August Sheltermaker
| Architecture+Philosophy |
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| Friday, September 16 7:00pm in RMIT Building 8, Level 11, lecture theatre 68, to the right of the lifts 360 Swanston St, Melbourne, Australia FREE EVENT |
| Peter Cowman on ‘Living Architecture’ |
| In this stimulating presentation, architect Peter Cowman takes us on a mystery tour within the quasi-secret world of architecture.
From Newgrange to New Age, from tree house to temple, we are invited to explore architecture inside and out. Within this juxtaposition of time and space are to be discovered threads, emerging from the past and snaking forward to inform an invisible future. This insight leads us inwards to where dreams and expectations are forged. It is here, we come to realise, that the experience of architecture is conceived and a missing link between architecture+life awaits discovery. |
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| Architecture+Philosophy is an independently curated, flexible public program providing a unique opportunity for a space of exchange between the two disciplines In 2011, the series is supported by the School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University, and by Mediated City, DRI (Design Research Institute), RMIT University. |
| Peter Cowman is an architect, teacher, writer, eco-builder and director of the Living Architecture Centre |
| Newgrange & The New Science |
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| Under the title ‘Newgrange & The New Science’ author Kieran Comerford lures us inside that eponymous neolithic giant of the Boyne Valley, illuminating its darkness with intuition and skillful insight. |
| As probing as any solstitial light event, this timeless experience leads us from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the present to the past – then back again. When we finally emerge from this incredible journey it is to discover that our consciousness has shifted allowing us to experience the world afresh. |
| No time is wasted or sacred cow spared. Male domination is dispatched so swiftly we hardly have time to catch a breath. Next, the world as we know it is deconstructed as we spiral off into space-time, cruising the invisible realms of emptiness and atoms, gravity and dark matter. From this high altitude we are invited not only to experience the world anew but to feel its vibrations deep within ourselves. |
| Before we know it the earth moves once more beneath our feet! Crustal displacement shifts the poles, changing our perspective and laying the foundations of modern civilisation and the science which dominates it. Vision quests, devas, orgone energy, elemental beings or magical ritual have no place in this world. We experience this absence as emptiness. To fill this void we must balance reason with intuition, opening the wellspring of knowing within our hearts. |
| Intention is the key to renewing ourselves and resonating with the Universe. It is by such means that we can order our world and orient ourselves meaningfully within it. |
| A paradigm shift of this nature is well within our grasp. Kieran Comerford clearly shows us the way. The epitome of the ‘modern man’ – learned, insightful, loving and considerate – he reaches out a hand which we should immediately grasp. Buy and read this book, change your life and the world will soon follow. |
| Real Estate Ransom |
| Real Estate 4 Ransom is a new documentary about global property speculation and its impact on the economy. Real Estate 4 Ransom considers changing motivations behind property investment and challenges the notion that the Global Financial Crisis was caused by bank lending.
Shot over 5 years, the film portrays many of the big picture issues world politics are grappling to deal with from an economics perspective. The 40 min documentary looks at whether genuine freedom has been delivered by the democratic system. The inefficiencies of the economic system are investigated and the impact this has on potential homeowners and small businesses. The documentary argues that with a simpler tax system, entrepreneurs have a better chance to succeed and the average Australian has a better chance of owning their own home. What role did real estate play in the crashing of the global economy? Co-Directors Karl Fitzgerald and Gavin Emmanuel have crafted a 40 minute documentary which features high profile economists, international guests, local homebuyers and renters, all who discuss their take on the state of Australia’s economy. Animations, music and a little humour are used to make economics interesting. |
| EconoSpace Open Days |
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| If you’ve wanted to experience an EconoSpace now is the time. |
| With EconoSpaces on view in northern and southern hemispheres, a defining line is being drawn symbolizing the potency of such small buildings. |
| The more that it is realised that unsustainable consumption is an inevitabile consequence of mortgage-financed home ownership, the more people will want to free themselves of such shackles. |
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| Learning how to build ecoloigically and pyschologically sound, low-cost shelter is a necessary precursor to such liberation. |
