Living Architecture Centre
| TRUE SUSTAINABILITY | |||
| The battle for sustainability has been lost before it has even begun. We are fooling ourselves if we believe that The System has a sincere interest in enacting the principles articulated in the 1992 Rio Declaration. There is simply too much at stake. This is exemplified in the unseemly rush to prop up the economic system in the face of mortgage meltdown. | |||
 IMAGE OF WORLD ECONOMIC SYSTEM |
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| Mortgages act as the feeder system for the new money which modern economies need to sustain themselves. This can be clearly seen in the sub-prime crisis which has infected the major banks and lending institutions around the world. How can it be that defaulting mortgagees in Illinios and elsewhere - who were bad credit risks in the first instance - can precipitate a global credit crisis? Simple. Local banks and building societies sell on their mortgages to security companies higher up the economic pyramid where they then form the basis of fresh loans to fund business takeovers and expansions. When the original mortgagees fail to deliver on their promise of paying back their loans the security company is left holding paper on what are oftentimes worthless properties half a world away. | |||
| This is simply not supposed to happen because people will normally do anything to hold onto their homes. However in a recessionary economy - where growth is negative - it is inevitable that there will be job losses or inflation or a loss of consumer confidence. This is like a huge game of musical chairs. When the music stops there is a rush for available chairs. Naturally enough, the way things are set up, there are not enough chairs to go round. | |||
| What this means for millions of ‘ordinary’ people is a loss of their homes and the attendant loss of confidence and status. The bubble is burst, the dream turned to nightmare. This is so real and strong a fear that people with mortgages will do anything to avoid being caught without a chair. This is why the current interpretation of sustainability is such a sham - it cynically exploits peoples fears and sees business opportunity in converting to ‘greener’ and more expensive technologies to ferry people back and forth from work, to heat their water, generate their electricity, transport their food absurd distances, recycle their waste and reduce their carbon footprints. | |||
| The new sustainable economy is Business As Usual with a mere hint of green. Nowhere does it address the emotional issues that are central to our lives. Who we are. What our lives are all about. How we feel about the modern world. These are scary questions that most people want to avoid and as a consequence keep themselves busy working, oftentimes to death. The very word ‘mortgage’ exemplifies this. | |||
| Where the present generation of mortgagees has been brainwashed and conditioned to believe that this is a variation of normal, we owe it to the next generations to help them avoid such a bleak reality. We can do this by showing them how to avoid it - by building their own homes free of the burden of mortgaging, by growing their own healthy food and by giving themselves the time and space to explore the rich inner world of dream and imagination. These are the foundations of true sustainabilty, very different from the cheap imitations everywhere evident today. | |||
| LIVING ARCHITECTURE WORKSHOPS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE | |||
| To practice what I am preaching in the above article I will be organising two 1-day workshops for young people aged 12-16 years in or near Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim on Saturday July 5th & Sunday July 6th. Further details will be published shortly on this website. | |||
| LIVE COURSE IN SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION | |||
| A LIVE COURSE IN SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION WILL BE HELD IN DRUMSNA COUNTY LEITRIM ON SATURDAY & SUNDAY AUGUST 23rd & 24th. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY LIVE COURSE TO BE HELD IN IRELAND DURING 2008. THE COURSE FEE OF €300 INCLUDES THE COURSE CD-ROM. STUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ENROL AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE DATE AS PLACES WILL BE LIMITED. UPON ENROLMENT STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE THE STARTER COURSE CD-ROM AND MAY BEGIN WORK ON THEIR DESIGN. THIS WILL GREATLY ASSIST IN GETTING THE MOST FROM THE LIVE SESSIONS. THE ENROLMENT FEE OF €50 INCLUDES THE STARTER COURSE CD-ROM - DESCRIBED BELOW - AND A NON-RETURNABLE BOOKING FEE OF €20. THE BALANCE OF THE COURSE FEES - €250 - IS PAYABLE BEFORE THE COMMENCENT OF THE COURSE ON AUGUST 23rd. | |||
| This Course will be suitable for anyone wishing to create a house design or to upgrade an existing property. It will also appeal to those involved in the construction industry or those with an interest in architecture. | |||
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| LIVING THE GOOD LIFE | |||
| From the UK International Express 22-28.4.08 | |||
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If you believe leading a self-sustaining Good Life is just a pipe dream, then think again. An entire village has shunned supermarkets to produce organic food all year round which is then sold every week at the village hall. Those involved liken themselves to the classic Seventies BBC TV comedy in which Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal, playing Tom and Barbara Good, give up the rate race to live off the land.
The village of Martin in Hampshire which has a population of 405, rears its own chickens, pigs and sheep as well as producing honey, garlic, onions, chillies and veg. Villagers work to a rota all year round to ensure nothing gets missed. Nearly four years after the experiment started, its detractors have been proved wrong as the co-operative goes from strength to strength.
Each year more produce is added. And the scheme has breathed new life into a village that has only a church and a working men’s club. There are 164 families in Martin and 101 have signed up as members of Future Farms for an annual 2 pound fee. But anyone can buy the produce. At present the farm community sells 45 types of vegetables, 100 chickens a week, 20 pigs a year, 32 lambs a year, and is now starting to sell beef. Members of the committee include a consultant radiologist, a horticulturalist, a computer programmer, a former probation officer, a secretary and a council worker. They hope to spread their blueprint to other communities.
