Speed Restrictions on Housing

Exit door of “Pipe Dreams” at Elefante, handcrafted home structures

I wish that I could claim that I thought of Slow Home first, what can I say?  I didn’t, but when I ran across the idea, I was like, “Well, yeeah.”  As a residential designer, who secretly (guess it’s no secret now) wants to design & build treehouses and garden rooms, I hope the Slow Home movement sweeps the nation.  I hope it brings a new era of building or deconstructing that encompasses environmental restorative design, reconnecting humans and nature, and is a celebration of the human spirit possessing both anima and animus traits.  That is all.

The 10 Steps to a Slow Home 

1. GO INDEPENDENT

Avoid homes by big developers and large production builders. They are designed for profit not people. Work with independent designers and building contractors instead.

2. GO LOCAL

Avoid home finishing products from big box retailers. The standardized solutions they provide cannot fit the unique conditions of your home. Use local retailers, craftspeople, and manufacturers to get a locally appropriate response and support your community.

3. GO GREEN

Stop the conversion of nature into sprawl. Don’t buy in a new suburb. The environmental cost can no longer be justified. Re-invest in existing communities and use sustainable materials and technologies to reduce your environmental footprint.

4. GO NEAR

Reduce your commute. Driving is a waste of time and the new roads and services required to support low density development is a big contributor to climate change. Live close to where you work and play.

5. GO SMALL

Avoid the real estate game of bigger is always better. A properly designed smaller home can feel larger AND work better than a poorly designed big one. Spend your money on quality instead of quantity.

6. GO OPEN

Stop living in houses filled with little rooms. They are dark, inefficient, and don’t fit the complexity of our daily lives. Live in a flexible and adaptive open plan living space with great light and a connection to outdoors.

7. GO SIMPLE

Don’t buy a home that has space you won’t use and things you don’t need. Good design can reduce the clutter and confusion in your life. Create a home that fits the way you really want to live.

8. GO MODERN

Avoid fake materials and the re-creation of false historical styles. They are like advertising images and have little real depth. Create a home in which character comes from the quality of space, natural light and the careful use of good, sustainable materials.

9. GO HEALTHY

Avoid living in a public health concern. Houses built with cheap materials off gas noxious chemicals. Suburbs promote obesity because driving is the only option. Use natural, healthy home materials and building techniques. Live where you can walk to shop, school and work.

10. GO FOR IT

Stop procrastinating. The most important, and difficult, step in the slow home process is the first one that you take. Get informed and then get involved with your home. Every change, no matter how small, is important.    

Zeer Pots & Passive Cooling

Very interesting and informative blog post published in the Energy Bulletin about passive refrigeration and cooling.  I imagine that in the minds of a large percentage of the US population, these impressive, low technological solutions to our huge household energy consumers (refrigerators & heating/ cooling systems) don’t make a damn bit of difference.  The tables will certainly turn when our main source of cheap energy becomes scarce.  Unfortunately, there may not be enough people knowledgeable about such simple things that could make a difference in our lives post peak oil.  Or…maybe what will happen is most of civilization will be so clueless about how to garden,  build natural building systems and passively heat and cool their homes that anyone that is knowledgeable in such practices will be exalted as a neo-techie guru, instead of shrugged off as a leftover tree hugging, crunchy granola sort.  Ya know, those ones that build houses out of mud (rammed earth), collect rain water (water harvesting), and heat their homes with the sun (passive solar).  That’s crazy!!!  No, no let’s stick to the program of business as usual…the more nonrenewable resources we consume, the more we’ll have and if by chance we don’t, well then technology will save us.  What people might not be prepared for is that technology might come in the form of a Zeer Pot.  

Um…collusive insanity revisited?

This is going to deviate a bit from my normal writing style.  I have an urge to do a little random thought - stream of consciousness writing that will just ramble from subject to subject.  Was that redundant?

For starters, another portmanteau, grood (great & good).  Lauri, I’m still trying to figure out sigther.  My significant other is typing a response to a recent comment on one of his posts.  He’s been at it for an hour.  I find this funny.  Can’t wait to read it in the morning.  I hope this doesn’t ruin his wordpress experience.

