are used but in the cultures within the industry. We talk about George and Summer's take on how we should be constructing and discuss their design for...

Welcome back to Building Sustainability, this episode I'm joined by Architect , Academic , Author & Environmental Activist - Duncan Baker Brown. We are talking circular economy in the built environment, issues of sustainable ...

Part two of the conversation with earth builder Alex Gibbons. Applications for the SPAB fellowship close on the 14th of September - https://www.spab.org.uk/learning/fellowship Sarah Pugh Just giving link - https://www.justgiv...

Part one of the conversation with earth builder Alex Gibbons in which we discuss his route into mud building, old buildings, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Clay Dabbins, and his clay barn Priors Lynn. Ap...

Daniel Postma is natural builder who has come to it from an interesting background - Archeology. Daniel is a specialist in traditional turf construction and learnt by doing as an experimental archaeologist. Archaeo Build spe...

This is the first of two episodes with Craig White of White Design, Modcell & Agile Homes. This episode focuses on Craig's design principles with some side nerding about windows and a small amount of architect poking! Episode...

Phil Christopher is treasurer for SBUK as well as running Huff and Puff construction, specialising in straw bale construction. We have a little catch up and Phil tells me about the projects he's been working on over the last ...

Something a bit special for episode 50 of the Building Sustainability Podcast. This is a reciprocal episode with Amy Umbel and Brien Beidler from Cut The Craft Podcast - They came on Building Sustainability to talk about craf...

This week I am incredibly excited to be joined by Bill Browning and Catie Ryan from Terrapin Bright Green to discuss biophilic design. Biophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant conne...

This week I'm joined by Flora Arbuthnott from www.plantsandcolour.co.uk . Having met Flora a few years ago, I was keen for her to be a guest on the podcast. We discuss the many similarities between her practices of creating c...

Martin Brown joins me to discuss how we can make regenerative buildings. We discuss Martin's 'Zoom Regenerative' which was alongside Building Sustainability in the ASBP 2021 Awards final. We also discuss The Living Building C...

This is part 2 of Rowland Keable of Earth Building UK & Ireland (EBUKI) & Rammed Earth Consulting giving us a byte size delve into the magic that is clay. Clay truly is a magic material and it continues to surprise me all the...

Chris Magwood not only has a huge wealth of experience building straw bale homes, but has the building science Masters degree to back up his experience. We discuss how the built environment can go from being the worst offend...

Rowland Keable of Earth Building UK & Ireland (EBUKI) & Rammed Earth Consulting gives us a byte size delve into the magic that is clay. Clay truly is a magic material and it continues to surprise me all the time. This substan...

This week I am joined by Ben Kerslake from Carrington Lime . As well as a general geek out about lime, we mostly talk about how to solve damp problems in homes with some simple observation and materials choices. We discuss wh...

Patreon support - https://www.patreon.com/buildingsustainability This episode I'm talking with Caz Ingall, who is a willow coffin weaver. We talk, not just of the process of weaving a vessel to bury a loved one, but a lot to ...

Today I'm talking with Alice and Gavin Munro from Full Grown about their exceptional work growing complete chairs from trees. So the normal procedure is to wait 50 years for a tree to grow, chop it down and begin cutting it i...