[Greenbuilding] Romanticizing the past WAS 100 miles builds

[Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn]

One thing I think is important to note about building techniques
commonly used before a hundred years ago: there were a hell of a lot
less buildings and people, the buildings were a lot smaller and they
took way longer to build.
>From what I have read on this list I would venture to say I am one of
the biggest fans of old world materials and building techniques on
this list (vs. the focus on numbers and energy efficiency), and I am
very aware of the challenges of old world building techniques in a new
world environment.
It is easy to say that old world construction involved large amounts
of deconstruction, and that may be the case but it is almost
irrelevant. The numbers of buildings are so massively different, the
culture is completely changed, and the materials are unique.
A community rebuilding a farm house is one thing. A corporation
building an office building is a whole different animal. The business
model is the main difference, which drastically changes priorities and
outcomes (I venture to say for the worst but then again we are dealing
with 6 BILLION people!!!!!! We have become HUGE)
Gennaro Brooks-Church
Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231



On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 2:36 PM, RT <archilogic at yahoo.ca> wrote:
>> Something that is definitely not focused on enough is the art of
>> building for future unbuilding.
>
>
> The more common term for "unbuilding" is "deconstruction" and any LCA will
> include it as part of the analysis during the design stage.
>
> About 15 years (or more ?) ago, CMHC did a study to answer the questions
> that you are asking today and provided guidelines for design and
> construction techniques to facilitate ease of deconstruction and re-use of
> materials.
>
> But even before CMHC did its study, deconstruction and re-use of materials
> had been practised for centuries, if not millennia in the Old World. (ie
> back to the days of ancient Rome at the very least)
>
> It's only over here in the Effluent (sic) West where the notion of
> disposable buildings with a design service life of a single generation or
> less is commonplace.
>
>
> I think that the residential building sector might do well to have a look at
> the methods and materials used in the commercial building sector.
>
> All of the materials on an entire 20,000 sf floor of an office tower can be
> deconstructed by a crew of less than a dozen workers in well under a day and
> most, if not all of the materials can be re-used .
>
>
>
>
> --
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
>
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a  >
> (manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply")
>
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