About this peak oil business, I’ve grown tired of the books I’m reading.  It seems it’s nearly impossible to make heads or tails of what this expert said versus what that expert said.  I’m going for affirmation in the “relocalization” arena.  Regardless of what catastrophe may head our way, relocalization I believe will minimize our pain and suffering.  What catastrophe you ask?  Well, it seems we (Americans) have been afforded the luxury of having conveniently forgotten the likes of events like the Great Depression, with ample reason.  Our rise to such industrial and capitalist heights will likely not last forever.  If we look around at current events, it’s apparent we are in the beginnings of a waxing and waning decline.  Decline - not in a negative sense.  Really what I mean to say is a transition to another era.  Decline will be the cry of those who choose to fight it.  Really, there is nothing else I can say regarding Peak Oil that hasn’t been said already by more astute followers.  Check out some of my links.

Now about sustainability (green living, eco-friendly, etc).  I really don’t care for the word much.  To me, it’s a tag that allows me to connect with like minded individuals.  I really don’t believe true sustainability is achievable, though I do believe it’s a worthwhile goal.  Living life conscious and accountable for our actions, now that seems more realistic.  Like Gandhi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

I spoke of embodied energy in building materials previously and it seems to get a lot of inquiry.  Seriously, there are so many factors to consider when measuring the appropriate use of a material based on its embodied energy, it’ll make your head spin.  I believe true intent of use needs to be considered in those factors.

Finally, I just picked up  Peterson’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America and I’m relieved to know there is an abundance of edible plants right in my back yard.

One more thing, speaking of food, my mixed (surprise) bell peppers from Bountiful Gardens are finally bearing fruit.  They got a late start.  And you wouldn’t believe what color they are…puurrrple.

 

More on Embodied Energy

It seems that about 75% of my search engines terms revolve around embodied energy: embodied energy in manufacture, embodied energy co2, embodied energy building materials, etc., due to an excerpt I posted from the Living Green workshop.  So I thought it would be helpful to include some of my resource links about embodied energy.

Measures of sustainability - this site explains what embodied energy is and how it is measured as well as gives a list of materials and their respective eMergy values.

Cement and Concrete - this site specifically outlines the embodied energy in cement and concrete production.

Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems - this is the site for Pliny Fisk’s CMPBS.  In the 1970’s, Pliny Fisk pioneered the use of fly ash as a concrete binder substitute for cement.

Green Home Building - this site has some great information on natural building systems and their importance relative to embodied energy.

Embodied Energy

Since I mentioned eco-products previously, I wanted to expound a bit on one aspect of them, embodied energy.  Following is an excerpt from my presentation at the Living Green Workshop.

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…Choosing sustainability often involves sifting through these options and finding the ones that are best suited to your site.  Using a great eco-friendly, recycled product may not be the best sustainable choice if it requires being shipped clear across the world.

Embodied Energy

This ties to the topic of choosing appropriate building materials based on the concept of Embodied Energy.  Embodied energy in buildings can be broken down into 2 categories: initial embodied energy and recurring embodied energy.

Initial embodied energy is the energy used to acquire, process and manufacture the building materials as well as the energy used to transport the products to site and construct the building.

The recurring embodied energy represents the non-renewable resources used to maintain, repair and replace components during the life of the building.

We can actually add another category that represents the energy used to dispose of the building components once they have reached the end of their life cycle.  Embodied energy is an important measure of sustainable design.

According to the World Watch Institute:

Each year, 3 billion tons of raw materials are used for construction.

Buildings account for ½ of the global output of carbon dioxide.

Production of cement used in concrete accounts for 5-8% of that carbon dioxide.

Concrete 

To illustrate embodied energy as well as introduce you to the idea of exploring how our products are made I want to talk about concrete, more specifically the production of cement.  Compared to other products, cement, the binder in concrete is high in embodied energy.

Cement starts off as raw materials, limestone and sand that are quarried from the earth using heavy equipment. 

The materials are then crushed and mixed by more powered machinery then fed into a tilted rotary kiln.  These rotary kilns are the largest piece of moving industrial equipment in the world. The mixture moves through the kiln, which gets progressively hotter to a temperature of approx. 3,000 F as it is continually fed coal or natural gas. This causes a chemical reaction and the materials fuse into what’s called clinker then the clinker is sent to coolers.  Once cooled the material is crushed to a fine powder and ready to be bagged or sent directly to a concrete supplier.  As you can see, a lot goes into making the glue in concrete before it even reaches our foundations. There are innovations in concrete production.  Fly ash, a byproduct of coal burning plants can be substituted for a percentage of the cement.  Also, pozzolan (volcanic ash) and magnesium oxide, which is mined or processed from seawater are other alternatives to cement….