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A building battle in East Jerusalem

Video: YouTube

It’s the minority running things in Israel and the US that spoil it for the rest of us.

I’ll say again, someone saying that their God says they are in the right and his chosen people, is no basis for justice, and an ability to miss direct or tell barefaced lies, is not going to fool anyone… but it may suffice for one eyed Judges, or a United Nations, where a majority is rendered impotent by one nation’s consciousless vote.

Moshe Safdie What makes a building unique

Video: TedTalks

The average home, in a sense, is much the same design that reared it’s ugly head some 8 or 10,000 years ago… little more than a box with windows and a couple of doors. The better new breed of housing, on the other hand, is where the living space is well thought out and takes into account sustainability, energy efficiency and the dynamics of how we live and work. The other thing that mystifies me, about the way we build our homes, is the fact, that they are not built to last, and are filled with toxic paints, carpets and a host of other such materials.

Another thing, related to the durability of our homes, is something that’s often seen in areas of tornadoes, tropical storms and hurricanes, where houses disassemble, every time they are struck by these weather events, it’s an inane way to construct homes and is very much a phoney capitalist consumer mentality… surely there are better ventures for business to get into, surely there are better ways to use our limited resources and provide employment opportunities… if it were up to me, I would suggest that the interest of humankind, would be better served by making sure all our eggs are not in one basket, all it would take to finish our race, is one decent size asteroid and if you think that’s unlikely, do a search in Google Earth for asteroid craters.

Anyway, getting back to the video, having had a Norwegian trained Architect for a mother, who had a passionate hatred of ill thought out ‘little boxes’, I’m a huge fan of well designed and built homes and buildings in general as seen in this video.

Grow a Treehouse with Terreform

Video: Inhabitat

I remember reading a Scifi years ago, that wrote about the concept of these sorts of structures being lived in. Personally I thought it was plausible and one day it might be possible… nothing has changed my mind. I see no reasons why whole dwellings or even partial dwelling should not incorporate these sorts of ideas, in fact bionic pergolas already exist.

4. Secret Rulers of the World - Hidden Empire (4 of 29)

Video: YouTube

Well I’ve said it before, if there is a god that created the whole universe/s, I some how doubt that they would be so insecure that they’d want us to worship them.

For me religion’s just another business, run by a bunch of self interested control freaks, and now we’re told that it is in fact The Catholic church is the wealthiest organization on the planet… a curious condition for an organization that damed the worshiping of idols and who’s main spokesperson (Jesus) knocked over the money tables in the temple and is said to have said “It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle”.

3.Secret Rulers of the World - Profiting from 9/11 (3/29)

Video: YouTube

This series is not just about 911, it’s not just another 911 ‘conspiracy’ video, though it does start out talking about it because though only a part of the overall scheme, it is an important part and with most crimes, there are almost always motives, multiple suspicious coincidences and opportunities galore.

If it’s not true what they propose in this series of videos, then there are a staggering number of inert connecting coincidences, including an Australian connection (Frank Lowe), which I doubt most people have heard of before.

2. The Secret Rulers of the World - Only the Start (2 of 29)

Video: YouTube

Douglas Adams wrote. “There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened”. Well guess what?, 911’s like that.

There are sooo many theories that we’re being theoryed out, but there are far too many ‘coincidences’ and too much misinformation, both deliberate and possibly unintentional, to be beyond doubt it wasn’t an inside job. The Neocons who deny it was an ‘inside job’ would probably say. ‘You can’t convict someone on such flimsy evidence.’ Well, I’d say, but you do all the time yourselves. Take all the kids in jail for smoking Pot for instance… it’s never in countless thousands of years killed anyone, it’s far less harmful than tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs or even doctors by the government’s own statistics.

So using the Neocons own methodology, I and others should be able to say. Hey, there’s something definitely screwy about the Neocons’s version of 911. For a start, apparently according to the FBI’s director Robert Mueller, 7 of the alleged 911 hijackers are still alive, and an 8th died 1 year before 911! Also Architect Richard Gage and his colleagues repudiate the Neocons claims in the video series “How the Towers Fell”… these guys aren’t incompetents as it would seem on the surface which the likes of Bush and Rumsfield are, these guys build and design buildings like this, they are specialists scientists who deal with fact and figures for a living, they are not professional liars or spin doctors.

