[Greenbuilding] That Natural Feeling

Mon Jan 10 21:16:18 CST 2011

When I started with this as a work endeavour the term was 'appropriate
technology'. It bridged a lot of disciplines but was mostly fostered by
planning departments academically in the 70's as a geosocial and somewhat
anthropological planning tool for '3rd world' development. We did have an
expression though that the '3rd world starts at home'. The environmental
movement at that time was literally concerned with the environment and a
growing awareness of environmental degradation - nuclear issues, etc. The
initial split was practical and political practice and had some
philosophical basis at the time (Frankfurt school, adorno, etc.)

Prior to that the environmental movement was either very much a literary
movement (aka Thoreau) or unfortunately a somewhat fascistic movement based
on nationalist/racial sentiment of organic 'traditional' inspiration
(jugenstil, etc.) I worry about the degree of attachment or fanaticism that
any concept or work practice deserves or warrants. 

I mistrust tradition as much as I mistrust any sentiment that is not
informed or can demonstrate some knowledge base. A 2000 year old herbal
recipe is not a sentiment it is a recipe which means it contains information
that has been conveyed for a period of time. I may not understand the recipe
or lack the knowledge to make it - or it may have lost some crucial piece of
information over time and/or we may have lost some knowledge as to how to
make the recipe work - I think that is the crucial distinction (the
knowledge of how to make information real). Creating or recreating that
knowledge (putting information to use)is I feel the only real responsibility
- but with that is the implied responsibility of not putting the community
at risk.

I still like the term 'appropriate technology' as it is either appropriate
or not and forms part of our knowledge base. I use clay plasters and other
materials that some might consider 'natural' as I think they are appropriate
and need to be used - and I can do that within my community and code and
forward that knowledge and experience a little bit. It doesn't make me a
backward looking naturalist - but I do value the tradition of my community
when it seems worth valuing.

John

JOHN SALMEN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
4465 UPHILL RD,. DUNCAN, B.C.  CANADA, V9L 6M7
PH 250 748 7672 FAX 250 748 7612 CELL 250 246 8541
terrain at shaw.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Gennaro
Brooks-Church
Sent: January 10, 2011 3:30 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] That Natural Feeling

This list, like most of the world, is roughly separated along two
lines, those forward looking techies who value science and those
backward looking naturalists who value tradition.
In one camp you have the number crunching BTU types and in the other
camp you have the adobe plaster types.
I lean on the naturalist side. I figure if it worked for 2000 years
for a civilization then it is worth looking into. I am suspect of the
techies who use wunder science to try to support an unsupportable
lifestyle. For example, if every person on the planet built along PH
standards we would die off immediately. PH standards are for rich
Western construction and relies heavily on cheap materials from poor
underdeveloped countries, who by the way consume a LOT less energy per
household per year than PH requirements.

However, if every rich Western country built along PH standards we
would be WAY ahead of the game and it would be a HUGE improvement over
our current wasteful building. But it doesn't solve the issue for the
rest of the "developing world" (in parenthesis since that term implies
they are less evolved than us superior and more developed countries -
irony).

So for me the solution is to use PH for the time being as an
improvement to current western building. Just like LEED is an
improvement in some areas. But neither are valid long term solutions.

In answer to Corwyn, my personal metric is the self invented Zero
Brownstone Technique, which could be tweaked to any area but in my
case is very specific to North Western townhouse construction. There
is more on my site but is basically is zero waster during
deconstruction, zero new materials during construction, and zero
energy use in the final home. It is our goal. Right now the "right
amount" of insulation based on this metric for a brownstone is about 6
inches of polyiso, which by the way is a little more than what our PH
building calls for that we are doing. That was a nice confirmation
that my "hunch" was on the right track of the one of the best metrics
out there right now.

Gennaro Brooks-Church

Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Frank Cetera
<alchemicalfranklen at gmail.com> wrote:
> AC - loving your sentiments, no doubt cause they somewhat echo mine.  But
> getting folks in the green building arena in my town to think natural is a
> big goal.  Making the connection to the Earth through natural materials,
and
> not highly processed and manufactured from states away; having "openings"
in
> the shell that make that connection to the natural environment; not
worrying
> down to the smallest BTU if the energy saved in high-tech manufacture
bests
> the energy lost in natural low/appropriate techniques when making
decisions;
> using natural materials and eleme4nts instead of mimicking them with
> produced structures - a sliding metal wall with openings in it meant to
> create a flickering light inside the home that is reminiscent of leaves on
a
> tree when you could just plant or save the tree.
>
> Ahhh, to not be "locked" away in my home, as I often feel locked away from
> the outside in my office or other public buildings that fight their
hardest
> to keep all the elements out!
>
> ~Frank Cetera
> www.alchemicalnursery.org
>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:47:47 -0500
>> From: action jackson <benigncraft at gmail.com>
>> To: greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org
>> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Greenbuilding Digest, Vol 5, Issue 9
>> Message-ID:
>>        <AANLkTiksPEgr+-tT5+=k3MqXMfbMzu8G3Zkg1rK9HbMP at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>> hey folks -
>>
>> fer my two cents on passivehaus:
>>
>> AWESOME! now people can build homes to an inappropriate scale and have
>> little human physical connection to the outside environment. THAT will
put
>> us more in touch with needs of the planet- surely!
>>
>> look- I think we all need to be honest about the conversation we are
>> having
>> here- if it is about SURVIVING on the planet - humans have done quite
well
>> (in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet i might add) and
>> not
>> only survived but CULTURALLY THRIVED there- using small scale -low tech
>> shelters of local natural materials to take temporary refuge from the
>> outdoors- where they LIVED.
>>
>> if the conversation is about maintaining our lifestyles- then start the
>> number crunching- decouple yourself from the planet that sustains you
>> (because that knowledge will serve us well when we colonize mars) - and
>> rock
>> and roll !
>>
>> I prefer  the planet we have -
>>
>>  but I respect the solutions in either conversation- I just think we need
>> to
>> delineate clearly.
>>
>> to borrow an adage from the foodies (who i think parallel us in many
>> ways)-
>> stands to reason- food /clothing /shelter
>>
>> *Eat food*. *Mostly plants*. Not too much.
>>
>> Build shelter.Mostly natural.Not too big.
>>
>
>
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