[Homestead] build to last? was: preserving poles
Gene GeRue
genegerue at ruralize.com
Sat Nov 3 05:07:08 EST 2007
> Sage:
> I'm reading (so many pictures, if you can actually call it
> that) Built by Hand: Vernacular Buildings from Around the
> World, and I'm really blown away by the beauty, variety of
> forms, and local materials use of ordinary rural people
> everywhere.
Yoshio Komatsu's photography is superb. Text is superfluous.
You would also enjoy Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, by Lloyd Kahn, who
earlier brought us Shelter.
> They have been doing for centuries what we are
> only now talking about doing. How did we get so far away
> from this?
Our resident sociologist and your fellow Texan, Jerry, will hopefully
weigh in on that question.
In our evolution we have embraced the work of the specialist
incrementally. For all the simple utility and beauty of vernacular
buildings and living close to the land, only a motley few of us find
it fulfilling to retreat to life as a generalist who manually
performs most of the tasks associated with maintaining life.
There are basic reasons why the design of shelter has changed: we
have become less nomadic; we prefer houses that maintain superior
temperature control; we want safety from fire, we want life to be
easier. Modern plumbing and electricity gives us machines that clean
our clothes and entertain us. Those systems require a sound, stable
structure.
There is great power in nostalgia: note the prices of old furniture
that is less comfortable than modern stuff. I can now reliably
predict that each new friend who visits will ooh and ahh over my
handmade cutting block, often eventually hinting that they sure would
like to have one. We are drawn to what is organic; it speaks to our
longing for authenticity.
Vernacular building styles and materials appeal to independent, self-
reliant homesteaders for reasons of cost. We willingly pay great
labor costs to avoid great purchased materials cost. Note the genesis
of this thread: preserving poles; poles that many of us can cut on
our own land.
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