 Good evening and welcome to episode 365 of the private property podcast. I'm your host Usama Mandoa, comando. Joining us for the first time, welcome to the family you've certainly been missing out on incredible shows rather on the property across our social media pages. So do make sure that you go to our Facebook, YouTube or of course wherever you get your podcast, whether it's Spotify or even Apple podcasts to catch up on all the great episodes that you have already missed out on. And for all our regular viewers on our Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube, welcome to it. You know how we do it. Every single weekday, you and I have an appointment at 7 p.m. We're always in conversation with a property expert who helps us make better property decisions. And it doesn't matter where you are in your property journey, this is the show that helps you on your property needs. And talking about your property needs, you of course know at home that you can also tune into a whole host of other shows that private property has across its social media pages every weekday at 8 p.m. Mbalinoa got on the farming podcast and she's on your screens every Tuesdays and Thursdays at that time tackling agriculture and making sure that we get our fingers green. I think one of the big things I was saying this to my guest of day, we just had the first, you know, summer rains, proper summer rains. It's kind of been raining for the past two hours, my sort of time. And we're a bit scared that we won't be able to go on properly because we know that, you know, Joburg rainfall does pull a number on our connectivity. But I must say I'm very excited about the first summer rains. Just earlier today I was actually planting some spinach. So I know that my garden is absolutely, absolutely loving the summer rain. So I can't wait to see as the spinach grows and the whole other vegetables that I've already planted in the garden. And of course talking more of our shows that you can catch every weekday at 8 p.m. Every Mondays and Fridays, you can catch Chad on the Home Shoppers Show, where he takes you through incredible properties that you can find on www.privateproperty.co.za. So they make sure that you tune into that one. It gives us a good taste of what is possible, right? And sometimes it's just something to use in your mood board. I know I go to, you know, the website very frequently and take screenshots of homes, different properties and some of them added onto my own mood board for a property that I'm like, this is my dream home and this is exactly what I wanted to look like. And on Wednesdays you can catch Estie Klasser on the Home and the First Time Home Buyers Show, which is always in conversation with people who've not only walked that first time home buying training, but have gone on to grow their property portfolios from strength to strength. One of the great episodes that you can look forward to that Estie will be having is that conversation that you had with Proverb, where of course they asked you at home, what property questions do you have? And he answered some of your property questions. So that's certainly something that you can look forward to at home. And of course we are also expanding in terms of what you can look forward to later on this month. You can look forward to the Real Estate Industry Summit and this of course takes place every year. And because it is COVID, this event will be a virtual event and it is brought to you by private property as well as in partnership with Apsa and it's going to be taking place later on this month on the 29th of October. And it really is a great opportunity for you at home to be able to expand on your real estate knowledge. And we talk about this all the time that you really want to be able to find great nodes of knowledge that you're able to tap into and hear from some of the experts that are going to be speaking. So you can check out the website that is Real Estate Industry Summit.co.z to get a snapshot of what the program looks like to book your seats for this virtual event. And of course looking forward to seeing you there on the 29th it's going to be taking place from 9am until 1pm. That's certainly something that you can look forward to at home. And this is the last one. I know there's so much that we've got going on and that I think is actually testimony to how we've grown and continue to grow from strength to strength. And it really is because of you at home. And because of just that we want to make sure that every single time that you watch the show you're able to also stand a chance of walking away with cash. Because we know we all love no cash especially if you've got an interest in property. Every round counts and it doesn't matter how little it is. We always talk about you know putting even if you put an extra 100 rounds into your home loan facility it certainly goes a long way. Well with this competition we stand a chance of walking away with 500 rounds in cash every single evening. And all you have to do to stand a chance of walking away with the cash prize is to go to our Facebook page. Comment on the pinned post where we ask you some of the great tips that you've picked up while watching the show. And of course if your name gets called out during the show then you stand a chance of walking away with that cash prize. The only catch is you have to be watching us live so that you can clean your prize down here below while the show is on. And if you do the money is yours. If we don't have a winner we roll it over into the money bag and of course continue the following day. So it's that simple