How the Amazon Spheres Brought a Rainforest Into the Office
# How the Amazon Spheres Brought a Rainforest Into the Office I’ve been walking past construction sites my entire career, watching another glass box go up, another sterile corporate campus…
How to Get Planning Permission for a Natural Build in England and Wales
# How to Get Planning Permission for a Natural Build in England and Wales I’ve spent the last twelve years designing sustainable interiors, and increasingly my clients ask about going…
Common Mistakes People Make When Building Their First Passive House
# Common Mistakes People Make When Building Their First Passive House Building your first Passive House feels like learning a new language whilst assembling IKEA furniture in the dark. You…
Planning Permission for Green Roofs and When You Need It
# Planning Permission for Green Roofs and When You Need It Installing a green roof feels like it should be straightforward. You’re improving your building’s environmental performance, managing stormwater, and…
Vancouver Convention Centre and Why Its Green Roof Became a Wildlife Habitat
I’ve walked on hundreds of rooftops during site visits, but stepping onto the Vancouver Convention Centre’s living roof was the moment I truly understood what green infrastructure could become. You’re…
How to Install a Green Roof on a Garden Shed or Outbuilding
# How to Install a Green Roof on a Garden Shed or Outbuilding I had a client last year with a Victorian terrace in Hackney who’d been staring at her…
Mortgage Options for Eco Built Homes and What Lenders Will Accept
# Mortgage Options for Eco Built Homes and What Lenders Will Accept If you’ve spent months planning your eco build only to discover that half the mortgage lenders won’t touch…
Building With Hempcrete and Why It Could Replace Concrete
**Building With Hempcrete and Why It Could Replace Concrete** I’ve watched construction projects spend six months planning a sustainability strategy, only to pour 200 cubic metres of Portland cement the…
How a Brussels Post Office Became a Passive House Benchmark
I first encountered the Aeropolis II building during a 2012 research trip through Brussels, hunting down early examples of large-scale passive house implementation. What struck me wasn’t just the size…
Straw Bale Construction and How It Went From Novelty to Certified Building Method
I still remember the first time I saw a straw bale house being built. This was fifteen years ago, and I was working on a conventional extension project nearby. The…