If there has been a crime then the first thing you do is work out who benefited and it seems to me that those who benefited the most are the Military Industrialists, the Security organizations, the Legal System, the few who seemed to have an uncanny amount of luck either buying the World Trade buildings and then jacking up the Terrorism insurance and last but by far not the least is the Banks… and of course Bush and the Neocons.

Anyhow, I urge every body to watch these videos and to tell your friends about them… they are dynamite.

Norman Foster Building on the green agenda

Video TEDTALKS

“Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and “basically pollution-free.” He shares projects from throughout his career, from the pioneering roof-gardened Willis Building (1975) to the London Gherkin (2004). He also comments on two upcoming megaprojects: a pipe to bring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, and the new Beijing airport.”

Well it looks like the Hippies were right all along!

As for iPods, well I own an iRiver which runs on a single rechargeable AA battery… so I don’t have to send my MP3 player off to have the battery changed when it dies.

This video is worth watching. Although it pertains to commercial buildings for the most part, the basics apply to domestic housing, concepts which in Europe are largely the norm. Homes should be built to be practical, efficient and made to last.

My mother was, or is a European trained Architect, so I have probably a better appreciation of Architecture than most. We in England, the US and here in Australia, for the most part build appallingly designed homes. Sure there a few exceptions, but for the most part they do not take into account the local environment and they are certainly rarely built to last, or designed to conserve energy to any substantive degree.

I’ll use the US as an example here, largely because they are the number one consumer nation. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen US homes in Hurricane & Tornado areas, disassemble in the frequent storms. The first thing that happens is the roof generally lifts off in one hit… and then that’s it for that building. Duh! Why keep building the easy to disassemble homes in the same area time, after time, after time?

How can it be economically correct to keep on doing what’s not working? It might work for the Builders, Banks & Insurance companies… but that’s all, it’s broken economics. If you are going to live in those areas, build to last, build out of concrete or something that wont end up in the land of Oz, the first time a storm or Tornado hits.

If your in a hot or cold climate, why spend money year in year out air conditioning or heating, if with double or even triple glazing, proper insulation and proper design, you wont spent a fraction of what you probably are now on heating or cooling ever again… I just don’t get it.

Governments should give huge tax breaks and give low interest loans to the needy to ensure that homes are both efficient and safe. They should punish people through taxes for building those godawful McMansions, as we call them in Australia… and we are no better here I’m embarrassed to say.

A lot of Australia’s stupid ideas come from watching American TV, that promotes the illusions of grandiose mansions, which obviously are far from the norm. They are for the most place just empty headed warped imitations of ‘good’ homes, just with nose, teeth and boob jobs like many of the actors in those shows, in 10 or 20 years at best they will be gone… that’s no way to build a house or a home for that matter. It’s wasteful, inefficient and really stupid.

Off The Grid

Video: Google Video

It’s a reasonably long video, of just one families determination to ‘Get off the Grid’. Their efforts, by some people standards may be some what eccentric. However, I feel in the long run, their efforts of sustainability and self reliance, may be rewarded. And considering how things are looking now, they may well have the last ‘laugh’.

Southern California Edison to install 65 million square feet of solar cells on rooftops

Photo: Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press

Now this is a good idea. There is a huge number of roofs that are absorbing the suns energy everyday and this area is going to waste. Why not utilise this area to capture energy in the form of solar cells.

An extra 500 megawatts of renewable electricity

California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just announced 2 big solar projects for Southern California.

US Power Utility Southern California Edison has just announced plans to cover business rooftops in Southern California with 65 Million Square feet of Solar Photovoltaic cells, which will provide a total of 250 megawatts of electricity generation.

The plan also coincides with another 250 megawatts of solar thermal power that is to be installed and run by Florida Power and Gas (FPL) in the Mojave Desert.

The total of 500 megawatts is a significant number and is enough to provide electricity for more than 300,000 homes.

These two projects will help to ensure that California can meet it’s goal of 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.

