‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

‘Good solar access depends on the site’
. Poorly laid out subdivisions or 
difficult sites are often used as an excuse for not applying passive solar design principles.
A conservatory can face any direction. It often reduces heat loss through walls by 
20 per cent and increases the usable floor space for little cost. Such improvements 
increase both the capital and use value of a dwelling.
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‘Concrete slabs are necessary in cold climates’
. ‘Cut and fill’ of the earth to 
accommodate concrete slabs is not always ecologically appropriate.
1
Concrete slabs, 
without edge insulation, are not good insulators. Further, slabs have about four times 
the embodied energy of timber floors. Thus building off the ground with insulation (or 
underground) and using 
vertical
thermal mass should be considered.
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‘It is essential to space houses far apart for solar access’
. Similarly, the 
idea that houses need to be spaced far apart for solar access has been based on the 
ostensible need for the sun to hit the wall. Passive solar collection can be separate 
from the building. As the Solar Core concept demonstrates, the roof itself can be used 
as a collector or distribution system [Box 9].
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‘The choice of building materials is not important if insulated’
.
Conventional building materials have huge impacts during resource extraction and 
disposal, high embodied energy and greenhouse impacts, and adverse health impacts.
Alternative bio-based materials, such as engineered timbers or wheatboard, are good 
insulators and do not (necessarily) off-gas toxins. Also, the use of local materials greatly 
reduces transport (greenhouse) impacts.
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‘The impacts of apartments are lower than those of detached 
dwellings’
. The total material flows, embodied waste and operating energy, and so on 
can be higher per square metre in apartments than in detached dwellings – depending 
on design. While apartments have shared walls and plumbing, they can be more difficult 
to convert to resource autonomy.
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