Thanks for this continuing journey, Kyle. It gets my imagination wondering about what might be possible, though I did build a 1200 square foot house last year, much of it myself, though not the framing, plumbing or electrical work. Less than 1/3 of the internal walls are sheetrock, and only the downstairs ceilings. Lots of screwed-in plywood, good insulation and well considered windows for airflow as desired.
The embodied energy is a long term family investment.
I naturally wonder if bamboo could become a mode of construction in the Texas coastal plains.
You have done more than most to take control of your housing.
The Texas coastal plains are suitable for a number of good quality species of bamboo from the genus Phyllostachys and a few of the more cold hardy species from the genus Bambusa and Dendrocalamus. I foresee a day when the growing of bamboo as a building material becomes a lucrative crop for some farmers.
This really gets me thinking regarding building another bungalow. I've told my daughter that my worst nightmare living arrangement, lived in by a large number of Americans, is an overpriced 4000 square foot mansion stuck in some HOA where you can't even decide what plants to put in the ground, which has other houses two feet away on each side of it, a 6 foot by 8 foot cement slab for a back yard and the same area for the front yard. Yet people do God knows what kind of unfullfilling crap to pay $5000 per month mortgages, HOA, insurance and interest just to live in such places. I concur with your ideas!
I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a while back and she mentioned visiting someone who built houses from all-natural materials, one of which looked like a mushroom (and had a ladder so you could sit on the roof). Do you have any idea who this is?
I live in an 1840s farmhouse which was really rundown when we bought it. Still needs work, will always need work, but it's kept us dry for 40 years (and generally warm these days). Would love to find someone who would like to live on 44 acres in central Maine and help out with the chores -- we're 70 and 72 -- but it seems difficult to connect.
I finally found the host application, then was so exhausted from hunting for it that I gave up. Now I can't find it at all. Not a very good website, cute but not user-friendly.
Thank you for this, I'll try it. I tried Maine Farmlink here, but other than one very nice young man who has cut wood for us in the past I met an amazing collection of weirdos. It's amusing in retrospect, but not amusing at the time to eat lunch with someone who smells bad or to interview a "part-time female dominatrix" who forgot to mention her "profession" right off.
This house is pretty amazing. It was really well-built originally with lots of supports in the cellar including granite monoliths and a brick wall between the Cape and the ell, with a stone floor in the cellar. Our furnace sits on a huge slab of rock, but so much soil had washed through the cellar in the intervening years that it would have taken Hercules to dig it all out so we put in a French drain and a concrete floor (plumbers and electricians were delighted). A major renovation occurred in the 1870s (newspaper under new floorboards in the sitting room), then the house was poorly cared for for the next 100 years. We've removed half of a breakfast nook built by my former neighbors' father (the other half having fallen off in the 1970s) which I called the grackle nest; two bay windows which were rotten; covered the asphalt shingle roof which covered the shake roof with a steel roof; replaced one chimney with a new three-flue chimney and lined the kitchen chimney with pipe. You should see the very deep eaves; no difficulty now building such deep eaves with a nail gun but a carpenter said, "Can you imagine doing that with a ballpeen hammer?"
I really like this house, but in retrospect I would prefer living in a mushroom!
Endlessly fascinating../Would bamboo be a material to use in the North of the Country...Midwest U.S. where it's been below Zero until these last days when it reached 32 degrees fahrenheit. Can imagine the use of straw here as we have loads upon harvesting the wheat; but it's next to impossible to consider some of what you're suggesting for this area.
Very sad story about Costa Rica; and all too common in what's known as the Third World having people with far greater common sense than the Imperialist Fascists you're defining 'Globalists'.
There are a few species of the genus Phyllostachys that can tolerate temps below zero. Bamboo in conjunction with cob and/or straw bale construction would be a good option. I'll be getting into those possibiities soon.