| Here is a simple building which can easily be made in the average backyard. |
| This is the ideal way to learn what are relatively simple skills. |
| The back garden is also the ideal place in which to learn them. |
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| You can even make your EconoSpace in such a way that it comes apart allowing it to be moved to another site some day. |
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| And best of all? |
| It’s a shed. |
| A very fine and beautiful passive solar eco dream shed, to be sure. |
| But a shed nonetheless as far as the planners are concerned, so there’s no need to get planning permission or a building permit. |
| The Open Days will allow you to not only experience one of these buildings but also to talk to the people who made them. |
| They might just let you in on the secret of how a small building such as the EconoSpace might change your life in the nicest possible way. |
| MORE INFO ON ECONOSPACEMAKING INCLUDING THE HOW-TO-DO-IT DVD |
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| GREEN-DOOR LEITRIM, IRELAND |
| 9 – 11th SEPTEMBER 2011 |
| Organised by Inspirational Homes Leitrim |
| Visit the original EconoSpace built by Gareth Phelan (above, right) and film director Johnny Gogan’s EconoSpace (above, centre). |
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| You can even buy a short film that includes Gareth telling his sheltermaking story. LIVING ARCHITECTURE DVD |
| You can also get a look at Gareth Phelan & Ciara Barrett’s home made up of 2 conjoined EconoSpaces! (below, pictured under construction) |
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| Inspirational Homes Leitrim’s Green-Door event will also provide access to a number of other buildings embodying Living Architecture principles. |
| Check their website for further details |
| SUSTAINABLE HOUSE TOURS |
| CASTLEMAINE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA |
| Saturday Oct 15th |
| Organised by Mount Alexander Sustainability Group |
| LIVING ARCHITECTURE CENTRE OPEN HOUSE |
| Sunday October 16th 11am – 4pm |
| Yapeen, Castlemaine, Vic, Australia |
| Organised by the Living Architecture Centre |
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| This is a chance to visit the EconoSpace I’m constantly charmed by. |
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| Made largely of recycled materials plus clay and straw and lovingly assembled by a dedicated band of students and volunteers, this little beauty is a mere 10sqm+. |
| Constructed on a budget of $5000 this building gives to lie to expensive eco-products. |
| Directions to the venue will be available on this website in advance of the event. |
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| Anima Mundi |
| Will you survive the transition of human industrial civilization happening now due to peak oil and climate change? Can you see the forest for the trees, the earth for the dream, the universe for the seed? Anima Mundi is an innovative documentary about the planetary animal called Gaia and the human animal we deny, we deny at our own peril, yet a peril that is perfect in design.
FEATURING |
| Revolutionary Energy Machine |
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The Lutec 1000 has been granted patents in at least 60 countries around the world, including the US, China and India.
Engineers John Christie and Lou Brits, who have endured intense criticism after they first unveiled their invention in 2001, are now preparing to construct a prototype of their revolutionary power device they hope to market within the next two years.
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| The Town That Disney Built |
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| Thousands longing for the wholesome safety of 1950s America have bought into a tightly regulated Florida town constructed by the Disney Corporation. But recent deaths and foreclosures have shown the dark side of their southern idyll. |
| Bird House Boom |
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| SUKADANA, Indonesia — Along the spine-jarring road that runs through this city on the South China Sea, in between the sparse, waterlogged shacks of corrugated aluminum and wood, colorful buildings have begun to sprout. |
| They tower over their low-slung surroundings with dollhouse facades, colored in baby blues, sunshine yellows and ruby reds.
Sukadana, a small coastal city in western Borneo, is in the midst of a building boom. But the new houses are not for people … |
| NEXT SHELTERMAKER – EQUINOX |
Mayday Sheltermaker
| The EconoSpace in Permaculture mag. |
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| The EconoSpace features in the current edition of Permaculture Magazine |
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| Meanwhile, in central Victoria the mini-EconoSpace is being readied for occupation. Natural paint using locally sourced ochre is being applied both inside and out. Pictures in the next Sheltermaker. |
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| This building has cost only AUD$4000, the equivalent of €3000! |
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| Discover EconoSpaceMaking yourself.