with always winning or always improving. And always wanting to make sure that more and more you know of us and I say us because we really have become a family learn as much as we can about property and make the most informed property decisions. So I do want to find out from you at home you know how you're keeping this evening. And of course you know who is in class watching as we kick start this evening's show. Absolutely love. And that's just because I've got a soft spot for architecture. We're going to be looking at sustainable architecture. It's the first time that you're even hearing this concept we'll be looking at what exactly is it. So I'm almost a you know sustainable architecture 101 and really getting a good sense of what it is, what is it not and how we can go about and what it looks like at different types of projects whether it's residential or of course you know commercial projects. And I'm joined this evening by the by the by the young Daniel van der Maruvel who is the founder at LEAF Architects. Daniel good evening and thank you so much for joining us this evening. Hello it's wonderful to be on your show again. Thank you for inviting me. It's only a pleasure Daniel. You and I are chuckling as I call you young. Daniel and I were talking over here you know he was even joking that he he's he got his hair all done just for me for this show this evening. Many of you at home know him. I was sorry I was even saying to him so he's gone and grown a beard and a mustache you know is it a is it a thing of the times? Is it COVID? I know many people I do more sorts of things but he is looking very young. You know he's looking fashionably handsome and in very young. And thank you very much for cleaning up for the show Daniel. And I think to pick starters with with our conversation and looking absolutely amazing is when we talk about the sustainable architecture what is that? What does that even mean sustainable architecture? I think sustainable architecture really the primary goal is not only do we try and save the planet one step at a time but in other words it's about using the resources on the planet more effectively and more sparingly but it also means money in your pocket so it's about it's really about efficiency so it's about smart building design and it is about using the available technology. You know the the days of just using energy and using electricity indiscriminately it's really over as you know it's common with all our blackouts and the price of electricity as you know has gone up over 385% over the past few years. So it's really a concern it's not only about saving the planet it's also about saving money. You know Daniel as as you were talking through that and one of the big things you were saying is minding your pocket. Part of me you know thought about how I know there's probably somebody at home thinking oftentimes when you talk about you know going green or anything that has to do with sustainability people often think about the cost of that and thinking that if anything that's just going to cost me more whereas obviously we're talking also about the the sort of long-term costs and not just the the costs sort of up front and when you're building when when when we think about you know people who are worried about the costs you know what would you say to them because I know that one of the things and we've spoken previously about even going green in our homes whether you want to for example use solar and just the different ways you can be more economical when it comes to sort of energy usage and I know that one of the big pressure points does tend to be the cost of I'll say making that change from what we are currently used to and unfortunately people don't also then factor in what should be currently spending and the potential then save in that regard so what would you say to people who are very cost-conscious especially those who are looking at you know your more residential projects that are not sort of high-end residential projects? Yes firstly I think what is required is a mind change and a behavioral change and if I can use the plastic bag kind of concept to where you know in supermarkets they start charging plastic bags and that didn't seem to help really but when the moment that people started supermarkets started issuing recyclable bags and bags you can use more than once I certainly made that change I certainly certainly don't use plastic bags anymore and I save money and I don't throw things away I recycle it I reuse it vegetable peels goes on to the compost heap so yeah it's a kind of firstly it's a mindset change and secondly then the moment that you can see if you implement small steps for example probably our most single expense is is energy so in a case where you've got an existing house you can do simple steps you can do things like just changing your light bulbs to LED light bulbs which consumes 20% of the electricity of a normal traditional light bulb you can do you can reduce your you really can reduce your water heating bulb very effectively I'll give you an example I switched over to gas gas geysers which means it's not an electric geyser that runs and keeps the water hot at a certain temperature over time it heats the water instantaneously the moment that you need the moment you turn up a tap that is when the gas kicks in and that's when you get hot water and I can tell you that in my personal experience I've saved 1,500 random months on my electricity bulb now that if you think that you can get a gas geyser for anything from six to 12,000 rand you can really pay that geyser off very quickly