Click the title for a link to GM free ireland
There have been a couple of films doing the rounds recently. One that I have mentioned before is The Future of Food, which gives us a bit of an insight into the damaging effects of intensive farming and especially the anticipated consequences of introducing Genetically Modified products into the food chain. The other one of interest is called The End of Suburbia (Oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream). It focuses on the fact that the world oil industry had reached a Peak Oil stage and the supply is in decline and getting harder and more expensive to obtain. The American Dream is, amongst other things, the wave of the population that moved out of the towns into the suburbs for what was seen to be a better way of life away from the slums of the cities. What made this possible was the rise in cheap oil and the push for the country to rely on the motorcar in their everyday lives. Suburban towns initially seemed to work. Suburbs stated to be built, just outside the city and had public tram systems that took the residents into work so the people did not need their own transport. They could shop locally as small outlets were put in place to cater for their everyday provisions (they were villages in other words). The need for cars increased though because with highways being constructed and suburbs moving further out of the city, more and more people became reliant on car to get to the large out of town shopping centres that were being built. With the increase use of the car, public transport declined. Houses in these suburban areas were built on a large scale and used up large quantities of fuel to keep them going, and of course the dependency on cars used plenty of oil based fuels too.
Most of these issues came about in America in the post war years and The End Of Suburbia shows many clips from films made in the 1950’s and 1960’s that highlighted the joys of having such a life. It seems strange then that it is the very same stuff that we here in Ireland are experiencing today. The effective transport system (the train line) that was in place is now long gone and we have sprawling developments, large, expensive to run houses that have a reliance on oil, motorcars and massive investment of our money into sprawling road networks. Out of town shopping that more and more rely on products that have been shipped half way across the world to be competitive. It’s all there. What the film highlights is that this way of life is not a sustainable one. They ask what will happen when the fuel runs out. Will the populations have to move closer to the cities or have to live in smaller houses that are more energy efficient and fitted out with natural energy producing devices, do without the car and start living in a localised sustainable way like our ancestors did? It is a very thought provoking film. I have only watched it the once but I think it will need a few viewings to get all of the information to sink in. Let me know if you would like to see either of the films.
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING GLOSSARY
Ian
You have talked about alternative building materials over the last couple of weeks. I am a bit confused what they all are, could you explain them. Thanks D.W. By e-mail.
Reply.
Here is a glossary of terms; I hope this clarifies things a bit.
Cob - a traditional mixture of earth, sand, straw and water mixed by hand or machinery. Formed into lumps and pressed together to form the walls of a building, rather like building a giant clay pot. Cob structures are load bearing. Excellent thermal mass, which is necessary for passive solar design.
Adobe - a mixture of earth, sand straw and water mixed by hand or machinery, formed into bricks, which are then left to dry out in the sun. These are used in a similar way as conventional fired bricks to build walls. Adobe is load bearing.
Wattle and Daub - A woven willow or hazel framework (Wattle) is then daubed with a Daub plaster mixture of earth and dung and sometimes horsehair. Used as infill in a timber framed building.
Straw bale - Can be used as an infill to timber frame structures, straw bales are used as a very effective insulator. They can be load bearing if they are pretensioned. Bale walls are then sealed with a earthen or lime plaster.
Timber - Uses large diameter/section timber posts and beams to form a framework of a frame building. The gaps between the timbers require another building material to infill the walls.
Light straw - Shuttering is created to ram straw dipped in a clay slip as an infill to a timber clay frame structure. Very good insulator.
Earthships - Using discarded tyres, earth is rammed into them, they are then secured into a bank of earth and daubed with a cement or lime plaster.
Rammed earth - wooden shuttering is created then a mixture of earth, sand and water sometimes stabilised with cement. The mixture is rammed between the shuttering often using hydraulic machinery. The forms are removed to leave load-bearing walls, sealed with an earthen or lime plaster.