Solar on many roofs

The Edison project will put photovoltaic solar cells on 65 million square feet of commercial building roofs in Southern California. These cells will produce as much as 250 megawatts of electricity and provide power for about 162,500 based on estimates.

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Dennis Weavers Earthship

“Dennis Weaver, the US retired actor, here builds himself a mansion made almost entirely from….old tyres and dirt. This is all eco-modernisation, proving once and for all that eco-friendly design and construction/building does not have to smell or look funny. In fact, it is cheaper, quicker, easier and safer to construct such an ‘earthship’ than any conventional construction technique! This is eco-rationality in action. Prepare to be amazed.” - Google Video

Video: Google Video

G’day again it’s me Beam and I got to say the idea of building your own home, staying off the Grid; unless it’s to sell them power, and capturing & storing your own water appeals to me greatly… and why wouldn’t it?

Some years back I had a friend who lived in a ‘Straw House’ and no Wolf was ever going to blow that house down, and contra to what most people might think, inside it looked much the same as a lot of homes I’ve been in, though it was a lot better insulated.

Personally I’m not too impressed with most of the houses I see and I believe that this has a lot to do with the Bankers who wont support alternative building methods, by giving people loans to build them, or then there’s those other cretins the Councilors, who might say that they don’t ’suit’ the area… well they would if there were more of them.

Mind you those Councilors, until relatively recently would not allow rainwater tanks… now you have to have one if your building a new house, which at best shows how slooow they are… remember I’m in Australia, supposedly one of the driest, if not the driest continent on Earth. You would think that capturing the rain is a better solution than letting it go down the drain wouldn’t you, you’d think it’s quicker, cheaper, easier and logical to offer a ‘cash back’ for people installing a suitable tank, than say building another Dam or a power hungry desalination plant?

Logic, well OK then ethical logic, has little to do with how decisions are made. A Politician’s logic revolves around themselves, our previous State Pollie who’s name was Carr, ironically didn’t drive, landed a $500,000 pa job with the very same bankers (Macquarie) who benefited through, again ironically building roads and tunnels for cars… well OK lets be honest for the Bank.

But wait there’s still more, his replacement, Morris Iemma, who for some inexplicable reason I keep calling him Morris Enema, has also inexplicably, still got his hart set on a desalination plant, which more than likely will be financed by Macquarie and then to cap of his hopefully short and intellectually lethargic career as State Premier, with the help of his Treasurer Michael Costa; who’s more like one of The Sopranos mindless thugs, they’ve got the power covered too, they want to sell NSW’s Electricity… didn’t they notice what happened to California when it privatized it’s electricity?

At this point I will ask, seeing you can’t, how the hell did I get from Dennis Weavers home built home to dumping on politicians? mmm tricky. Building a house is both important and complex in ways not often considered. It’s like health, education, food and a host of other necessities that have been captured by big business for the benefit of big business (ultimately Banks). My proof, Florida and the Tornado belt USA where they keep building poorly designed and built homes that keep getting blown down by Hurricanes & Tornadoes which has been going on for years and it seems, will probably be happening more frequently in the future… this can not be for the benefit of the home owners.

I think I’m going to talk more of the way we might better build better homes in my subsequent posts.

You are my Sunshine

Video: YouTube

“If you think the sun shines out of your a…. - try using an energy saving light-bulb instead! Voiced by Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).”

The Mill House Västra Karup, Sweden… not Japan

What a beautiful home.

Photo: James Silverman

Photo: James Silverman

“This house is a manifestation of the Swedish ritual of sauna and bathing. It is an annex to a large old farm in the countryside of southern Sweden, converted into a vacation house for a family from the nearby city of Malmö. Apart from the sauna and attendant spaces for undressing, washing and relaxing, the Mill House is also a small dwelling. The traditional rite of sauna involves baking together and dashing out for an invigorating dip in a cold stream. The meager creek on the property was insufficient for the purpose, however, so a small pool was built adjacent to the sauna. The exposed construction demanded carpentry of unusual excellence.

In combination with the intimate size, it promotes the atmosphere of a Zen master’s tea house.”

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