so that's the first thing that you can do second thing you can do the third thing you can do is really if you're going to buy new appliances if you're going to buy a new washing machine or a new fridge look for the echo label the new generation of appliances are far more energy efficient they use less water and by the way they're much quieter as well so so next time did you go and buy a washing machine or a dishwasher look at an energy efficient make and then I also want to say that this I'm talking about you know behavioral changes really the idea of popping in clothes into a tumble dryer if you can hang it outside in a good old fashion sun if you can do rinse a few cups do some hand washing do some wash your dishes by hand small things like that every scent counts and every time that you do that you are saving energy I just want to put it in perspective you know we all have a collective responsibility towards the planet otherwise it's going to be our children's problem one day and households contribute 25 percent of warm gas green gas emissions and in South Africa households and you can know you know that with escom sort of blackouts households consume anything between 30 35 to 38 percent of the total energy that escom generates that's an awful lot so if each one of us just do our little bit and consume less energy then we're making a big difference that and secondly we're a water scarce country so it's about really it's raining tonight get yourself a big jojo tank how is that rainwater you can use it for you can use it in your garden you can you can use it for any other thing instead of using rinse for water and a third tip that I want to add is that I've made a simple connector of my gray water my my bath and my shower water goes directly into my garden so you know again so why waste something where you can reuse it and my my motto is always reduce reuse and replenish so I think it won't adhere to those three three things and then the last thing that I want to say besides solar and besides gas if you get cold you put a jersey on and when you get hot you take the jersey off so if you can just do simple devices like for example use a proper if you can't afford double glazing use you can use an efficient coating on your windows a lot of heat enters and escapes through your windows look at shutters even look at thick curtains anything that will and reduce heat gain and heat loss um off the windows I must say that your roof your ceiling is where most of your heat escapes and where most of your heat is gained so a simple insulation in your roof will make a big difference it really adds again to your energy usage and it makes your home more comfortable if you've got an existing house obviously there's not much you can do but yes a simple tree that can give shade a deciduous tree where the last sun in and would provide shade in summer can make a big difference and lastly I just want to add in terms of that is that what we've got to do is is that we've got to look at simple things at small steps if you've got a leaking window if you've got cracks under your floorboards if you've got a gap in your door add a simple sealant in because you'll be amazed how much air and how much heat enters and escapes through that simple little devices like that can make a big difference not only to your energy consumption but also to your monthly bills I am this evening in conversation with Daniel van der Marwijn who's a founder at Leaf Architects we're looking at sustainable architecture and already seeing the love that we're getting on our social media pages especially on Facebook Ghana, Razilani, watching, sending there those green hearts LH France was sending those green hearts and I see Bianca Combs saying guys it's my birthday I do ask that you join me in wishing Bianca a very very happy birthday I do hope that you've had yourself an incredible incredible day so far and to make it extra special for you Bianca can you slide into our DMs I am going to send you a copy of the of the property guide I'm going to make sure that the team gets you that copy to celebrate your special day I think this is the first time that we're having somebody's birthday or one of the first times because we've had a few birthdays in the past few months but certainly Bianca do slide into our DMs and I'll make sure that the team gets you a copy of that book I want to go for a quick break to find out who the lucky winner of that 500 rand in cash that is up for grabs this evening as we run of course our competition on our Facebook page I hope that they're watching so that they're able to claim the price let's see who the lucky winner is and that lucky winner this evening of that 500 rand cash price is LeBochang Golodze LeBochang Golodze I hope you're watching drop us a text down here below in order to claim your prize and if LeBochang doesn't claim that prize it is of course going to roll over into the money bag tomorrow evening but we still have some time to find out if LeBochang is indeed watching us and of course can claim that price as we continue our conversation with Daniel from the Malacca on sustainable architecture now Daniel I think you you know you've done sort of a great job at pointing out some of the the behavioral changes that we can certainly you know make at home that obviously you know adds to the bigger conversation around around sustainable living and making sure that we're very conscious of you know our energy usage and trying to of course watch our pockets because I think one of the really really big things is costs of everything are going up we saw the you