Nick Snegal, 58, came up with the idea. “I like to think of it as a large allotment in which there are lots of Barbaras and Toms working away,” he said. “The nearest supermarket is six miles away in Fordinbridge. Of course people still have to go there for things like loo rolls and deodorant. But we are reducing our carbon footprint by not using carrier bags and packaging.” |
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| GLOBAL WARMING CAUSING PROPERTY MELTDOWN? | |||
| U.S. housing collapse spreads overseas By Mark Landler The New York Times Monday, April 14, 2008 |
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| The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon, with real estate prices down from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports and even in parts of India.This synchronized global slowdown, which has become increasingly stark in recent months, is hobbling economic growth worldwide, affecting not just homes, but also jobs.In Ireland, Spain, Britain and elsewhere, housing markets that soared over the past decade are falling back to earth. Experts predict that some countries, like Ireland, will face an even more wrenching adjustment than the United States, with the possibility that the downturn could turn into wholesale collapse.To some extent, the world’s problems are a result of American contagion. As home financing and credit tighten in response to the crisis that began in the U.S. subprime market, analysts worry that other countries could suffer the mortgage defaults and foreclosures that have afflicted California, Florida and other states.Citing the far-flung reverberations from the American housing bust and credit squeeze, the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast Wednesday for global economic growth this year and warned that the malaise could extend into 2009.”The problems in the U.S. are being transmitted to Europe,” said Michael Ball, professor of urban and property economics at the University of Reading in England, who studies housing prices. “What’s happening now is an awful lot more grief than we expected.”For countries like Ireland, where prices were even more inflated than in the United States, it has been a painful education, as homeowners learn the American vocabulary of misery.”We know we’re already in negative equity,” said Emma Linnane, a 31-year-old university administrator. She bought a cozy, one-bedroom apartment in the Dublin suburbs with her fiancé, Paul Colgan, in May 2006, at the peak of the market. They paid €365,000, or $575,000 - at least $100,000 more than it would fetch today.”I sometimes get shivers thinking about it,” Linnane said, “but I’ll let the reality hit me when I go to sell it.”That reality is spreading. Once-sizzling housing markets in Eastern Europe are cooling rapidly, as nervous West Europeans stop buying investment properties in Warsaw, Estonia and other former real estate Klondikes.Even further east, in India and southern China, prices are no longer climbing. With stock markets down sharply after reaching heady levels, people do not have as much cash to plow into property. Sales of apartments in Hong Kong, a recently hyperactive market, have slowed, with prices for mass-market flats starting to drop.In New Delhi and other parts of northern India, prices have fallen 20 percent over the past year. Sanjay Dutt, an executive director in the Mumbai office of Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, described it as an erosion of confidence.Much of the retrenchment can be attributed to the basic laws of gravity: What goes up must come down. With low interest rates helping to inflate housing bubbles in many countries, economists said, the confluence of falling prices was predictable, if unsettling.How this will affect the broader fortunes of countries differs radically. Ireland and Spain are shuddering, while growth in India this year is expected to slow only a percentage point or so from its recent pace of 9 percent. In China, the effect may be even more limited.”If the Fed moves rates, and the People’s Bank of China follows, it doesn’t mean much to a peasant in China,” said Thomas Mayer, the chief European economist at Deutsche Bank in London. “But it means a lot for the newly rich entrepreneur in Shanghai, who can load up on credit and buy a fancy apartment.”This is not the first housing downturn to cross borders, Mayer said, but its reverberations have been amplified by financial markets. When faulty U.S. mortgages ended up on the books of banks around the world, the problems of the United States aggravated global problems.Consider Britain, which had one of the most robust European housing markets, with less of an oversupply than Ireland or Spain. Then last summer came the subprime crisis across the Atlantic.By September, there was a run on a British lender, Northern Rock. A month later, mortgage approvals dropped 31 percent, compared with the number a year earlier, and by November, real estate brokers began reporting the first declines in housing prices. In March, average prices fell 2.5 percent, the largest monthly decline since 1992, according to HBOS, a mortgage lender.”The boom in house prices was actually much bigger here than in the U.S.,” said Kelvin Davidson, an economist at Capital Economics in London. “If anything, people should be more worried than in the U.S.”Britain has the most developed home-financing industry after the United States. The amount of outstanding mortgage debt, as a share of total economic output, is higher there than in the United States, according to an IMF study.Britain “followed the U.S. into never-never land, pushing mortgages out the door, believing that prices would go up forever,” said Allan Saunderson, the managing editor of Property Finance Europe.Still, the problems in Britain pale next to those of Spain and Ireland. Residential investment accounts for 12 percent of the Irish economy and 9 percent of the Spanish economy, compared with 5 percent in Britain and 4 percent in the United States, according to the IMF.The glut of housing has brought new construction to a standstill, driving up unemployment and dimming the prospects for two of the stellar European performers over the last decade.”We’re waking up from the property dream, and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,” said Fernando Encinar, a founder of idealista.com, a real estate Web site.Spain built more than four million homes in the past decade, more than Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as the Spanish economy attracted immigrants and north Europeans snapped up holiday homes in the Costa del Sol region of southern Spain.Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty. The IMF estimates that property is overvalued by more than 15 percent. With mortgages drying up and prices dropping, speculators who once viewed Spanish property as a no-lose proposition are confronting a hard reality.In 2005, Julian Felipe Fernández bought three small apartments, as an investment, in a huge development being built outside Madrid. He paid €100,000, or $158,000, as a deposit for the units, and now he is eager to sell them to avoid having to take on a costly mortgage But with the market stalled, he is asking only what he paid for them.”Three years ago, it looked like I would be able to flip them for a nice profit before they were finished,” he said. “I just want to get them off my hands, to get rid of this headache.”If he unloads them, he will be lucky. Enric Bueno, head of marketing for Ibusa, a real estate company in Barcelona, said his company was closing six or seven sales a month, compared with 40 a year ago. Homeowners are dropping their prices, he said, but buyers cannot get mortgages.”Things are really bad,” Bueno said. “If this goes on for five years, we won’t make it. If it lasts for two, we will.”Economists have been busy cutting their economic growth forecasts for Spain, with a few saying that it may stagnate this summer. BBVA, a Spanish bank, forecasts that unemployment will rise to an average of 11 percent this year, from 8.6 percent in 2007, owing mainly to job losses in construction.Such cutbacks are well under way in Ireland, where taxi drivers complain that their ranks are being swollen by laid-off construction workers. The housing collapse has brought an abrupt end to more than a decade of pell-mell growth that earned Ireland the nickname the Celtic tiger.Today, the mood in this country feels like that of a wake. Average house prices fell 7 percent last year, the most in Europe, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, a British real estate group. They are likely to fall by a similar amount this year.After a 16-year boom that was interrupted only briefly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, Ireland has the most overvalued housing market in the developed world, according to the IMF. In its recent economic outlook, the fund calculated that prices are 30 percent higher than they should be, given Ireland’s economic fundamentals.For many Irish, accepting that reality is like passing through the seven stages of grief. Some homeowners are still in denial, said brokers, asking $5 million for houses worth no more than $4 million. But developers have begun cutting prices for smaller apartments like the one owned by Linnane.An Irish Times article Thursday about a $13 million house, with a garden and tennis court, faced an ad for a complex where the apartments were being peddled at a 15 percent discount.”Last year was our ‘wake up in the middle of the night with sweat pouring down your face’ period,” said David Bewley, a director at the Lisney real estate agency. “Now we’ve grown up.” | |||
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| The huge amount of interest in Hemp Building from around the world, has prompted Steve Allin, author of the book “Building with Hemp’ to organise the first International Hemp Building Seminar, in Ireland this June. This timely event will feature on the first day a variety of presentations given by leading Hemp Builders and experts from all over the globe. It will also include machinery demonstrations of spraying hempcrete and specialist plastering of the hemp building system on day two. The conference is being held in the Kenmare Bay Hotel in the heritage town of Kenmare in County Kerry, Ireland on the 17&18 of June 2008. To book a place & get more info go to: www.hempbuilding.com or email: hempbuilding@eircom.net |
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| NEXT SHELTERMAKER - Midsummer |
| SHELTERMAKER DREAMING |