Full details HERE |
| Saturday June 11 |
| Dunolly, Victoria, Australia |
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| Creating space to cater to the intangible aspects of our lives is the theme of this workshop. Whether it is making a meditation space for oneself, creating a miniature temple for a favorite deity or crafting a space where one can simply ‘be’, this workshop will explore the exciting and liberating aspects of creating space that is dedicated to our inner lives. |
| Fee: $75 – Couples $135
Booking Fee: $25 with balance payable at the Workshop |
| The peculiar story of the EconoSpace on RTE’s Nationwide programme |
| The death of natural herbal medicine |
| !!URGENT European ban on natural herbs!! |
| Traditional Herbal Medicine Product Directive |
A new European directive comes into force on 30 April, 2011 making it illegal to grow, dispense, prescribe or use natural herbs used in TCM, Ayurveda etc. The only thing that will be legal is synthetic chemical pharmaceuticals. We can make a difference. Urgent action is needed. Stop the directive from being implemented. Please sign the petition wherever you are and forward this to everyone you know. This is hugely important and urgent – there will be no turning back once this has gone through. Big Pharmas will take your natural products and synthetically produce them, and only they will be able to sell them. Independent health shops will close, key therapies will cease. Bringing the herbs in from another country will be illegal !!!! |
| SIGN THE PETITION HERE |
| Hazards of Energy Efficiency |
By Alanna Moore  |
| In 1989 I studied a course on Building Biology that had just been translated from the German. It warned of the hazards of modern building practices and materials in relation to human health, comfort and wellbeing, as well as any deleterious planetary effects. Penned by architects and health and building professionals in Germany, it’s dictum is that our homes should be healthy spaces where we can relax and rejuvenate. Unlike homes with Sick Building Syndrome, our homes should protect us and foster our wellbeing. |
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| Twenty one years later and I lament that Building Biology has not captured people’s attention as much as other important environmental issues. We do spend a great deal of time indoors, after all. Yet what has become paramount in the current ethos is the Green Spin of energy efficient building that is totally divorced from our own biological needs. |
| These days society has a semi-robotic nature. People don’t seem to ask questions any more. They pretty much just accept the status quo and the spin that goes with it. In terms of Energy Efficiency and the Power Down scenario of Peak Oil, this seems very much the case. But we ignore the tenets of good Building Biology at our own peril! The concept of sustainability should include humans in there too! |
| Technocratic spin doctors chant mantras of their ‘adhering to the national standards’. Meanwhile, in other countries, such as Russia, standards for exposure to electro-magnetic radiation and other environmental hazards can be way more stringent. We really need to take the more precautionary approach. There can be energy efficiency that doesn’t compromise our health. |
| So here is my checklist of potential hazards for the home and home planet. |
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| 1. Compact Fluoro Lightbulbs. They have a ghastly dull light, they flicker – affecting our brainwaves, and they contain mercury!! For good energy efficiency, the best alternative is to replace all your bulbs with low radiation LED bulbs. (And don’t send those compact fluoros to landfill! Get them properly recycled.) |
| 2. The Air Tight House. Trying to keep any fresh air out and all the heat inside, it makes for a good mausoleum. This might save on the heating bill and greenhouse gases, but if the building can’t breathe and outgass naturally how are we to breathe? Our homes need to act as a ‘third skin’ for us. This is the most well known tenet of good Building Biology. As an alternative – put on a wool jumper and long johns instead! |
| 3. Fibreglass Insulation Batts. Fine particles can end up in the lungs. This could be the asbestos of the future. Plenty of alternatives around. |
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| 4. The ‘Smart Meter’. Never was there such a misnomer! Said to be an adjunct to ‘managing’ electricity demand, it doesn’t actually encourage a frugal use of electricity. That requires education and a change in the mainstream ethos that is anti-consumeristic – hardly something on any government’s agenda. What it does do is irradiate us with more electro-smog. To quote the ‘EMR & Health’ (Jan-March ’10, vol 6 no 1, page 3) |
| “The smart meters relay information about electricity consumption through radiofrequency signals similar to the radiation emitted by mobile phones. This radiation will travel through the power lines, through household wiring on top of the 50 Hz signal that is already in place. Information recorded by the meters is transmitted four times a day through power lines to an access point, usually on a light pole, which acts like a mini base station in a mobile phone network. One access point usually serves homes within a wide radius… Because it falls under the category of ‘low impact facilities’ it is legally immune from council control.”