know the hike you know the rate hike a few months ago we know that petrol price is going up so we really do want to you know find different ways that we can save money regardless of where exactly we are saving and I've got a few comments here from our viewers at home who also share that particular sentiment on our Facebook you know page and we've got who tembalay to Makanda saying which I could save on levies and a special levy and that's a huge one and then with that one I mean on the levy front that's that's one way and I certainly um you know say tembalay to watch some of the episodes we've done on levies because they're different ways to also get a sense of why your levy amount might be what it is but where special levies are concerned we know that we sometimes turn to find that special levies get raised when adequate planning wasn't done and now they have to raise a special levy in order to pay for that particular thing and you know one of the big things that pretend to raise special levy for for instance is even around the paint job whereas we're able to save up for that particular job as opposed to sort of waiting the last hour for it and having to raise those special levies. Send them a client to the same electricity is so expensive I'm considering solar geyser system installation in my property Umata Shanang is saying doing laundry by hand is a bit extreme for me but I'm all for saving the earth I am big on that Kanam Rajilani is saying that's a good thing to use water from the bathroom to your garden it's actually saving water famine that's a big thing I think you know gray water and being able to really reuse your bath water for your garden is is a game changer especially when you know you've got a big garden and even we have you know even when you have a small garden now Daniel I think one of the things then when we talk about sustainable architecture and we look at for instance a residential project you know what does that then look like for somebody who is about two built so you know we're not now talking to people at home where we want to make these different changes but now when we're looking at we've got a relatively blank canvas and we want to obviously be as as as mindful of the environment as possible what does that then look like for for those of us who are going to go into a building project you know to me I have a whole idea of sustainable architecture green architecture is almost a cliche and it's something which everybody's bandied around good architecture good design is sustainable exactly exactly you know and there's a lot that we can learn from our forefathers there's a lot that we can learn from traditional technologies where they did simple things like just it's called smart design it's about orientation how do you orientate your house your main windows do they face north do you block of sun on the south on a west side do you use the south side window opening sparingly little things like that do you use natural ventilation effectively to cool the house down in in in summer do you look at sun angles where you know that the sun is low in winter so it can enter into the space to warm your internal spaces and by using your roof overhangs and patio spaces veranda spaces effectively you can block the same sun out in summer because the sun sits higher so it's really little things like that and in also I think what we need to do is to add is that you really need to look at the way that you use materials if efficiently and the days of taking building rubble to a dump is over you can reuse that same building rubble to make new concrete you can use sustainable materials like bamboo bamboo is an amazing sustainable material instead of having forests dropped down and brazil and amazon or some other beautiful tropical island use sustainable materials like bamboo recycle where possible you can recycle building materials even better if you're going to have an existing structure don't demolish it upcycle it re-adapt it redesign it in a way that it works for you it's far more cost effective sometimes to use an existing structure and adapt it to contemporary use or to your specific requirements then to go and buy a new property or do demolish it and start all over so that's the first thing that I wanted to say and then secondly also you need to look at the long term so if you can implement certain principles already for example if you in your house design if you allow for sleeves and so on for a phased implementation of solar panels we've done properties where people can afford say two panels they buy two panels they've got the inverter but at least they can run their wi-fi they can reach some some lights then a year or two years later they add another two panels and some of the clients now are completely off the grid they've got all the panels so now in terms of the design make provision in terms of roof space in terms of sleeves that you can eventually go completely off the grid rainwater i mentioned the rainwater harvesting is and using it more effectively really is another way of saving resources so i think it's about energy efficiency it's about the structure it's about design efficiency it's about the thermal insulation of your house when we design properties and colder climates eastern free state and near the suit and those areas where it often snows and gets very cold we actually allow for insulation not only in the roof but also in the walls and in the floor because that's where the cold comes in and that's where the heat or you know also can enter or escape so little things like that that can really assist you