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I am torn between the hemispheres, disoriented, slowly righting myself for the homeward journey. All of this is good and possibly ordained by necessity. This is intangible and hard to grasp. I pick through my scripts, chew feedback and edit video footage of my talks in an effort to see clearly. This brings me to a place full of possibilities where emptiness reigns. I use a simple model to illustrate this. When displayed, the audiences unhesitatingly agree that the box is indeed empty. |
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This begs the question - what does architecture, particularly the architecture of the home, contain? The answer to this question seems to be - ‘nothing’. It is within such empty boxes that we live our lives, filling them with who we are. |
| When we fill or homes in this way we bring the architecture to life. This allows us to craft our way forward all the time clarifying the question of who we are. It is such direction that allows us to change and change is an absolute necessity if we are to embrace the sustainable way of life. Such changes are inner changes - adjustments in beliefs, attitudes, commitments and values. These are the intangibles that shape what I might call the Sheltermaking Dreaming. When we acknowledging that architecture can nurture our innermost dreams we can revive our dormant sheltermaking instincts. |
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So it is with me this equinox, the planet slowly tipping me towards the land of dreaming. I will be back in Ireland in early May, returning to Australia in September. |
| I have a full summer schedule arranged, so now’s the time to act if you have been considering participating in a Course. The EconoSpace Project will also be active during the summer period. |
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| LIVING ARCHITECTURE SUMMER SCHEDULE |
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| An Introduction to Sustainable House Design & Construction Saturday May 10th Belfast |
Further details of this 1-day Course will be published shortly on this website. If you are interested in participating please email livingarchitecture @ eircom.net (leaving out the blanks) |
| An Introduction to Sustainable House Design & Construction Saturday June 7th The Organic Centre Rossinver, Co. Leitrim Fees €90 www.theorganiccentre.ie +353 (0)71 985 4338 |
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| The EconoSpace Saturday June 28th The Organic Centre Rossinver, Co. Leitrim Fees €90 www.theorganiccentre.ie +353 (0)71 985 4338 |
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| Converting/Extending/Greening An Existing House Saturday July 5th Drumsna, Co. Leitrim |
This new 1-day Course will explore how existing houses can be converted, extended and/or be made more sustainable. Planning, construction, surveying, drawing, modelmaking, alternative energy, materials, products, costs, etc. will all be covered. Further details of this Course will be published shortly on this website. If you are interested in participating please email livingarchitecture @ eircom.net (leaving out the blanks) |
| Converting/Extending/Greening An Existing House Sunday July 6th Drumsna, Co. Leitrim |
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| An Introduction to Sustainable House Design & Construction Saturday July 19th Carraig Dulra Glenealy, Co. Wicklow info @ dulra.org (leaving out the blanks) |
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| An Introduction to Sustainable House Design & Construction Saturday/Sunday August 16 & 17th Bridport, Dorset, UK |
Further details of this 1-day Course will be published shortly on this website |
| LIVE Course in Sustainable House Design & Construction Saturday & Sunday August 23rd & 24th Drumsna Co. Leitrim |
This will be the only LIVE Course to be held in Ireland in 2008. Participants are urged to enrol early and to begin studying the Course CD-ROM which is included in the Course fee of €300. If you are interested in participating please email livingarchitecture @ eircom.net (leaving out the blanks) |
| Home Harmony Ardnahoo Health Farm Dromohair Co. Leitrim |
This weekend workshop will be presented jointly by Peter Cowman & Alanna Moore. The focus will be on the harmonisation of inner and outer space. Topics to be covered will include - inner/outer harmonisation; understanding our inner nature; how buildings affect us emotionally; dowsing for stress zones; making space for creativity - and much more! |
| NEW STARTER COURSE OFFERING €30 |
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| DIP YOUR TOE IN THE WATER |
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| Considering doing the Course In Sustainable House Design & Construction but not sure if it is for you? Why not dip your toe in the water and embark on a Starter Course? This CD-ROM includes a 30min video introduction to the Course, Parts 1-6 of the Handbook of House Design & Construction plus the relevant Steps from the Design Programme and supporting Worksheets. A copy of the Living Architecture DVD is included in the price. The cost of the Starter Course CD-ROM (€30) also includes P&P worldwide. This cost can be offset against the full Course cost for those who wish to upgrade at a later date. | |
| HANDBOOK PARTS INCLUDED ON THE STARTER CD-ROM Part I ~ Introduction 17 Pages, 42 Illustrations Part II ~ The Brief 33 Pages, 43 Illustrations Part III ~ Measurement 13 Pages, 42 Illustrations Part IV ~ Drawings & Models 21 Pages, 65 Illustrations Part V ~ Space Mock-Ups 31 Pages, 48 Illustrations Part VI ~ Surveying 37 Pages, 60 Illustrations |
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| Plus Living Architecture DVD, video introduction, relevant Design Programme Steps and supporting Worksheets | |
| LAMINATED BEAMS | |
| Two soft wood laminated beams. Sizes : 8040 by 490 by 200 mm and 8600 by 400 by 200 mm, surplus to requirements. Located in west Cork, Ireland. Contact Jim O’Donnell: Jim @ odonnellfurniture.com (leaving out the blanks) |  |
Next Sheltermaker: Bealtaine
EconoSpace NOW
The EconoSpace is a small versatile building that can be configured to suit many purposes. The one illustrated above was self-built at a cost of €7500 and functions a Site Office & Workshop. It comprises a timber frame, suspended timber floor and external timber cladding with linseed oil paint.
You can download printable information on the EconoSpace here.
There is a story behind the development of the EconoSpace …
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This story began the day I decided that a mortgage was not for me and I drifted off into the world of creativity, poverty and freedom. From that vantage I imagined that it must be possible to construct a small house that was free of the tyranny of the mortgage. Little did I know what would be involved in that quest! |
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I began with self-building or what is called in Australia, where I am at the moment, owner-building. Building your own low-cost place is essential if you are on a tight budget. Apart from that, you need to make your own place because self-building means just that - an opportunity to express who you are. |
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Investigating self building led to the design of the Peter Post. This allows strong 3-dimensional structures to be made by facilitating easy jointing. You can see a couple of Peter Posts in the photo on the left. You can also see how the floor beams slot into the posts and how the structures sits on a very simple foundation - railway sleepers. |
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The first low-cost building I made with Peter Posts was an art studio. This sat in the garden of the rented house where I was living. The experience of building this encouraged the design the EconoSpace. This was configured to meet the parameters set out for garden sheds by Planning Authorities. You can construct a 25 square meter shed in your back garden as Exempted Development which means that you do not need to apply for planning permission in order to construct one. This means that the focus of your energies can be on carrying out the construction work and not on the endless paperwork involved in planning applications. |
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When I moved to Leitrim in 2002 I began work on the EconoSpace Prototype. This was a refined version of the art studio. I modified the peter post system to allow for variable wall thicknesses and consequently higher insulation levels. I also toyed around with the roof, creating covered areas along each side of the building. |
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I bought a piece of land in 2005 and obtained planning permission on it for a house, workshop and an art studio. I dismantled the EconoSpace Prototype in 2006, modified this and re-erected it on the site as a Site Office & Workshop to facilitate construction work. The total cost of the materials for the prototype/finished building was around €7500. |
 LIVING ARCHITECTURE SUMMER SCHEDULE  ALANNA MOORE’S SUMMER SCHEDULE
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In the summer of 2007 the main components for the new art studio - based on the EconoSpace design - were constructed with the help of volunteers. Further progress on the construction work was hampered by the fact that my own life was changing. The art studio was intended as a resting place for paintings created by my late partner Sharo. However life had different plans for me. These were more clearly revealed when I met up again with the beautiful Alanna. It soon became obvious that the motion of my life was to be forwards. Before my eyes the Art Studio morphed into a Love Shack. So things stand as I write from down under where I have been delivering the Living Architecture concept to a new audience. Alanna & I will be back in Leitrim for the summer pressing forward with our plans. This unfolding story will be recorded in words and pictures. We will both be delivering talks and workshops during our time there. |
I have configured various layouts for the EconoSpace including ‘living’ versions as per my original idea of creating a small home free of borrowings. However bear in mind that all buildings that are to be lived in require planning permission. This is why it is easier to construct an EconoSpace as Exempted Development on an existing domestic property as a garden shed. A budget of €12500 and upwards will allow a reasonable choice in regards to choosing natural materials and so on.