But ‘low impact’ doesn’t necessarily mean low levels of health effects. The low level of power they use could be pathogenic over a lengthy exposure. “Low power signals may even be more biologically active because the body is accustomed to low-power signal and so they may slip through its defence system,” says ‘EMR & Health’. |
| If you want to know more about the prospect of ‘dirty electricity’, which could be soon, or might be already, contaminating your household electrical system from so-called ‘Smart Meters’– read Donna Fisher’s ‘Silent Fields – the growing cancer cluster story’, Lindlahr Books, Qld, 2008. |
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| 5. Wind Farms. They are not reliable enough to replace coal powered stations. And that’s just as well. If you find yourself living within a kilometre or two from one of these, and especially if you are downwind from them, you will be a candidate for Wind Farm Syndrome – headaches, insomnia, irritation…. Niggling symptoms that don’t quite qualify as ‘real’ health impacts, so you might also get accused of hypochondria! Certainly any grazing animals living beneath the turbines will suffer most – milk drying up and dying quickly etc. |
| “Massive wind technology produces a relentless fusillade of pulsating sound, mechanical in pattern, audible to all and intolerable to many, particularly those sensitive to infrasound vibrations.”—Jonathan Boone, Ph.D. Maryland, USA |
| Not only is the noise and altered atmospherics a health hazard, sometimes the very ground in the vicinity is found to be electrically live! (This is due to stray voltage from the high number of underground linkages between the turbines.) |
| See the articles at my website, such as the one that starts off: “One dairy farmer lost 600 cows over some years as stray voltage reduced his cows’ immune system. He had so much stray voltage that when he dug copper wire into his soil it lit up an electric light bulb…” Read here. http://www.geomantica.com/geom28.htm#7 and also http://www.geomantica.com/geom45.htm#3 |
| Also see an American site: www.windturbinesyndrome.com |
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| 6. Concrete floors for heat banking in solar-passive house design. In this regard – they are an over-kill. Concrete homes are damp for years and have terrible ‘feng shui’. You can feel drained of energy if spending time on a concrete floor. The metal mesh in them can be a conduit for stray electricity and any geopathic stress* too, if that is present, so earthing needs to be very good. Concrete has no breathing ability at all. The production of concrete (and also lime) is very high in terms of energy and resource use. In fact it’s probably the most un-eco-friendly building product around. But there are alternatives! |
| There are many more examples, but these are some of the worst examples in my home state of Victoria currently (the Smart Meter is being introduced first to this state), as well as in many other regions worldwide. |
| As a sensible society, we don’t have to take the Techno Trip to Hell. Living in an Over-Developed Country means we need to learn from the ancient wisdom in vernacular, natural buildings and the ecological traditions of our ancestors and less-environmentally -impacting neighbours of today. |
| * Geopathic stress is a natural problem of the geo-biology of a place and it needs to be checked to ensure you are living in a healthy home. The author is a professional consultant in geobiology and geomancy. Email: info@geomantica.com |
| Response to Greenwash Article |
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From Joey Cleary:
I was thinking that Alanna’s article about her experience at Cloughjordan would be an excellent addition to my former village members website at http://www.cloughjordan.net/
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| From Anthony Ashworth:
I wanted to congratulate you on the Green Wash article, well done! |
| Most importantly, I applaud your statement about making what we have more sustainable, rather than merely building new developments and worse still building on green field sites! I live in an established country community one half hours from Sydney and where we are under real pressure from the State Gov’t to expand housing into the environment and into green fields, and due to obsessive and misguided philosophies that “the economy, thus the population must continue to grow”. |
| I became intimately aware of Green Wash myself, after having consulted on so called “Green” developments in conjunction with so called Australian top sustainable Architects. |
| It was all developer driven, to wash council and community objections away from Green Field developments. On one occasion I designed the master site plan only to be told I needed to modify it substantially to radically increase the number of homes planned for the site “it’s got far too much open green space, we can make it sustainable with technology” I felt that I had already really pushed the site coverage, it was now certainly NOT sustainable for the environment, the local eco system, nor the expected residents, perhaps it never was, and I had been green screened and perhaps culpable myself, in helping to design just another awful battery chicken farm for humans over 55, badged as sustainable green living. |
| The saddest thing for me was, apart from my own misgivings about my involvement, was witnessing the highly reputed Eco/Green Architect being just fine with the process, he did not stand up to the developer at all, nor even point out the hypocrisy, thus making him as well as the developer a Hypocrite. |
| Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie. Wikipedia |
| I am much more aware of what projects I agree to be involved and complicate in, lest I should have my soul dirtied by the wash. |
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| The editor of The Scavanger magazine was also quick to pick up the story! |
| Living Architecture – Chinese style |
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| Article from Malaysian magazine featuring an article on Living Architecture …. in Chinese. |
| Next Sheltermaker – June 21 |