There have been a couple of films doing the rounds recently. One that I have mentioned before is The Future of Food, which gives us a bit of an insight into the damaging effects of intensive farming and especially the anticipated consequences of introducing Genetically Modified products into the food chain. The other one of interest is called The End of Suburbia (Oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream). It focuses on the fact that the world oil industry had reached a Peak Oil stage and the supply is in decline and getting harder and more expensive to obtain. The American Dream is, amongst other things, the wave of the population that moved out of the towns into the suburbs for what was seen to be a better way of life away from the slums of the cities. What made this possible was the rise in cheap oil and the push for the country to rely on the motorcar in their everyday lives. Suburban towns initially seemed to work. Suburbs stated to be built, just outside the city and had public tram systems that took the residents into work so the people did not need their own transport. They could shop locally as small outlets were put in place to cater for their everyday provisions (they were villages in other words). The need for cars increased though because with highways being constructed and suburbs moving further out of the city, more and more people became reliant on car to get to the large out of town shopping centres that were being built. With the increase use of the car, public transport declined. Houses in these suburban areas were built on a large scale and used up large quantities of fuel to keep them going, and of course the dependency on cars used plenty of oil based fuels too.
Most of these issues came about in America in the post war years and The End Of Suburbia shows many clips from films made in the 1950’s and 1960’s that highlighted the joys of having such a life. It seems strange then that it is the very same stuff that we here in Ireland are experiencing today. The effective transport system (the train line) that was in place is now long gone and we have sprawling developments, large, expensive to run houses that have a reliance on oil, motorcars and massive investment of our money into sprawling road networks. Out of town shopping that more and more rely on products that have been shipped half way across the world to be competitive. It’s all there. What the film highlights is that this way of life is not a sustainable one. They ask what will happen when the fuel runs out. Will the populations have to move closer to the cities or have to live in smaller houses that are more energy efficient and fitted out with natural energy producing devices, do without the car and start living in a localised sustainable way like our ancestors did? It is a very thought provoking film. I have only watched it the once but I think it will need a few viewings to get all of the information to sink in. Let me know if you would like to see either of the films.
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING GLOSSARY
Ian
You have talked about alternative building materials over the last couple of weeks. I am a bit confused what they all are, could you explain them. Thanks D.W. By e-mail.
Reply.
Here is a glossary of terms; I hope this clarifies things a bit.
Cob - a traditional mixture of earth, sand, straw and water mixed by hand or machinery. Formed into lumps and pressed together to form the walls of a building, rather like building a giant clay pot. Cob structures are load bearing. Excellent thermal mass, which is necessary for passive solar design.
Adobe - a mixture of earth, sand straw and water mixed by hand or machinery, formed into bricks, which are then left to dry out in the sun. These are used in a similar way as conventional fired bricks to build walls. Adobe is load bearing.
Wattle and Daub - A woven willow or hazel framework (Wattle) is then daubed with a Daub plaster mixture of earth and dung and sometimes horsehair. Used as infill in a timber framed building.
Straw bale - Can be used as an infill to timber frame structures, straw bales are used as a very effective insulator. They can be load bearing if they are pretensioned. Bale walls are then sealed with a earthen or lime plaster.
Timber - Uses large diameter/section timber posts and beams to form a framework of a frame building. The gaps between the timbers require another building material to infill the walls.
Light straw - Shuttering is created to ram straw dipped in a clay slip as an infill to a timber clay frame structure. Very good insulator.
Earthships - Using discarded tyres, earth is rammed into them, they are then secured into a bank of earth and daubed with a cement or lime plaster.
Rammed earth - wooden shuttering is created then a mixture of earth, sand and water sometimes stabilised with cement. The mixture is rammed between the shuttering often using hydraulic machinery. The forms are removed to leave load-bearing walls, sealed with an earthen or lime plaster.
Check out http://www.sustainable.ie/resources/greenbuild/index.htm for more information.
Environmental
