[Greenbuilding] Solutions (to the ecological problem)

[Gennaro Brooks-Church]

I don't invite my friends over to paint my house. I only offer that as an
example of an alternative to our current system. I do think we need to tie
green building and culture more closely. Currently the definition of green
builder is very broadly somebody who builds houses out of ecological and
efficient materials. The social implications of that building, sourcing, and
maintenance are secondary if considered at all.

That definition is valid and important but as somebody who wants to make
a substantial impact on improving the environment and our life I don't think
that definition will provide the greatest impact.

I venture to say that the definition of a green builder should be more life
centered and less object centered. A good example of this is the way Native
Americans built, which was more about their religion than about the
materials they used - their home aligning with the four corners of the earth
etc.

A life centered green builder is primarily concerned with the social and
ethical implications of their building. Efficiency and product choices
certainly play a huge part but that follows their primary concern of
building community and emotional connection with nature through the
structure, how it is built, sourced and maintained.

Looking at building from this humanistic perspective first and foremost in
my opinion has more impact on achieving our goals of a healthier planet.
Certainly there is a time in the process to get lost in the numbers and BTUs
but that is a small part of the larger vision.

Exploring our connection to past building techniques, cultures, and
materials keeps us connected to the ongoing process of living. Our couple
hundred years of scientific building is a drop in the bucket considering we
have been building for thousands of years. To loose that perspective of us
being in a time continuum guarantees our isolation from the world, a wold
that is deeply connected to cycles.

Gennaro Brooks-Church

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



On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 4:23 PM, JOHN SALMEN <terrain at shaw.ca> wrote:

>  There was a pretty serious social framework (pun intended) for that
> activity and a lot of rules and complexity (think potlatch for complexity of
> a social economic structure that is beyond figuring out). There have also
> been similar (non-building) related cooperative efforts in communities –
> mostly immigrant communities to NA.  Compensation takes many forms and much
> of what we still do in a community is not directly related to payment.
> Nobody pays me to drive safely or give up my seat on a bus.
>
>
>
> As 2nd generation in my early fifties I’ve had the pleasure of being able
> to talk to the generation that settled farms in Canada – though we are now 4
> generations from that time. I’ve also been able to talk to people that
> participated in the first garment industry strike in NYC and the subsequent
> development of labour laws and unions.
>
>
>
> In the Canadian prairies for example the communities that formed around
> farming were pretty impoverished by today’s standards and a ‘single family
> unit’ had little chance to survive. The only time for building was in the
> winter after the fields were put to rest and it was a limited timeframe and
> more than one person or family could accomplish (though many did try). The
> communities were primarily European with village origins and well used to
> working within a community framework. Farms needed markets for livestock and
> grain which required everyone to have the capability to produce to create
> enough resource to elicit a market for transportation and supply. Given the
> limited timeframe for building it required planning and community effort
> that everyone profited from. This extended to the construction of community
> stock pens, graineries, etc. as well as co-operative financing. For Canada
> this was the birth of the co-operative movement which continues in the form
> of financial banking, gasoline and even grocery stores. As communities
> became marginally wealthier barn raising evolved into co-operative financing
> (as farm communities still did not have the wealth to attract other forms of
> financing) and people hired each other and paid fairly.
>
>
>
> I have volunteered time for many things and have donated a lot of design
> and physical work time to social housing projects. There are always needs in
> a community for which there is inadequate funding. An example from me is
> creating a house (group home) working with a parent group of children with
> special needs.  That was a form of barn raising.
>
>
>
> I think what worries me is the types of sentiment that can be used to
> exploit. Even the concept of ‘home’ or ‘green home’ can sentimentally
> inspire people to create a building that has no relationship to their needs
> just to fill some empty hole. As I mentioned before we occupy a house on
> average for 11 hours (8.5 of which are spent sleeping). Our homes are
> equally (and predominantly for our conscious time) the workplaces and
> schools we occupy, the transportation we use.
>
>
>
> Individual homes are not an ‘old’ or ‘timeless’ concept – even in western
> culture it is relatively new. It wasn’t that long ago that people of
> European origin we were all sleeping in some big room together (and most
> other cultures). Isolating a few people in a green building and then
> inviting each other over to paint the place is not community building in my
> mind though it can be a nice shared activity – I would prefer making dinner.
> Spending time together working on social co-operative or cohousing solutions
> gets a little better.
>
>
>
> My thoughts – but like I said too many issues
>
>
>
> *JOHN SALMEN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN*
>
> *4465 UPHILL RD**,. DUNCAN, B.C.  CANADA, V9L 6M7*
>
> *PH 250 748 7672 <tel:+12507487672> FAX 250 748 7612 <tel:+12507487612>CELL 250
> 246 8541 <tel:+12502468541>*
>
> *terrain at shaw.ca***
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org [mailto:
> greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] *On Behalf Of *natural
> building
> *Sent:* January 23, 2011 11:55 AM
>
> *To:* Green Building
> *Subject:* Re: [Greenbuilding] Solutions (to the ecological problem)
>
>
>
> On 23-Jan-11, at 11:40 AM, JOHN SALMEN wrote:
>
>
>
>  Similarly if I hire or train people for a building project that labour is
> part of the cost of that project and if the project cannot afford it then
> that project has no value in the community.
>
>
>
> John, what are your thoughts on the very old and very community-oriented
> practice of barn-raising, where every able-bodied member of the community
> helped out without expectation of any compensation other that refreshments
> and, perhaps, reciprocal help when it came time to build their own barn?
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve Satow
>
>
>
> www.naturalbuildingsite.net
>
> naturalbuilding at shaw.ca
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Greenbuilding mailing list
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20110123/eff04abd/attachment.html>