Building with the use of straw was common here up until the middle of the 20th Century; especially for insulation inside plaster walls...Not Log Structures, of course. Also Ground Cob was used...And, I have an outbuilding containing cobs built long before my Grands were born. Earthen Structures, straw, dried grasses, cobs...None of that was unheard of here. People used what they had to protect from the excesses of this region. Am very interested to find further methods we can use here to update and enhance independence from modern infrastructure.
Yes, Corn Cobs...As well as Newspaper, cloth rags, animal hides, Earth, itself. Have many materials found in the oldest structures here from about 250 yrs. ago. We're the only people of European Decent to live on this land and we're here with the Native American Family/Tribe residing here who rescued my many times removed Grandfather from Ireland. He left here and went East to help build the Erie Canal and with his money purchased 2000 acres and signed half the Native .Americans.
Many old structures are here in various areas of the land...Old Refridgeration along the nearby stream, Corn Cribs, Drying and Smoking Houses...Miami Indians did not believe in cutting-down trees to build with as they viewed trees to be living and it a sin to cut them down before they were dead. They used Earthen Bricks...Not Adobe, but based in the same basic methods as materials to use....As the Earth here is highly composed of Lime from Limestone and when mixed with dried grasses or dried and ground Corn Stalks when wet, dried and then and fired; it becomes hard as bricks. Corn Cob was used primarily as insulation from what we've seen.
Another method was interweaving of branches from trees...Still green and filling in the branch walls with the plaster substance made of grass, lime and sand. There are many methods used in structures around here from back before those from Europe arrived.
Some of that was done by my ancestors in Kansas, minus the corn cob stuff. To dry to grow corn in western Kansas. There it was wheat straw. Before wheat became a thing it was soddies. A soddie home was made of prairie sod cut from the ground and laid up like block. The block were not fired. They wanted the prairie grass blocks to grow into each other to bind the walls together. It was a living wall system.
Saw the remains of some 'soddies' when driving across The Plains...Pretty fascinating. Saw a piece with the Alaskan Kiltchers speaking about using ceilings of structures made out of sod capable of growing interwoven plants also serving as insulation.
Ancestors in Kansas during the 'Dust Bowl'? Did they lose their land and investments into supplies and equipment? The whole country was covered in fine dust and it got into everything for months my Grandfather reported.
Totally engrossing to know how the Natives and people immigrating here used the land and its natural resources to survive and build shelter that will return to nature when humans are done with it. Didn't know there were those as you travelling around studying Architecture and natural resources as you do. Fairly groundbreaking. Talked with my son about it today...Going to look into your books about Straw Houses, Adobe and Bamboo. He's interested in new ways to approach things and is teaching his children...As we all are with the Home School. Glad its winter, in a way. Little bit slower and there's time to rest and plan for the coming season.
Architecture should be localized and suited to the local conditions and building materials. It was always thus until the modern era. Housing design and architecture have become globalized and mass produced as you say, but it may be changing. The following article appeared in Aeon today and may be of some interest.
Yes, that was of interest. So much so I signed up so I could comment. That comment is still "pending approval by the moderator". They have some very restrictive comment regulations so my honesty may not get approved.
While he touched on a few important topics, the article left a lot to be desired.
I love all the great info in this article, as well as your story-telling ability. Hope to implement some of these building techniques one day too, but can't easily do adobe where I live - too wet & humid :( I also thought the timing on your article was very synchronistic, what with the Sun moving into Aquarius (Jan 20) and the Sabian symbol of 0-1 Aquarius being "An old adobe mission" :)
Considering local natural resources often tells one what will be the best building system for the local climate. You're right. Adobe is not appropriate everywhere. Nor is bamboo, timber frame, straw bale and so on.
Good to know my astrological intuition is working:)
Bamboo from Central America, especially Panama, could be problematic, draining too much fresh water from tributaries that help keep the Panama Canal filled, especially now during drought conditions. Doing an online search, there are at least four other Central American countries, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, all vying to compete with the Panama Canal, by building new canals. It might make great sense to explore the possibility of (re)building a new, wider Panama Canal at sea level without locks.