Do you want an EconoSpace?
I have assembled considerable information on how to construct an EconoSpace. I am currently preparing an information package based on this including material lists, technical information and instruction on setting up the necessary work areas - everything needed to make your EconoSpace project happen whatever your level of experience. This will comprise a mix of text, drawings and video.
If you are interested in the EconoSpace concept and wish to venture forward into the exciting world of affordable architecture you need to let me know that, to prompt me to complete this information package in the shortest possible time. I am involved in many creative projects the EconoSpace being just one of these. So register your interest at this point by emailing me at livingarchitecture @ eircom.net (leaving out the blanks).
To my mind we need to see a return to the old house raising traditions where we can co-operate in the creation of affordable and sustainable buildings. I can visualise a start to this process as people share information, time and skills in the process of creating their own EconoSpaces. This move to recapture our sheltermaking traditions can literally begin in our own back yards. Once we realise how empowering it is to construct our own buildings we can expand our ambitions and find creative ways of escaping the tyranny of the mortgage.
I have written extensively on these topics and you will find a wealth of information on Living Architecture on this site.
You can follow the Art Studio~Love Shack story in the postings here.
You can download printable information on the EconoSpace here.
You can download printable information on Exempted Development here.
I will be presenting a workshop on the EconoSpace at the Organic Centre in County Leitrim on Saturday June 28th.
The following videos will give you some idea of the experience of creating your own EconoSpace. These are extracts from the Living Architecture DVD.
The Art Studio~Love Shack story
Remember: LIVE YOUR ARCHITECTURE!
Architecture & Identity Peter Cowman BArch
Ancient buildings such as the Great Pyramids, the Parthenon, Newgrange and, in more recent times, the Gothic cathedrals, harbour secrets which were incorporated into their designs by their architects. This allowed for the abstract manifestation of these secrets within the buildings themselves. These can be described as the ‘feelings’ evoked by the architecture. The ancient secrets of design are founded on this ability of architecture to unify physical and emotional experience. This is assisted by the fact that buildings have an inside and an outside which is a reflection of the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ worlds we exist in. Where architecture provided a means of harmonising these physical and spiritual aspects of life, buildings functioned as identifying mechanisms allowing people to orient themselves in a multi-dimensional physical/emotional world. Because the unification of physical and emotional experience is the cornerstones of a sustainable life, an architecture appropriate to this must exist in order to live sustainably. This suggests that somehow the ancient secrets of architecture must be revived.
The elimination of what might be referred to as the ‘metaphysical’ aspects of building design dates from The Enlightenment which promoted reason as the only verifiable reality worth pursuing. This defined architecture as something physical, to be seen from the outside, not entered into and experienced. Status, grandeur and outward appearance become of paramount importance, effectively purging architecture of its secrets and ushering in the era of ‘soulessness’ in building design which still prevails. The long term effect of this has been to obscure the potential of architecture to orient people within the multi-dimensional physical/emotional world in which they exist and to compound the feeling of disconnectedness from life which many people feel.
It is generally assumed that professional architects are experts when it comes to house design. This infers that there are ‘schools of house design’ where architects - the only people formally trained to design buildings - receive initiation into the art. This is simply untrue. House design has always belonged to a separate tradition of architectural practice which is referred to as ‘the vernacular’.
Vernacular architecture design traditions encompass many of the dynamics that can be detected in the formal architectural tradition but with the veil of secrecy absent. This occurred because vernacular architecture had no formal body of practitioners but only imitators - those who kept traditional designs alive by continuing their development over long periods of time. The secrets thus perpetuated were open secrets and freely available to all. The application of this common knowledge had a similar effect on the architecture of the home as the application of formal architectural secrets did on ancient buildings - they forged a connection between the outer physical world and the inner emotional world. As such the home acted as an identifying marker, a reference point that allowed for the orientation of the individual within the world. It is the expression of this identity that forms the basis of culture. Where this orienting mechanism is absent the meaning of culture and self become confused and strong attachments to a uni-dimensional physical world becomes inevitable.
In the Irish context, the traditional cottage is the architectural reference point from which we derive a sense of who we are. However, as has been the case with modern architecture, the modern home, mounted on a pedestal of reason and with no emotional dimension whatsoever, can be an empty and soulless place devoid of any of the ‘feeling’ of the traditional and offering no clear signposting as to who the occupant actually is. Sustainable living demands an emotional bonding with life along with a clear sense of who we are and where we are going. The inability of modern architecture, and, particularly the architecture of the home, to provide such context demands a radical change in how buildings are designed and constructed. In the case of formal architecture this will involve an examination of how architecture is taught and practiced as well making reference to the ancient secrets of the profession. In the case of the architecture of the home it has to be realised that where no formal schools of house design exist and where professional architects do not consider the home to be part of their tradition, no centralising influence exists through which one can initiate change. This is alarming as the buildings we live in will largely determine how well we can manage to survive in a post Oil Peak ‘sustainable’ world.
Our genetic make-up is lavishly endowed with survival instinct out of which our ability to create shelter emerges. This ‘sheltermaking gene’ endows everybody with innate knowledge regarding the creation of shelter, which, along with food production, forms the foundation of our survival mechanism and provides a stimulus for the development of culture and identity. In part it is our distancing ourselves from direct engagement with sheltermaking and food production that has led to the disconnection we feel from life itself and from a sense of who we are. Up until the Industrial Revolution it was the norm for people to create their own homes, utilising common knowledge for guidance. The move away from building one’s own home effectively broke this thread of continuity and homes became ‘utilitarian’ rather than repositories of cultural identity within which people lived and engaged with life.
It is critical to understand how the relinquishment of what I call ‘personal sheltermaking’ - designing and building one’s own home - has affected people. Once the move away from the agrarian life was underway a whole raft of traditions were relinquished - symbolised by the quenching of the fire and the abandonment of the hearth. In other words the living traditions of survival activity were extinguished in favour of the promise of modernity. This fossil-fuelled leap forward used the machine to replace what heretofore people had provided for themselves either by their own energies or assisted by natural or animal power. The dissolution of cultural identity which such modernity engendered has left people adrift, disconnected, scrambling to understand themselves and the world around them.
