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Affordable Housing from Scratch
May 7th, 2009
The property is raw. There is nothing there but trees and moss. The land is very dry and there is no obvious water source. There is no power. The terrain is extremely rough with loose sandstone boulders, and undulating ridges. There are no clearings and there is no access road.
In order to comply with my local government a few key things need to be in place. Is it easy to become overwhelmed with the bureacracy if this is something that you have never done before. There are a couple of important things that ecclipse others in terms of legalities.
Firstly, goverment officials will insist that there needs to be a human-waste management system that is approved by the ministry of health. In rural areas not connected to the sewer, this means a septic tank. There are endless ways to set up a wastewater management system, depending on the terrain, materials available and the needs of your household.
Secondly, there needs to be a potable water-supply. (Oh, that silly government! requiring you to have drinking water on your property!) In the case of my place. I would probably need to get in a professional dowser to find a promising drilling spot and drill as deep as 300 feet to reach the possible groundwater. Living near water has always been a human trend that is starting to make extreme sense.
To get power to the site, Several power poles are going to need to be added from the main road. Small-scale alternative energy is a bit prohibitive on the site that I am building on. There is no sustained sunshine, very little wind, and no creek or stream. The only way to have self-sustaining abundant power would be to set up something such as a geo-thermal system.
So far, Just having site amenities may put me in the position of later living in a tent. So, I am going to be using recycled housing. This means an old-unwanted mobile home or similar set-up. And I am finding there are many many opportunites to recycle housing and this is a very viable option. Check this website out for example, nickelbros.com. These houses are being saved from demolishment. A bit out of my price range but regardless, less than a quarter of my budget will be spent on the actual shelter.
Not including time spent researching or having insomnia. I have a timeframe of one month to make this happen. You laugh! (So do I sometimes, but I am very determined.) This will include time spent on site clearing and removing trees, having a septic system installed. Developing a water storage system and source. Arranging to have power to the site as well as filing permits, and finally, finding a starter building and having it located there.
It looks as though I will be able to use a mix of natural building methods and conventional methods to achieve my recycled housing project. Stay-tuned!
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Mudgirls tour Eco-sense house and O.U.R Ecovillage
February 15th, 2009
Vancouver Island has some inspiring sites for those interested in Alternative construction. I recently went on a tour with some Vancouver Island builders of two very interesting examples of sustainable architecture.
We visited the Eco-sense house located in the highlands just north of Victoria, BC, and I have to say it was the most fascinating cob home that I have seen and a great example of a fully functional and code approved cob dwelling. It was beautifully finished and contained endless examples of sustainable design.
The house was built completely of cob (sand, clay and straw), mixed by roto-tiller, and is an amazing example of an engineered loadbearing earthen structure. The walls rest on a concrete foundation, which in itself was innovative design. The house is powered by solar panels which draw power from the city grid during the winter months and give power back in the summertime! The property contained so many examples of great design that it was almost impossible to take them all in. ( It was the Disneyland of natural building!) The specs on the house were incredible. check it out at www.eco-sense.ca
The other stop on our tour was O.U.R. Ecovillage in Shawnigan Lake. We learned the fascinating history of the Ecovillage which is a sustainable learning centre and demonstration site. The property was originally a farm with a single house but was able to be rezoned through a long and transformative process which resulted in the inspiring place it is now. The Ecovillage contains great examples of permaculture design, and beautiful architecture incorporating recycled building materials and inspires and teached thousands of people annually. Visit them at www.ourecovillage.org
The folks at both Eco-sense and O.U.R. Ecovillage have worked tirelessly with building professionals and city officials to begin to revolutionalize the building code in BC. It was wonderful to see how this type of building can change hearts and minds!
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Energy Management, Indoor Environmental Quality and LEED
December 2nd, 2008
I had a friend of mine who is a renovations carpenter recently say to me that green builders really annoy them. The special materials are all over-priced, and require special ways of installing. Green building is currently in the process of being defined (please see the canadian green building council website www.cagbc.org ), but it generally does use some new engineered technologies and innovations that old school carpenters may not be familiar with, making it more expensive and more difficult to do. This raises the question of whether or not it is worth the added cost and trouble, that is if you can find someone who really knows how to do it.
Doing it properly is the key. Green building is meant to address all parts of the building simultaneously, creating a system that works together as healthfully and harmoniously as possible. Energy use, water use, and air quality are all important design elements, and all need to work together. This really requires a whole new way of designing buildings, and raises the question of how the new “green” building products can really integrate themselves into the old way of doing things. Using just one or two green building products to raise your buildings profile may be a hazardous proposal, and not to your benefit. Here is a story that may illustrate my point.
I went to a new “urban eclectic” condo development recently to look around. The units were well-priced, not too expensive at all, and modern looking. The sales person told me that they could not create affordable units using green building, but that they did go as far as to have triple paned LEED quality windows. (tapping the glass) As I walked around I noticed the new carpet, linoleum, adhesive attached plastic tub surround, mdf mouldings. Pretty much everything else in the building was as gluey and manufactured as you can get. I could smell the formaldehyde from the carpet. Suddenly the triple-paned barely-openable green windows made the condo seem like a death trap! Holy Shit! Get some fresh air in here people! I’m not a crazy person! Am I really the only one who can smell this?!
Green building, with LEED as its forerunner, is primarily concerned with efficient energy management. LEED stands for The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Using Energy efficiently is in itself is a noble cause, however the energy that it is using efficiently is often the same old fossil fuels. This is a recognized drawback to believing in LEED being the future of sustainable design. Sealing the building completely so that you can utilize every square inch of hot air your gas furnace or geothermal heating system pumps out seems to make sense to conserve energy but the danger is there, especially if you go halfway like the condo developers did, of trapping dangerous fumes inside your house with you.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when looking at green building products:
How is this made? What sort of chemicals does it contain? What sort of processing does it undergo?
Where is this made? How far did each component travel before getting here?
How is this really going to benefit me? and most importantly, How will this work with the rest of my building? -
Outdoor Kitchen
October 1st, 2008
Imagine cooking outside for half the year. It doesn’t need to be on a open fire under a dripping tarp. This plan for a cob outdoor kitchen features 3/4 height walls with undulating built in seating. Simple post and beam construction supports a metal roof. A cob pizza oven is built into the design.
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Small-scale living at its finest.
October 1st, 2008
I just got back from the Courtenay area where myself and two other women did a rough coat of finishing plaster on small cob and strawbale cottage.
The building itself was lovely and an excellent example of small scale living arrangements designed in a very thoughtful way. The cottage has a lower floor built from stone and cob and is just over 100 square feet. The structure was built with round posts and beams and counters and granite shelving and benches were beautifully sculpted into the cob walls, maximizing the use of space in such a small area.
The second floor is the exciting part. The structure cantilevers several feet over the first floor walls to create a spacious sleeping area. The second floor walls were constructed of lighter wood and recycled windows. The north wall is built entirely of straw bales, providing excellent insulation.
The owner built in a wood stove, counters and even a cooling cupboard. screened to outside to bring cool outside air into her pantry. The floor was built up with large pieces of slate. The cottage was built with materials from the property, waste from local building sites and recycled materials from the ReStore.
The cottage is an excellent example of small living areas at its finest. It is wonderful to see every detail thought out in every corner of a building, providing something simple and beautiful to look at wherever the eye travels. The cottage is also proof that a small building, which falls below the square footage requiring building permits, can function as a wonderful living space.
