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  • From: "" <longwell@4safe.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] unsubscribe me please
  • Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 14:01:23 -0800



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From: livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: 3/28/2004 4:06:27 AM
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Livingontheland Digest, Vol 13, Issue 16

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Today's Topics:

1. Key Considerations for Building Affordable Housing (Tradingpost)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 09:35:47 -0700
From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
Subject: [Livingontheland] Key Considerations for Building Affordable
Housing
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <200403280935470544.0027E35D@mail.gilanet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"


Key Considerations for Building Affordable Housing
by Dr. Owen Geiger
http://builderswithoutborders.org/publications/pub13.htm

Community Organizing:
- Encourage solutions that are based on local needs and resources. Emphasize
local control, community building, collaboration, self-empowerment, and
sustainable grassroots solutions.
- Involve the whole community in the design and building process: men, women,
children, young and old can work together in a way that is reminiscent of
traditional barn raisings. Construction sites can be joyous places filled
with singing, ceremonies, picnics and other festivities.
- Encourage vernacular architecture and traditional building methods.
Discover what is important to the local community and then design and build
houses that people really like.
- People-centered building: houses should be designed for the way people
really live within their culture. Include input from women who speak from
experience about what makes a good home.
- Collaborate with other groups such as Builders without Borders for
technical assistance and educational materials, local universities for
training and other resources, Bahai and Habitat for Humanity for family
needs, VISTA volunteers, youth groups, etc.
- Team approach: the construction process can be broken down into major steps
(foundation, walls, roof, plastering, etc.); each crew learns one skill for
maximum efficiency; after completion of a certain number of hours each worker
receives their own home; the most competent leaders help create a DNA-like
self-replicating process that leads to other housing projects.
- Hands-on learning: utilize experiential learning, service learning and
real-world experience, instead of abstract, theoretical approaches.
- Self-build housing: owner-builders build their own houses instead of
relying on contractors.
- Utilize existing skills as much as possible. Some new skills may be
required, but avoid unnecessary and sudden changes.
- Workshops: once the local population is trained and experienced, they can
charge for workshops; this includes training those who wish to learn natural
building, and community groups looking for service learning and cultural
exchange projects. This creates an ongoing source of funding and labor, and
helps spread sustainable building concepts.
- Cottage industries: create local jobs with sustainable logging, milling,
truss manufacturing, contracting, supplying materials (clay, stone, straw,
etc.).
- Create a local economy through building houses for each other (the tendency
is to look for ‘real jobs’ somewhere else).
- Build more than just houses. Create peaceful, thriving communities built
with love and care that meet all basic human needs for everyone who lives
there.


Building Technologies:
- Utilize locally available, low-cost natural materials: use straw, earth,
stone, sustainable wood supplies, recycled materials, etc., instead of highly
processed, energy-intensive manufactured materials that are shipped long
distances.
- KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid): keep the design small and simple so that
everyone can afford a home. The simplest homes are usually one story
structures that avoid complex roof lines, skylights, dormers, and complex
shapes and angles.
- Energy efficient design: straw-bale construction, for example, provides
super insulation that greatly reduces long-term energy costs and almost
eliminates the need for heating and cooling.
- Permaculture principles: this can include roof water catchment, composting
(including composting toilets), sheet mulching, organic gardening,
xeriscaping, forest gardening and more.
- Appropriate technology: this can include solar ovens, mass heaters, solar
water heaters and distillers. Consider all human needs such as cooking, water
supply, waste disposal, etc.
- Passive solar energy: orient buildings along an east-west axis; use proper
placement of windows (additional windows on the south, fewer if any on the
west, etc.); use proper overhangs that allow penetration of the winter sun
but block the hot summer sun; design for natural daylighting to minimize
artificial lighting.
- Utilize low tech solutions such as rubble trench foundations, earthbag or
stone foundations, straw-bale construction, cob furniture, straw-clay, bamboo
instead of rebar, pumice instead of rigid foam insulation, cellulose or
cotton instead of fiberglass, adobe floors instead of concrete, line or earth
plaster instead of cement stucco, minimally processed local wood instead of
dimension lumber.
- Incorporate the latest natural building methods and techniques such as
stacking straw bales on edge, external pinning with bamboo or reeds, etc.
- Use a ‘good hat and good shoes’: all buildings should have a good
foundation and a good roof that protects the rest of the structure.
- Create safe construction sites: minimize use of power tools and limit their
use to those who are qualified, use solid ladders and include basic safety
training to everyone who participates.




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End of Livingontheland Digest, Vol 13, Issue 16
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