Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education
Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education
Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education
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uilDing witH wHat you Have 95<br />
about to be demolished, you can find the cheapest and most environmentally<br />
friendly solution. Get hold of the windows before building the house, so that<br />
you can plan the window sizes right from the start.<br />
Metals<br />
Today we use a wide range of metals in our houses, both for structural<br />
purposes, and fittings and connections. They are precious resources, mined,<br />
heavily processed and often transported far, with all the embodied energy<br />
problems that this entails. On the other hand, with careful forethought they<br />
can often be recycled quite effectively, and that has an enormous bearing<br />
upon the energy use.<br />
It is worth bearing in mind that certain metals have health hazards. Lead<br />
in pipes and in paint is perhaps most well known, but there are many others:<br />
mercury, nickel, zinc, silver, arsenic, etc.<br />
Timber<br />
Untreated timber is clean, can be shaped with fairly simple hand or power<br />
tools, can be fitted together with joints or pegs, usually ages well, and can be<br />
recycled in many ways when we have finished with the building.<br />
Various kinds of timber behave differently, some withstand water by<br />
their very nature, some split easily giving us shingles for the roof. Others<br />
again are soft and easily worked into decorative elements. They come in<br />
many colours and often with delightful graining. Combinations of different<br />
timbers can be a real joy to live amongst.<br />
Timber treated with arsenic to avoid fungus rot is highly toxic.<br />
Grass and Stuff<br />
Canes, reeds, bamboo, grasses and<br />
straw all belong together. Straw<br />
houses are as old as the earliest<br />
shelter building. Examples of vernacular<br />
architecture from other parts<br />
of the world include mudhifs of Iraq<br />
made of reeds, Balinese bamboo<br />
houses and the reed shelters used<br />
around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.<br />
Straw Bales (SB)<br />
Modern strawbale houses have<br />
been standing for nearly a century<br />
already. The original load bearing<br />
construction of the Nebraska SB<br />
Our buildings can<br />
once again become<br />
the reserve of fine<br />
craftsman, as in this<br />
impeccably notched<br />
cabin in Norway.<br />
This kind of skill<br />
cannot be mass<br />
produced.