Greenhomebuilding.com
E-zine #3 June 6, 2002
Contents
*Site News
*General News
*Breathable Stucco
*How Houses Were Invented
*Book of the Month
*Site of the Month
*General and Unsubscribe Information
Greenhomebuilding.com
E-zine is a monthly opt-in email publication for people who are
interested in sustainable architecture and alternative or natural building. It
is written by Kelly Hart, the host of http://www.greenhomebuilding.com
..
Site News
Greenhomebuilding.com continues averaging
about 300 visitors each day. The consistency of this boggles my mind;
I would expect much greater fluctuation in the numbers, but it never drops below
200 and only occasionally tops 400. I am delighted that so people are finding
this site!
The STORE at Greenhomebuilding.com has expanded to include three new
books. These are all books that I have a personal interest in, since
they either contain some of my writing, or they include a description of
our earthbag/papercrete home. The titles are:
Building with Earth: A Guide to
Flexible-Form Earthbag Construction, by Paulina Wojciekowska, 2001
(Chelsea Green). This is really the only book published at the moment that is
specifically about building with earthbags. Paulina is a Polish architect
trained in England, who studied with Nadir Khalili in California and became
enamored with natural and earthbag building. She has a firm understanding of the
architectural principles that relate to compressive structures, such as
arches, domes, vaults, apses, etc. Paulina helped me for a few days while I
was in the construction phase of my largest dome, and she has included a
lengthy section in her book about our house. Photos of our house are
sprinkled throughout the book, including on the cover.
Building with Papercrete and Paper Adobe:
A Revolutionary New Way to Build Your Own Home for Next to Nothing, by
Gordon Solberg, 2002 (Remedial Planet Communications). This is a new edition of
this book, originally published in 1999. Gordon and Laura Solberg published such
periodicals as Dry Country News, Earth Quarterly and Papercrete
News, and this book is a compendium of all of the articles that appeared in
these periodicals that pertain to papercrete. The collection chronicles the
pioneering spirit that has accompanied the development of this very new
technology. There is much to learned from the experiments and passions that are
described. This spiral-bound book will not likely be found in bookstores,
and I am selling it at a $6 discount from the list price.
The Art of Natural Building: Design,
Construction, Resources, edited by Joseph F. Kennedy, Michael G. Smith
and Catherine Wanek, 2002 (New Society Publishers). I have a couple of articles
in this book; one about our house and the other about the value of
earth-sheltered homes. See the Book Review section below for more
details.
General
News
Lester Brown,
chairman of the Worldwatch Institute's board,
states in his new book Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the
Earth, "Environmental architecture is
another fast-growing profession. Among the signposts of an environmentally
sustainable economy are buildings that are in harmony with the environment.
Environmental architects design buildings that are energy -- and materials --
efficient and that maximize natural heating, cooling, and
lighting."
There is a website where you can enter your
zip code, and learn what toxic pollutants are being released into your county
(in the USA), and by whom. The address is: http://www.scorecard.org/ .
The Beddington Zero Energy Development
(BedZED) is a housing complex about 20 kilometers from the center of London,
which includes some 82 homes and 18 mixed working-living units. These homes
have no mechanical heating; instead, solar gain through south-facing windows and
human activity provide the heat, while thermal mass, triple glazing and high
levels of insulation help retain the heat. Among other green features is the
site's wastewater treatment plant, which will use reed beds to produce effluent
suitable for watering gardens and flushing toilets. For more information go to
http://www.bedzed.org.uk .
Breathable Stucco
I recently spoke with Catherine Wanek, editor of
The Last Straw, about the increasing use of of cement stucco as a final
plaster over strawbale walls. I am concerned about such stucco's relative lack
of breathability, which could lead to retention of moisture within the bales and
eventual rot. Catherine mirrored my concern, although she said that in very dry
climates the risk is less. She also said that tests have shown that some
simple changes in the stucco formula can produce a much more breathable product.