The design ethos of the industrial-era home was forged out of obeisance to the new gods of power and money. This created houses that were mere boxes in which to partake of food, rest and procreation. These ‘homes’ incorporated none of the cultural idioms of the vernacular, effectively severing ties to emotional reality and offering no identifying markers to the individual . It is certain that the abandonment of the traditional rural life was wholeheartedly embraced by many at the time and indeed the promises of the Machine Age still remains attractive even in the face of its evident destructiveness. However, it is the élan of the deeper emotional connections that make our hearts soar and it is these deep connections that have been severed through the abandonment of traditional lifestyles. The surrender of control over the sheltermaking process has been a huge contributor to this sense of disconnection and loss. This is because architecture, by virtue of the fact that it brings together multiple dimensions to form itself, creates a natural doorway to our inner reality.
Apart from the disturbance to the continuity of the vernacular house design tradition caused by the Industrial Revolution another pernicious influence imposed itself on the ‘housing market’ - debt. Acquiring a home suddenly involved engagement with lending institutions and, the repayment from the proceeds of work, the resulting borrowings. With this shift in the nature of survival activity not only was the cultural wealth of the traditional lifestyle lost but also people found themselves locked into a cycle of work and credit in order to ‘pay their way’ in this new world. As a consequence, culture and identity, which spontaneously emerge from the traditional food/shelter cycles of activity, were replaced by idealisations exclusively available through the new matrix of survival activity - the Market Economy. Modern culture, including our homes, which emerged from this, forms the stage-set against which we represent our sense of who we are - our identity. Where this backdrop is forever changing we must continually strive to be someone else. This is a confusing state of affairs. It is also expensive, energy-hungry and generates voluminous amounts of waste as costume after costume is discarded in a search for true identity.
Understanding the puzzle of modern life is an integral part of repossessing the house design process - identifying who we are, where we are going and how we plan to get there. Formerly one simply donned the regalia of tradition and created a recognisable, familiar and workable habitation that facilitated the traditional survival activity. In the here and now, given the destructiveness of the Machine Age and the sense of loss which we collectively feel, picking up the threads of the vernacular sheltermaking tradition is a challenging but necessary exercise. It is against this backdrop that the drama of sustainable life will be played out. What is critical to appreciate is that no unifying body exists to guide this new sheltermaking activity and it will be up to people themselves to effect the necessary change.
Nowhere did the lack of authority in the house design sphere become more evident than in 1963 with the introduction of the first Planning Act. Before that time one simply built what one wanted more or less where one wanted. After 1963 Planning Permission was required for even a small house in the countryside. This created a demand for design drawings which had to be submitted with any Planning Application. Whereas in the old tradition one simply reverted to what was available locally in terms of design, imitating it by eye, the requirement for drawings in the new tradition spawned a market for design pattern books of which Bungalow Bliss is the most famous. These pattern book designs were based on the tradition of rural self-build but used new forms, materials and scale, paying no heed to physical, emotional or cultural connectivity.
Pattern books such as Bungalow Bliss sought to replace vernacular housebuilding traditions with modern designs that would usher people into the new age. However, as was painfully discovered, the new bungalow merely provided a cold empty container that had to be filled with consumer durables and meaning. The cultural dynamic of the traditional home was extinguished in a blaze of light. Prosperity had arrived and all were free to partake in its wonders. This, fanned by encouragement from the state and funded by easy credit, could not but consume all that had been left behind. While this was understandable, even necessary, no one realised that the conflagration of the past consumed a sense of who we were before we had quite figured out who we had become.
Bungalow Bliss belongs to the Victorian tradition of pattern book house designs where people are portrayed as an addendum to the perfection offered by the machine age. This approach casts the house as a stage upon which one acts out one’s own version of perfection attended by the accoutrements and fashions of the day. The drudgery of the agrarian life is obliterated by machine. The lure of this way of life lies in the apparent comfort it offers from hardship. While this may be appealing in terms of the physical effort required to live off the land, where a discontinuity occurs in terms of a sense of who we are the comfort zone of the warm interior offers no succour whatsoever. The market deals with this dilemma by offering endless identities for sale. Where such avenues prove to be emotionally unsatisfying the lure of a sustainable life becomes compelling.
The very purpose for which Bungalow Bliss was intended - the provision of design drawings to satisfy the requirements of the 1963 Planning Act - has now come to haunt the Planning system. Correcting the horror of this now informs Planning policy throughout Ireland. The bulk of County Council design recommendations currently in place evoke a pre-63 romanticism in terms of the outward appearance of houses, which is really the only ‘side’ of the house that the Planners seem to care about. The aim of these design recommendations is to evoke a cosy relationship between house and landscape based on the updated forms of the cottage vernacular. This effort to create a new vernacular, where it concerns itself only with the outside of a building, highlights the lack of direction and leadership which exists in the house design sphere and grants to Planning Authorities wide ranging influence on this sector. Where such influence is informed by a reaction to the Bungalow Bliss legacy a veritable straightjacket has been created out of plastered walls and blue-black roofs. Where Planners are not professionally trained house designers and where such guidelines are framed in a reaction to past errors, they inevitably clash with the needs of sustainable house design where it wishes to utilise alternative materials, to gather solar energy, to be affordable and well located and to cater for the myriad other considerations of a sustainable life. Thankfully laws can be changed but for such changes to be effective and meaningful in the context of the sustainable future we are all being urged to embrace, a new code of house design will have to be formulated that allows for the proper integration of the physical and emotional dynamics that constitute life itself. Inevitably such a task will lead to confrontation with the current norms regarding houses, their financing and the way we live. Such a path will be painful and challenging but the power of architecture to support truly sustainable living will make the effort more than worthwhile. In the meantime how the current sorry situation regarding house design - and architecture in general - has arisen needs to be fully understand. This will prove to be an unrivalled stimulant in enticing one to live more sustainably.
Because a sustainable life is an emotional as well as a physical one. it is vital that buildings designed for sustainable living take this into account from the outset. While such an approach might appear to be overwhelming, this is merely a consequence of including an ‘inner’ dimension in the design. This tracks right to the heart of our deepest fears concerning our survival. The potential onslaught from such encounters are indeed challenging, however, the strength derived from facing such fears will comfortably carry one through these ordeals. This is due to the response of one’s sheltermaking ‘gene’ which, if it’s call is honoured, will prove to be a steadfast ally. It is from this vantage that one ‘lives one’s architecture’, in the process reclaiming identity and contributing vitally to a culture of sustainability. It must be understood that the power to initiate such change lies within us - it can never belong to governments nor their agencies despite their claims to be arbiters of ‘sustainability’.
Because The House is central to realising one’s ambitions to live sustainably, the creation of an appropriate design is vital to the success of this. This will emerge from one’s own ‘identity’ – the life one has to live. It is the process of merging such ‘inner’ qualities with those of the ‘outer’ world which forms the ‘living’ architecture. This contributes to and compliments a ‘sustainable’ culture founded on the bedrock of a deep commitment to life itself.
Living Architecture DVD
06 Feb
Posted by: Peter Cowman in: Course in Sustainable House Design & Construction, Living Architecture
In 2005 several short films were made featuring various student projects.