That said, TPTB should consider deepening the Panama Canal at sea level, (ala Suez), eliminating the locks, and not having to rely on fresh inland water tributaries. That might be the most cost effective and environmental answer to draining fresh water from the wetlands and jungles in order to sustain water levels in the inland part of the Panama Canal, which is also prone to being wasted out to sea through the locks. https://siteselection.com/issues/2013/mar/central-america.cfm
Without locks, isn't there a problem with tides sweeping through twice a day?
As far as water runoff goes, research shows that the more vegetation there is on a watershed the more rainfall it gets and the more reliable the runoff is. There is an interaction that occurs between the water holding abilities of the massive sponge effect of dense vegetation transpiring moisture into the atmosphere when conditions are right for rain. No vegetation, no retention and transpiration of moisture, no rain.
Here in Arizona and on some large ranches down in Mexico, streams have been brought back to life by encouraging more vegetation. Even China has undertaken massive reforestation projects to bring back rain in drought prone areas.
The shipping topic has interested me for some time. Personally, I'd like to see the canal stay small to curtail the globalist mega ships. Globalists are the ones pushing for the upgrade - to the detriment of having more, small scale, ma and pa owned and operated, traditional sailing ships. The latter produce much less embodied energy and unlike the globalist mega ships, the money they generate stays in their home port local economy.
"Without locks, isn't there a problem with tides sweeping through twice a day?"
I don't really know, does the Suez Canal suffer from erosion???
"As far as water runoff goes, research shows that the more vegetation there is on a watershed the more rainfall it gets and the more reliable the runoff is"
Well that's my point, as I understand that Panama, and all of Central America, has been currently experiencing a drought for the past 5 years due to lack of rainfall.
I don't know about tides and canals either. My inclination... given the east/west movement of the moon and the N/S orientation of the Americas and how they separate the two largest oceans on earth... Suez seems to be a different situation. Are you saying there are no locks at Suez?
I'd love to hear from someone better informed than I am.
.
Thanks for pointing out that Scientific Am. conveniently left out globalist deforestation as a primary culprit for the drought.
Housing is one of the biggest aspects of our life that we can control. If everyone took control of their own housing, the world would be a very different place.
In March, Californians will vote on "Proposition 1." This measure is about "mental health" services. It proposes to use existing tax resources, plus new bonds (over 6 billion dollars!) to provide housing and services to the homeless, as well as other people having trouble. It is a notable act of charity. But will it actually change the situation?
What if it were the actions of members of the ruling classes that was the major cause of homelessness (and mental health problems) in California? If this were so, then all that expenditure would get thousands of people off the streets, only to be replaced by thousands more, as the the true cause of the problem had not been addressed.
Your article points out how the construction industry, and several other factors, have chosen home building technologies that are expensive, wasteful and toxic. There are over 13 million "households" in California. Most of them probably live in conventional houses and apartment buildings. There is no way in the near future that this basic situation is going to change.
A conventional house can easily last for 100 years. As replacement costs go up, more houses will be kept alive by repairing them. Choice of technologies is in the hands of home owners, landlords and developers. If their minds are changed, you could eventually, maybe in a century, see a change in what sort of houses survive into the future. There is no way the state could provide enough financial incentive for builders to pick bamboo or adobe over conventional wood frame (etc.).
Meanwhile, a few smart people will build a few extraordinarily smart houses. Hopefully these will be impressive enough to make an impression. But the chances that bamboo will be used in modern urban high rises is quite small, though I believe something like this has been attempted. On top of that, to get rid of a modern skyscraper you have to hit it with a DEW in a staged "attack!"
While we need not stand by and just watch the latest corporate invader take over the galaxy, they will plod on with their business most likely regardless of our private choices, until our private choices become so pervasive and powerful that they can no longer be ignored. And then corporate might finally change its mind about the wisdom of being in the business of invading other planets and will settle down on their own planets to do something more sensible.
I agree, most of the money allocated by that new proposition will ultimately end up in the hands of the rich. As Julian Assange said, "The job of government is to take money from the poor and middle class and give it to the rich". Programs like that are perfect examples of how that works.