A typical stucco mix is 1 part lime, 2 parts cement and 5 parts sand. If the
ratios are changed to 1 lime, 1 cement and 6 sand, then the stucco will be much
more breathable! Various earthen plasters would likely be even
better.
How Houses Were
Invented
My wife, Rosana, has been
reorganizing her files and discovered some writing she had done at about age
eight. The piece is titled How Houses Were Invented:
Once upon a time, there lived a rich--oh, very
rich--man. He lived in a wonderful tent--not house--but he didn't like it
because there were lots of storms in those days, and his tent kept falling
over.
Said he, "I must think up something that will not
fall over in every storm." So he set to work. But what was he to use? He went
down to the river, to get some clay. This he put in a fire. When he took it out
it was brick. He worked at them for many days making more of them.
At last he had enough bricks to build a house, so
he did. That night there was a storm, but the new thing did not fall over,
BECAUSE HE HAD A HOUSE!
Book of the
Month
This month's featured book is The Art of
Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources, edited by Joseph F.
Kennedy, Michael G. Smith and Catherine Wanek, 2002 (New Society Publishers). I
just got my complimentary copy for having contributed a couple of articles to
the edition, and I am quite impressed with wealth of information presented here.
The book is divided into five sections: The Context for Natural Building, Design
and Planning, Natural Building Materials and Techniques, Case Studies and
Resources.
In his introduction, Michael G. Smith writes, "
Natural Building is nothing new. It is as old as the paper wasps who construct
insulated hives out of chewed wood fiber, the aquatic caddis fly larvae who make
protective shells by cementing together grains of sand, the prairie dogs who
excavate enormous towns of interconnected tunnels, and the chimpanzees who build
temporary rain shelters out of sticks and leaves. For thousands of years, our
own species followed the same path, building our shelters out of locally
available materials. Each group to settle in a new area developed a unique
culture with its own architectural style, which evolved through small
improvements from generation to generation, becoming more and more suited to
specific local needs and opportunities. But always the basic materials stayed
the same: the earth and stones beneath our feet, the trees and grasses that grow
nearby. Building was a necessary skill shared by most people, a part of the
traditional knowledge passed down through the centuries."
"Our greatest desire is that this book will be a
doorway through which many of you will step in order to join the natural
building movement. We hope that the case studies at the end of the book and the
photographs throughout will help make the concepts and techniques discussed
elsewhere more real and get you excited about handcrafting your own personalized
structure."
Site of the Month
This month's
feature website is very dear to my heart, since it is my creation! It
is actually not about architecture, but it is about living sustainably, in terms
of energy use and transportation.
www.sunvee.com is
devoted to an exploration of the possibilities of utilitarian solar-electric
vehicles.
SunVee stands for "
Solar
Utility
Neighborhood
Vehicle." At this website you will find a historical
description of the "Sunmobile," a solar/human-powered vehicle I designed and
built in 1999. I continue to drive the Sunmobile around our community, without
ever plugging it into the grid for recharging; I simply park it in the sun and
the batteries collect plenty of energy to drive up to 30 miles, at speeds up to
about 30 mph.
The SunVee would be an evolution of the Sunmobile toward a
marketable solar-electric vehicle. It would be completely enclosed with a
recycled-plastic chassis, and would comply with all federal standards for a Low
Speed or Neighborhood Electric Vehicle. I have simple sketches of what the
SunVee might look like, but much more work needs to be done
create a prototype that could be manufactured.
You will find at the website descriptions and links to information about
most of the currently available small electric vehicles. None of these are
designed to be charged with solar panels, although any of them could be
connected to stationary arrays for charging. The SunVee is
unique in its design incorporating the panels into the body of the car. Of
course solar race cars have been in existence for many years, but these are not
designed for utilitarian use.
I have created an extensive business plan for manufacturing the
SunVee that is presented at the website. If you know anyone who
might be interested in investing in this kind of business, you might point them
toward the website.
General and
Unsubsrcibe information
Greenhomebuilding.com
E-zine is copyright Hartworks, Inc. 2002. Please feel free to
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Kelly Hart