greatly towards achieving a more energy efficient and a more sustainable green environment and by all means invite plants into your home i'm a i'm a great gardener i've got plants all over me and all around me and it's it's amazing what plants can do in the home they purify the air they contribute oxygen so incorporate landscaping into your budget and into your design in terms of the way that it interacts with your your social spaces indoors and outdoors is amazing concepts like living rooms and living walls where you can incorporate the architecture in fact what we see is we see a great emergence of landscape architecture and architecture where people start incorporating landscaping and planting and vegetable gardens and rooftop gardens but into the environments into their homes and onto their stands and i think you know that's actually you know Daniel it's so great that the different variety of of things that we're able to do at home and it isn't dependent on you know the type of property you have so sort of more high-end properties but regardless of the the nature of the property that you have there really are different things that we're able to already stop doing and that could potentially be a cost saver because i think one of the things that many of us are feeling i think all of us i don't i don't know a single person who isn't feeling it is that the costs of you know the general cost of living of course of going higher with petrol prices going up we know food is also you know going to go up so when we recognize that our homes are a standard cost that isn't going to go anywhere our consumption is going to more often than not stay relatively the same so in winter we'll typically want to get some heat and in summer we obviously wanted to you know to be cooler and we'll probably want our gardens to look a certain way trying to then find ways of making sure we cut costs as much as possible and keep them low because i think it's one exercise to cut them but also then be be able to do that from a from a long-term perspective also becomes so keen i just want to add something else i remember our grandmothers all had fruit trees and vegetable gardens and you know you went into your grandmother's garden you picked fruit and you and they cooked spinach and they cooked beans from the garden i personally have started incorporating edible plants in my garden instead of planting beautiful roses you know what carrots and spinach are beautiful plant them you'll be amazed at how bountiful nature is i i cringe when i see people in winter they sweep over leaves and then they burn them don't burn your leaves make a compost heap put it back replenish the earth replenish your garden eat from your eat from your garden yeah and i think that's actually you want to be able to eat from your backyard regardless of how big or small i mean i i do as you were saying that i'm like absolutely agree we've got a few peach trees we had a grape tree that unfortunately was not in the greatest position so we couldn't have to move that grape tree and i think a peach tree is one of those things that we many of us you know had in homes growing up as a really trying to grow stuff you can eat in your garden and and not only sort of you know pretty things that kind of lie there is so important but then before i let you go any final tips for our viewers at home when it comes to just sustainable architecture but really how they can make their homes as eco-friendly and as sustainable as possible yes i want to say you might have heard of the concept the sick building syndrome and it's called VOC so it's volatile organic compounds now if you've got synthetic things in your house like those polystyrene or you know all these kind of different carpets that's not made or materials that's not made from natural products it's actually going to make you sick so not only is there a thing of that it's we're consuming petroleum based products to manufacturer of synthetic stuff but it's also going to make you unhealthy in the long run so get rid of slowly and slowly if you're going to buy something if you're buying a new carpet if you're buying a new device if you're putting new curtains in if you're putting a new floor in use natural products as fast as possible recyclable products as fast as possible use products that can be recycled like i mentioned bamboo before and that's easily replenishable and not only will it benefit your health it will also benefit the planet and that's certainly a great note to leave it on this evening Daniel thank you so much for joining us on the show pleasure and that's Daniel from the matter where was the founder at leaf architects wrapping up the tuesday edition of the private property podcast with myself was a man doing one come on oh unfortunately lebo hankel also did not claim the price down here below so he does miss out on that so we've got that 500 grand going into the money bag in tomorrow evening we'll be giving away 1000 grand remember if you know that you've entered the competition you've you know commented on the pinned post make sure that you watch the show because we could be calling your name out loud and of course you stand a chance of walking away with that money well that's it for myself as i'm not doing my commando and the rest of the team uh happy birthday again to be anca i hope you've slid into our dm so we can get you your birthday present i'm off i'm going to be back on your screens tomorrow evening at 7 p.m but do stay tuned for more about 8 p.m we'll be bringing you the farming podcast until then hope you're staying home and staying safe