I also agree that the current misguided housing paradigm is not going to be changed tomorrow. But like everything else that's wrong, we have to begin making those changes now.
I also agree that bamboo is not the solution to all housing issues. As I've tried to make clear in this recent series of posts, the ultimate solutions lie with naturally occurring resources. Hence, the fictional couple I wrote about in this post who built a natural home from local resources. This has the advantage of creating the ultimate architectural style, vernacular architecture. That's not to say that we couldn't begin establishing groves of fast growing bamboo in appropriate climates around the world to serve as future local resources.
Thousands of your "smart" homes have already been built. And yes, they have been inspirational to hundreds of thousands of people. I'll be featuring some of them soon.
Thanks for this continuing journey, Kyle. It gets my imagination wondering about what might be possible, though I did build a 1200 square foot house last year, much of it myself, though not the framing, plumbing or electrical work. Less than 1/3 of the internal walls are sheetrock, and only the downstairs ceilings. Lots of screwed-in plywood, good insulation and well considered windows for airflow as desired.
The embodied energy is a long term family investment.
I naturally wonder if bamboo could become a mode of construction in the Texas coastal plains.
Grass and weeds grow well here...
You have done more than most to take control of your housing.
The Texas coastal plains are suitable for a number of good quality species of bamboo from the genus Phyllostachys and a few of the more cold hardy species from the genus Bambusa and Dendrocalamus. I foresee a day when the growing of bamboo as a building material becomes a lucrative crop for some farmers.
I wonder where tomato-stakes are grown.
China.
Any suggestions for bamboo in Las Vegas? We tried to plant some decade ago but it wasn't cold tolerant enough...or perhaps it just didn't like us...
Phyllostachys vivax does well here so it should do well there. Up to 4" diameter and 70' tall.
Hey John - I'll weigh in below you as I can't access my own comment box.
---------------
Kyle - I just wanted to say thank you. I think this piece about how we live, how we build is so extremely important.
I had hoped to be living in a passive structure at this point. Sometimes things shift dramatically.
So thank you ❤️
You are welcome Elizabeth.
This really gets me thinking regarding building another bungalow. I've told my daughter that my worst nightmare living arrangement, lived in by a large number of Americans, is an overpriced 4000 square foot mansion stuck in some HOA where you can't even decide what plants to put in the ground, which has other houses two feet away on each side of it, a 6 foot by 8 foot cement slab for a back yard and the same area for the front yard. Yet people do God knows what kind of unfullfilling crap to pay $5000 per month mortgages, HOA, insurance and interest just to live in such places. I concur with your ideas!
What you describe has more in common with a luxury prison than it does a home.
Thank you Amy.
I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a while back and she mentioned visiting someone who built houses from all-natural materials, one of which looked like a mushroom (and had a ladder so you could sit on the roof). Do you have any idea who this is?
I live in an 1840s farmhouse which was really rundown when we bought it. Still needs work, will always need work, but it's kept us dry for 40 years (and generally warm these days). Would love to find someone who would like to live on 44 acres in central Maine and help out with the chores -- we're 70 and 72 -- but it seems difficult to connect.
I've read all of her books. She lived in Tucson for many years.
Its been many years since I read that. I'd have to reread that section to see if I can tell who she is referring to.
Your house sounds like a treasure.
You might want to look into becoming a host for this organization for getting help. I've hosted over 130 whoofers on my farm. https://wwoof.net/
I finally found the host application, then was so exhausted from hunting for it that I gave up. Now I can't find it at all. Not a very good website, cute but not user-friendly.
Thank you for this, I'll try it. I tried Maine Farmlink here, but other than one very nice young man who has cut wood for us in the past I met an amazing collection of weirdos. It's amusing in retrospect, but not amusing at the time to eat lunch with someone who smells bad or to interview a "part-time female dominatrix" who forgot to mention her "profession" right off.
