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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.

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