Hear Ye, Hear Ye Builders of the Homes

by Alternative Voice Staff

There are many concerned citizens on the planet who are not sufficiently aware of the monumental waste of time, energy, and—if you will allow it—love. There is nothing startling about this statement. I am certain that you have heard it all before. However, because the waste continues, even escalates, I believe that it is necessary to try, try again until a little light can penetrate our collective apathetic skulls. How can we accomplish this? What can we do that has not been done before? This is a question that I have pondered since I became involved in what I call "sensible housing" after the so-called "energy crisis" in the early 1980s. At that time I authored numerous magazine articles and three books on solar-assisted, energy-efficient home construction: The Nicholson Solar Energy Catalogue and Building Manual, Harvest The Sun, and The Autonomous House Reports. As time wore on, my idealism faded in direct proportion to my involvement with industry, government agencies, and to some extent, academia. So what has brought me back onto the playing field again? The short answer to this question is God. (I am certain that there is a long answer as well, but I prefer the simpler approach.) Back to the central theme: waste and what to do about it. Let’s try a threefold approach by first defining the problem with examples; second, looking for some of the root causes; and third, finding solutions or at least praying that they exist. Examples First example: there are certain practices, and non-practices, on the part of the American construction industry which contribute heavily to waste. An outstanding example of a "non-practice" has to do with a product called Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) which is having difficulty penetrating the U.S. marketplace despite acceptance in every major foreign market. AAC is a lightweight building block with exceptional characteristics such as: superior insulating and sound-absorption qualities; non-combustible; termite-proof and pest- resistant; easy to build with; requires very little maintenance after construction; and, because it is manufactured from readily available non-toxic materials, such as lime, sand, cement, and water, is a substitution for timber-frame construction and thereby does not add to the depletion of our forests. Also, because it is non-toxic, it does not outgas such pollutants as formaldehyde and benzine which are found in conventional building products. And last, but not least, AAC affords the homeowner the pleasure and comfort of intelligent masonry construction. AAC was invented by Swedish architect Johan Axel Ericksson, patented in 1924, and then refined in Germany where it is now the only structural building product to meet that country’s strict energy code without the need of additional insulation. It is estimated that there are more than 250 facilities manufacturing AAC worldwide with (to my knowledge) only two in the United States. Why this disparity? Before we tackle this "why," let’s look at one more example of a "non-practice" that not only contributes to the deterioration of the environment, but also the waste of lives. Yes! I am daring to say that people die because of malpractice in the institutions concerned with residential construction. For this example, we leave the high-tech field of AAC and direct our attention to the needs of the many millions of souls who, by necessity, live in earthen-format homes. The recent earthquake in Bam, Iran, with the loss of more than 30,000 souls, should awaken support for an earthquake-proof system of residential earth construction pioneered by architect Nader Khalili. The system, called superadobe, mixes a small amount of water and cement with soil taken from the house site and rams it into tubular bags which are then laid in the fashion of conventional adobe with barbed wire placed between the layers to hold the bags together and provide reinforcement. Has this improvement to the ancient technique of building with soil been accepted by those authorities who have accepted the responsibility to serve the public? With one exception that I know of, the answer is a resounding NO. As reported by Anton Ferreira (Reuters, January 12, 2004), "...[superadobe] has been approved as quake-safe by the hard-to-please building authorities on California’s seismic fault line." Here are comments on superadobe by responsible leaders as reported by Ferreira: "It’s one of those simple things that are slow to be adopted because they do not make a lot of money for anyone…the battle is to get enough people to know about this kind of building." Nassrine Azimi, head of the U.N. Institute for Training and Research (reported in a Reuters interview in 1999) [Superadobe is] "amazing…a hidden treasure." Omar Bakhet, director of the emergency response division at the U.N. Development Program. Root Causes Apathy, greed, ignorance—of which apathy is the hardest to overcome. If you have been led to this article, the probability is that with a little effort you can overcome any residue of greed and ignorance that may remain within your mentation. However, apathy is by far the greater challenge to progress. Plato addresses an interesting aspect of apathy in his famous “cave analogy” (found in The Republic). He discloses that while the apathetic are quite content to live in the many forms of slavery extant on the planet today, they will rise as a body to vigorously crucify any bearer of liberating truth. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Fortunately, today’s "civilization" has "progressed" to a more benign form of crucifixion—specifically, defamation of character with an occasional assassination thrown in to titillate the mob. Solution Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. (Psalms, 127:1) References: * Fraunhofer Institute for Architectural Physics, Germany * Bukoski, S.C. (1998), “Autoclaved Aerated Concrete: Shaping the Evolution of Residential Construction in the United States”, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA * Britestyle (2001), “What is Autoclaved Aerated Concrete?”, Britestyle Products LTD, Crayford, Kent, England, www.multipla.mailbox.co.uk/What%20is%20AAC.htm * Nader Khalili, Cal-Earth Institute, Hesperia, CA (www.calearth.org)