This house is pretty amazing. It was really well-built originally with lots of supports in the cellar including granite monoliths and a brick wall between the Cape and the ell, with a stone floor in the cellar. Our furnace sits on a huge slab of rock, but so much soil had washed through the cellar in the intervening years that it would have taken Hercules to dig it all out so we put in a French drain and a concrete floor (plumbers and electricians were delighted). A major renovation occurred in the 1870s (newspaper under new floorboards in the sitting room), then the house was poorly cared for for the next 100 years. We've removed half of a breakfast nook built by my former neighbors' father (the other half having fallen off in the 1970s) which I called the grackle nest; two bay windows which were rotten; covered the asphalt shingle roof which covered the shake roof with a steel roof; replaced one chimney with a new three-flue chimney and lined the kitchen chimney with pipe. You should see the very deep eaves; no difficulty now building such deep eaves with a nail gun but a carpenter said, "Can you imagine doing that with a ballpeen hammer?"
I really like this house, but in retrospect I would prefer living in a mushroom!
Endlessly fascinating../Would bamboo be a material to use in the North of the Country...Midwest U.S. where it's been below Zero until these last days when it reached 32 degrees fahrenheit. Can imagine the use of straw here as we have loads upon harvesting the wheat; but it's next to impossible to consider some of what you're suggesting for this area.
Very sad story about Costa Rica; and all too common in what's known as the Third World having people with far greater common sense than the Imperialist Fascists you're defining 'Globalists'.
Thank you BC3.
There are a few species of the genus Phyllostachys that can tolerate temps below zero. Bamboo in conjunction with cob and/or straw bale construction would be a good option. I'll be getting into those possibiities soon.
Building with the use of straw was common here up until the middle of the 20th Century; especially for insulation inside plaster walls...Not Log Structures, of course. Also Ground Cob was used...And, I have an outbuilding containing cobs built long before my Grands were born. Earthen Structures, straw, dried grasses, cobs...None of that was unheard of here. People used what they had to protect from the excesses of this region. Am very interested to find further methods we can use here to update and enhance independence from modern infrastructure.
Are you referring to corn cobs?
Yes, Corn Cobs...As well as Newspaper, cloth rags, animal hides, Earth, itself. Have many materials found in the oldest structures here from about 250 yrs. ago. We're the only people of European Decent to live on this land and we're here with the Native American Family/Tribe residing here who rescued my many times removed Grandfather from Ireland. He left here and went East to help build the Erie Canal and with his money purchased 2000 acres and signed half the Native .Americans.
Many old structures are here in various areas of the land...Old Refridgeration along the nearby stream, Corn Cribs, Drying and Smoking Houses...Miami Indians did not believe in cutting-down trees to build with as they viewed trees to be living and it a sin to cut them down before they were dead. They used Earthen Bricks...Not Adobe, but based in the same basic methods as materials to use....As the Earth here is highly composed of Lime from Limestone and when mixed with dried grasses or dried and ground Corn Stalks when wet, dried and then and fired; it becomes hard as bricks. Corn Cob was used primarily as insulation from what we've seen.
Another method was interweaving of branches from trees...Still green and filling in the branch walls with the plaster substance made of grass, lime and sand. There are many methods used in structures around here from back before those from Europe arrived.
Some of that was done by my ancestors in Kansas, minus the corn cob stuff. To dry to grow corn in western Kansas. There it was wheat straw. Before wheat became a thing it was soddies. A soddie home was made of prairie sod cut from the ground and laid up like block. The block were not fired. They wanted the prairie grass blocks to grow into each other to bind the walls together. It was a living wall system.
Saw the remains of some 'soddies' when driving across The Plains...Pretty fascinating. Saw a piece with the Alaskan Kiltchers speaking about using ceilings of structures made out of sod capable of growing interwoven plants also serving as insulation.
Ancestors in Kansas during the 'Dust Bowl'? Did they lose their land and investments into supplies and equipment? The whole country was covered in fine dust and it got into everything for months my Grandfather reported.