A copy of this DVD is available for €5, post paid worldwide:
Some excerpts from the Living Architecture DVD:
Feedback from Course Students
06 Feb
Posted by: Peter Cowman in: Course in Sustainable House Design & Construction, Living Architecture
STUDENT FEEDBACK
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VIDEO FEEDBACK AVAILABLE HERE |
| ‘An empowering Course’ |
| ‘Peter is a foundation of information’ |
| ‘Living architecture has helped me experience a beautiful approach to building’ |
| ‘I came to learn about building a healthy home, learnt to build with love and everything became healthy’ |
| ‘Peter is a guru - his Course challenges your raison d’etre and rightly forces people to question their core beliefs on everything pertaining to the essence of what is life-promoting. He’s got some great ideas on sheltermaking also!’ |
| ‘If you are thinking outside of the box this Course will prove you are not crazy! |
| ‘Participating in this Course with Peter was like being involved in a piece of performance art’ |
| ‘The most alive Course I ever took’ |
| ‘I came alive with Living Architecture’ |
| How does it feel to live in a house designed around your personal needs? |
| ‘Wonderful.’ |
| ‘I often stop and wonder at it and appreciate it.’ |
| ‘I am walking around my ‘plan’ and it works extremely well.’ |
| ‘It feels great.’ |
| ‘I had perceived need for light after living in an old house. I got light and I am over the moon with it.’ |
| ‘So far there is nothing in the plan I wish I had done differently.’ |
| ‘Great!’ |
| ‘Far surpasses my expectations.’ |
| ‘On completing the Analysis Sheets I was unsure where all the questions led to, but having lived in the house for almost 10 months now, I appreciate that the sun is in the right place in each room at the right time of the day for me. It’s a very bright and, I think, cheerful home.’ |
| How has this changed your life? |
| ‘I love my home and coming home.’ |
| ‘I feel more rested at home, love to/prefer to work at home.’ |
| ‘I am able to put boundaries in place to ‘protect’ areas in the house e.g. for privacy.’ |
| ‘I have more personal space and I can accommodate visitors easily.’ |
| ‘Desired and fulfiled desire to rid clutter from life’! |
| ‘I find more people drop in to see me.’ |
| ‘It is a welcoming, relaxing, busy, house.’ |
| ‘I can sit in a space, look at the view and feel contentment for hours on end.’ |
| ‘More fun with my friends. More private space.’ |
| ‘The deck - because I have a place to skateboard.’ |
| ‘More confidence!’ |
| ‘It has given me great independence because the house was designed to meet my special needs.’ |
| Was it worth the time and energy involved? |
| ‘Yes, definitely. I found it exciting for a short while and really hard work from there on, needing lots of encouragement to do half-hour on it per day to huge reward.’ |
| ‘Yes!’ |
| ‘Yes it was worth it because I was so committed to it.’ |
| ‘Its only worth building a house if you really want to.’ |
| ‘I believe that there is not another way’ |
| ‘To give over control to someone else is asking for trouble.’ |
| ‘Yes. Now I can say it was worth it, though there were times that I certainly wondered what I had taken on. A bit like giving birth I would imagine. You forget the aches and pain when you have he finished product.’ |
| Did the involvement fulfil or surpass your expectations? |
| ‘I had low expectations, as I had never been involved in such before, and, as a woman I expected to be ignored or ridiculed or only listened to for the ‘kitchen’. So, I was surprised by the fulfilment.’ |
| ‘Very fulfiling. Hard work but very fulfiling.’ |
| ’My level of involvement was about right.’ |
| ‘I found a builder I trusted and in most aspects he did what I expected. I could discuss any aspect with him at any time very easily.’ |
| ‘I was allowed to spray paint my room with whatever I liked.’ |
| ‘This was something I entered into almost on the spur of the moment. I had no idea how involved it would be. I learned more in the first few months about drainage, plumbing, etc. than I ever thought I would need to know.’ |
| Was it possible to successfully incorporate your own ideas and aspirations into the project? |
| ‘Yes - and very exciting and lots of feelgood factor.’ |
| ‘I wanted an open plan which ‘flowed’ and also some separate rooms which doubled as activity rooms and guest spaces.’ |
| ‘The ‘relationships’ between the rooms work very well.’ |
| ‘Very much so.’ |
| ‘Yes.’ |
| ‘Internally, more or less, yes. Externally, we had to make many changes to comply with Planner.’ |
| ‘Absolutely, though having discussed what I wanted from the house and completed the questionnaire, there was very little to change in the initial plan.’ |
| ‘Yes, I pretty much got what I wanted.’ |
| Did you find the technical and design issues easy to understand? |
| ‘I can’t remember having difficulties.’ |
| ‘Not always, to be honest!’ |
| ‘Yes. Some challenges but a bit of communication solved all problems.’ |
| ‘Yes, very easy.’ |
| Would you encourage people to try this for themselves and, if so, why? |
| ‘Because I can’t imagine building a house and not making it personal/making it your own/putting the effort and energy into the place or allowing someone else to tell you what your needs and wants must be! ‘ |
| ‘Living space’ is just that and is part of who you are and how you feel. Planning in detail gets you in touch with this and relieves potential problems/headaches!’ |
| ‘It is worth the time and effort.’ |
| ‘I feel I grew along with the process.’ |
| ‘It is a very empowering experience.’ |
| ‘Yes, because it has been a great experience for me.’ |
| ‘Yes, though I’ve have to say a certain kind of person, willing and ready to be patient and put in the time.’ |
| ‘Absolutely. It’s wonderful to have a home that has been specially designed to meet your needs and lifestyle though if you had asked the same question when I was in the middle of building I probably would have given a very different answer.’ |
| Did your involvement in the process of designing and building your home produce benefits in other aspects of your life? |
| ‘I loved the design process and found that I was good at it’! |
| ‘Made me more aware of the space I am in.’ |
| ‘The Course encouraged me to join a local art class and it was through the class that I met my builder’! |
| ‘Yes, shook up lots of assumptions.’ |
| ‘Job satisfaction for myself working at home.’ |
| ‘Yes, the trapdoor is great for going from my room to the TV Room’! |
| ‘Coping with teenagers and toddlers in the same house.’ |
| ‘Made me aware of the importance of how a room ‘feels’ aiding my teaching.’ |
| ‘It has made me more critical of design generally.’ |
| ‘I feel that quality of my life has increased.’ |
| ‘Yes, it taught me patience. Nothing ever gets done as quickly as one would like but it is challenging and fulfiling.’ |
| Did you feel empowered by the experience and, if so, why? |
| ‘Very empowered.’ |
| ‘Building my design was a big undertaking. By succeeding I feel a great sense of achievement and satisfaction.’ |
| ‘Increasingly I felt that my opinion counted.’ |
| ‘I realised nobody else can live our life.’ |
| ‘Yes, the thought of doing this (planning our home) always seemed so daunting.’ |
| ‘I’m not sure about being empowered, but it’s certainly given me a great sense of achievement.’ |
| ‘I feel I would be fit to face almost any challenge in the future.’ |
| ‘Yes, I increasingly felt it was the right thing to do.’ |
TIME & SPACE
In Ireland spring is declared. Down under it is dry and hot, just past the peak of midsummer. I am drunk on funky houses, high on open space, confused by the sunpath which tracks from east to west via the north!
After a focussed poster campaign and good publicity we attracted around 80 souls to the Castlemaine Community House last Saturday to hear me rabbit on about The Architecture of Self. As I prepared for this talk I had to ask myself what I actually meant by that enigmatic title. What emerged from that inquiry turned out to be about shaping our architecture to suit our selves. This is hardly new but this time I found myself venturing deeper into the space-time continuum than previously. Honing my words under the red gums, crunching my way through the brittle leaf litter, I wondered how a new audience would receive these ideas. With the assistance of some video clips, the inevitable scale models and an audience full of anticipation, all went well on the day.
I am now looking closer at the integration of time into all considerations of space. These elements are naturally conjoined and share the characteristic of being infinite and boundless. Our lives are always conditioned by a sense of ‘our time on earth’ or our ‘lifetime’ or ‘making the most of our time’. This goes to the heart of our individuality and of our unique life paths. When we integrate space into such perceptions of time we can begin to link the space we occupy - our homes - directly to our lives. This goes to the heart of Living Architecture. I will be exploring this direction at length over the next few months.
‘Heartfelt thanks for your sincere and inspiring talk last weekend. You certainly held your large audience enthralled in spite of the heat and lack of oxygen!
THE ECONOSPACE PROJECT
TG4 at 8pm on Thursday February 14th
Now the focus is getting EconoSpace construction information ready to coincide with the broadcast on TG4 of the EconoSpace Site Office. The programme will go out on TG4 at 8pm on Thursday February 14th and will be repeated at 7.30pm on Sunday February 17th. This was filmed last summer when I was puzzled by the direction the EconoSpace Project was talking. The more I look at this building now the more I see it as potentially liberating for all sorts of people and situations. I see the possibility of a real networking situation arising here where people can share information on how to get their own EconoSpace up and running at a minimal cost. The construction information package will be ready shortly and will be sold through the Living Architecture Centre website as a A5 booklet with CD-ROM containing text and drawings.
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| The EconoSpace Site Office |
NEW COURSE BOOKLET
An A5 booklet with CD-ROM is the new packaging for the Solo Course In Sustainable House Design & Construction. This hand-made booklet features on the cover the Latvian log house created by Course participants Bernard & Zane Joyce in County Mayo, Ireland. This was featured on the RTE documentary ‘Building On The Edge’.
The new Course material now has a video introduction. This pays quite a bit of attention to the idea of ‘intangbles’. These, according to the dictionary, are things ‘unable to be touched or grasped; not having physical presence’. This is the perfect word to describe what we cannot explain rationally. With the predominance of science and the weight of logic which characterises it, we need words which touch the invisible realms.
The Solo Course is available at a cost of €150 post paid to anywhere in the world. This is the perfect opportunity to obtain a copy of his valuable information, if you have not done so already. It is also an efficient way of supporting my work at the Living Architecture Centre. Course participants are now formulating their own successful planning applications and organising their self-build projects on the basis of this information.
COURSE IN SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION €150
SPECIAL AUSTRALIAN EDITION COURSE CD-ROM
ONLY $150 WHEN SENT TO AN AUSTRALIAN ADDRESS!
LIVING ARCHITECTURE
If you would be interested in organising a talk about Living Architecture in your area why not contact me with a proposal? I will be back in Ireland in May. It seems to me that the heat needs to be turned up on all fronts to prevent a slide into sustainable apathy. We have to understand that we need to break out of the tyranny that the modern economy has become. Creating mortgage-free shelter is the key to this, particularly for young people.
Speaking of young people - I am planning some Summer Sheltermaking Workshops for young people up in Leitrim. Further details in the next Sheltermaker - Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere, autumn down here.
LIVE Course (3 1-day Sessions)
Yapeen, near Castlemaine Victoria
PLACES STILL AVAILABLE!
Bookings 5473 4284 or email: livingarchitecture @ eircom.net (leaving out the blanks)
Dates of the 3 sessions:
* Sunday Feb. 10th,
* Sunday Feb. 17th
* Sunday March 2nd
Times: 9.30am - 5pm.
(Refreshments supplied. BYO lunch.)
Session 1: Articulating and enumerating your needs; estimating floor
area; setting out your budget; measurement, drawings and models.
Session 2: Setting out your environmental preferences; heating, cooling
and ventilation; selecting materials and products; choosing a
construction system; plumbing, drainage and electrical services.
Session 3: Site selection and analysis; developing a layout; finalising
your design.
Fees: $100 per session or $250 for 3 paid in advance.
Full course + Course CD-ROM - special price of $400
Course CD-ROM $150 (in Ireland usually €150).
The next LIVE Course will be held at Yapeen on Nov 30th, December 7th
and 14th 2008.
A free DVD, featuring 5 projects completed by previous Course
participants, is available when people register interest in attending Courses.
Email - livingarchitecture @ eircom.net (leaving out the blanks)
TALKS
* Seymour, Victoria
Friday February 15th, 1.45 - 2.30pm
Hosted by Owner Builder magazine
at Seymour Farm Expo.
* Healesville, Victoria
Saturday March 1st, 1pm
Moora Moora’s Sustainable Living Festival
* Gawler, South Australia
Sunday March 16th
Food Forest Open Day
Info - brookman@bigpond.com
* Thora, NSW
Friday April 11th
at Patanga Community
Info - shane@wechosethegoodlife.com
‘The Sustainable Home - Siting, Design and Building’
* Daylesford, Victoria
Saturday February 9th
11 am - 5.30pm
Venue: Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre,
From vernacular house design to souless mass-produced shelter: What has
happened? What’s been lost? What can be regained? The integration of
‘inner’ and ‘outer’ considerations within the design equation -
articulating who we are, where we are going and how we intend to get
there. Redefining the ‘dream house’. Architecture as the integration of
space and time. Living our individual architecture.
Includes site analysis and building biology session with Alanna Moore.
Fee: $80 / $70 concession.
(PLACES STILL AVAILABLE)
Bookings - phone Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre
03 5348 3569
An Introduction to Sustainable House Design & Construction
Saturday June 7th
The Organic Centre
Rossinver, Co. Leitrim
Fees €90
www.theorganiccentre.ie
+353 (0)71 985 4338
The EconoSpace
Saturday June 28th
The Organic Centre
Rossinver, Co. Leitrim
Fees €90
www.theorganiccentre.ie
+353 (0)71 985 4338
An Introduction to Sustainable House Design & Construction
Saturday July 19th
Carraig Dulra
Glenealy, Co. Wicklow
info @ dulra.org (leaving out the blanks)
GEOMANCY
Australian geomancer Alanna Moore will be presenting dowsing and geomancy workshops in Ireland on the following dates:
* May 11th ‘Dowsing and Healing’, near Belfast,
at Donaghadee’s Navaho Holistic Centre
Bookings: lin@navahoholisticcentre.com
* June 7th, ‘Stone Age Farming’, Co. Clare
Venue: somewhere in The Burren
Bookings: Danny - litech@eircom.net
* June 8th, 10am - 3 hour workshop on
‘Divining the Dreaming’
with Alanna Moore
at the ‘Wise Women’s Weekend’, Sligo,
see: www.wisewomanireland.com
* June 15th ‘Divining Earth Harmony’, near Belfast
at Donaghadee’s Navaho Holistic Centre
Bookings: lin@navahoholisticcentre.com
* July 12-13th ‘Stone Age Farming’ workshop
at The Organic Centre, Leitrim,
with Sunday being a dowsing field trip.
Bookings: hansorganiccentre@eircom.net
If you are interested in organising a talk, workshop or on Geomancy in your area contact: info @ geomantica.com (leaving out the blanks)
ARTICLES
I have re-posted these articles:
Architecture & Identity
Adaptable Design
Next Sheltermaker - Spring Equinox
By changing the way in which we look at the subject of human shelter we gain the potential to change our lives. It is this key factor - the incorporation within a home of the natural ability to change and adapt - that offers the power to change not only ourselves but, in consequence, the world. It is the need for such change that characterises all proposed solutions to the problems of global warming, pollution, toxic waste, food contamination, and so on. The reason that house design wields such power is simple. Settled life is the basis of civilisation as we know it. Houses are the cornerstone of settled life, and, in consequence, underpin all the civilised values we revere.
This vital role that housing plays in civilised life is clearly reflected in the economic structure of the world where special status is ascribed to houses. Where virtually all other commodities fall in value after purchase, the opposite is true of houses which normally increase in value over the course of their lifetimes. This trick of accounting is a key component of the market led economic system that now shrouds the globe.
The special status that houses and property enjoy is forged by linking the work we do to the shelter we need to survive. By treating our working time as a commodity the economic value of our labour over a specified period - say, over 20 years - can be quantified. By allowing one to borrow against the projected value of this work and to use these borrowings to invest in a place to live, the ‘worker’ is tied to his or her job because he or she must repay from it the cost of the shelter that is essential to their survival.
The work/shelter cycle, as long as it satisfies people and their desire to live, is a miracle of progress. However when this cycle grows to depend on factors that are beyond the needs of people they become hostages to economic forces that have nothing to do with them or the life of the planet. This is the situation in the developed world at the present time. Economic growth is everything. This favours increased consumption and the application of market-driven solutions to the resultant woes. Because business is normally bottom-line driven and head-centred, the consequences of unbridled economic growth is often threatening to life on the planet. Solving these problems in a market led economy will, it is imagined, further assist economic growth!
Because houses form a vital part of economic systems, which are normally wholly focussed on commercial values, any change in the established work/shelter cycle is strongly resisted. This has never been more true that at the present time. Because property has been invested with a notional worth in the context of the market economy any major change that devalues this – for example, not being able to afford oil to heat an apartment – renders that property worthless in terms of actually using it for living in. As long as this is not an issue the bottom-line thinking can still rack up a paper rise in notional worth. However, as soon as a building needs to be lived in, particularly in the face of even a minor crisis, its adaptability will render it either ‘liveable’ or ‘uninhabitable.’ If such a crisis were to be a fossil fuel drought, not even money could solve the problem!
In many ways what is needed is a move to re-establish people’s ‘sheltermaking rights’ and to facilitate personal sheltermaking/homesteading. Also, ways will have to be found of financing such natural building without recourse to mortgaging. How a building can facilitate the earning of a living will also become more critical. Size, local materials and elements of self-building will all be part of the mix, including clustering initiatives. Land on which to build is obviously a nut to crack. Clearly, organic food production is part of the equation too. The gathering and storage of solar energy will be vital also. More than anything, viable and practical designs need to be developed that could be pre-approved by Planning Authorities with consultation only required on issues such as siting and access. Essentially, anyone thinking of building for the unknown future should ensure that adaptability is designed-in.
© Peter Cowman 2006
While I am pedaling the Living Architecture thing down under Sian & Martin are busy developing the garden back at the Site Office …
The Actual House
20 Jan
Posted by: Peter Cowman in: Course in Sustainable House Design & Construction, The Actual House
THE ACTUAL HOUSE
The Actual House concept grew out of the original Be Your Own Architect Course, first staged in 1989. Many people were inspired in these Courses by the idea of the different kind of house that I spoke of. Because they could not ‘actually see’ one of these houses they felt a little at a loss. Things were still at an early stage. No designs had yet been constructed.
I decided to design an ‘actual’ house that people could see and experience. I saw this as a versatile framework which could be adpated to individual circumstance and need. I followed the strategy developed in the Courses for the the initial design development. This was quite difficult as this strategy was geared to the creation of totally individual design solutions — the shaping of the architecture specifically to suit the lives of those who would live within. The Actual House concept somewhat contradicted this idea of a totally individual design solution for each Course participant. I seemed to be embarking on the creation of a standard box into which anyone could fit! This contradiction seemed worth exploring however as many other issues were arising in the Courses which needed to be addressed — the time people had available to develop totally individual designs; the preparation of the necessary drawings; questions of building economics and planning issues - to name but a few.
In resolving these issues The Actual House Design began to evolve into a standard framework that could support a complete range of individual needs from common necessities such as Bathrooms, Entrance Lobbies, Bedrooms and Kitchen/Dining/Living Areas, to more specialised requirements such as Offices, Workshops, Sunspaces and so on. Coupled with the evolving versatility in providing for a complete range of individual accommodation needs, the design began to embrace wider issues such as economy of construction; healthiness; buildability; passive solar energy usage; planning ; interior flexibility and expandability.
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Two versions of the Actual House evolved from this - a single storey 100sm/1000sqft version and a ‘loft’ version capable of providing up to 150sqm/1500sqft of versatile floorspace. With both versions utilising a similar ground floor ‘footprint’ this granted immense flexibility in the creation of individual plans and further allowed for these plans, once built, to be changed with a minimum of disruption. Featuring highly insulated suspended timber ground floors and passive solar capability, the timber frame structures could be married to a variety of insulating and finishing materials and the entire building could be self-built with a minimum of previous experience.
During the Summer of 1994 the project was on display at the Be Your Own Architect Studio in Ballydehob, West Cork. This allowed for a free exchange of ideas with those interested in the concept and promoted the refinement and simplification of the design. Soon, the focus of attention began to turn to the creation of a full size version of the Actual House. Naively, I thought it possible to access some of the European Structural Funds flowing about to construct the initial prototype! The extent of my naivety only manifest itself after a series of rebuttals. The inevitable analysis that I had to bring to bear on these blockages yielded some interesting truths - there is no support for solutions that promote lower expenditure in the housing field; the construction industry is a law onto itself; modern economics are based on borrowings using Bricks & Mortar as security; the politics of growth depend on the creation of bigger and more expensive houses and constantly increasing consumerism; alternative housing solutions are a threat to established property values; fear is the primary tool used in maintaining this status quo. Within this web, the frustration that many people feel about mortgages and dreary houses abounds.
In terms of the development of the Actual House Design, once these blockages were identified they could be circumvented. Creative energy was therefore lavished on realising the goal of building the first one. This began by developing a set of technical drawings, securing the rights to the design and then subjecting several different versions of the Actual House the rigours of the Planning System — which it passed with flying colours! 3 Actual Houses have now been completed with a total of 5 Planning Permissions granted.
Individual versions of the Actual House can be developed as part of the Course In Sustainable House Design & Construction.
© Peter Cowman 2006