Totally engrossing to know how the Natives and people immigrating here used the land and its natural resources to survive and build shelter that will return to nature when humans are done with it. Didn't know there were those as you travelling around studying Architecture and natural resources as you do. Fairly groundbreaking. Talked with my son about it today...Going to look into your books about Straw Houses, Adobe and Bamboo. He's interested in new ways to approach things and is teaching his children...As we all are with the Home School. Glad its winter, in a way. Little bit slower and there's time to rest and plan for the coming season.
Architecture should be localized and suited to the local conditions and building materials. It was always thus until the modern era. Housing design and architecture have become globalized and mass produced as you say, but it may be changing. The following article appeared in Aeon today and may be of some interest.
https://aeon.co/essays/the-architectural-style-wars-have-started-all-over-again
Yes, that was of interest. So much so I signed up so I could comment. That comment is still "pending approval by the moderator". They have some very restrictive comment regulations so my honesty may not get approved.
While he touched on a few important topics, the article left a lot to be desired.
Thanks for the link Joanne.
I love all the great info in this article, as well as your story-telling ability. Hope to implement some of these building techniques one day too, but can't easily do adobe where I live - too wet & humid :( I also thought the timing on your article was very synchronistic, what with the Sun moving into Aquarius (Jan 20) and the Sabian symbol of 0-1 Aquarius being "An old adobe mission" :)
Considering local natural resources often tells one what will be the best building system for the local climate. You're right. Adobe is not appropriate everywhere. Nor is bamboo, timber frame, straw bale and so on.
Good to know my astrological intuition is working:)
Bamboo from Central America, especially Panama, could be problematic, draining too much fresh water from tributaries that help keep the Panama Canal filled, especially now during drought conditions. Doing an online search, there are at least four other Central American countries, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, all vying to compete with the Panama Canal, by building new canals. It might make great sense to explore the possibility of (re)building a new, wider Panama Canal at sea level without locks.
That said, TPTB should consider deepening the Panama Canal at sea level, (ala Suez), eliminating the locks, and not having to rely on fresh inland water tributaries. That might be the most cost effective and environmental answer to draining fresh water from the wetlands and jungles in order to sustain water levels in the inland part of the Panama Canal, which is also prone to being wasted out to sea through the locks. https://siteselection.com/issues/2013/mar/central-america.cfm
Without locks, isn't there a problem with tides sweeping through twice a day?
As far as water runoff goes, research shows that the more vegetation there is on a watershed the more rainfall it gets and the more reliable the runoff is. There is an interaction that occurs between the water holding abilities of the massive sponge effect of dense vegetation transpiring moisture into the atmosphere when conditions are right for rain. No vegetation, no retention and transpiration of moisture, no rain.
Here in Arizona and on some large ranches down in Mexico, streams have been brought back to life by encouraging more vegetation. Even China has undertaken massive reforestation projects to bring back rain in drought prone areas.
The shipping topic has interested me for some time. Personally, I'd like to see the canal stay small to curtail the globalist mega ships. Globalists are the ones pushing for the upgrade - to the detriment of having more, small scale, ma and pa owned and operated, traditional sailing ships. The latter produce much less embodied energy and unlike the globalist mega ships, the money they generate stays in their home port local economy.
"Without locks, isn't there a problem with tides sweeping through twice a day?"
I don't really know, does the Suez Canal suffer from erosion???
"As far as water runoff goes, research shows that the more vegetation there is on a watershed the more rainfall it gets and the more reliable the runoff is"
Well that's my point, as I understand that Panama, and all of Central America, has been currently experiencing a drought for the past 5 years due to lack of rainfall.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/eye-of-the-storm/fifth-straight-year-of-central-american-drought-helping-drive-migration/
I don't know about tides and canals either. My inclination... given the east/west movement of the moon and the N/S orientation of the Americas and how they separate the two largest oceans on earth... Suez seems to be a different situation. Are you saying there are no locks at Suez?
I'd love to hear from someone better informed than I am.
.
Thanks for pointing out that Scientific Am. conveniently left out globalist deforestation as a primary culprit for the drought.
The Suez Canal has NO locks. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1416434/Does-the-Suez-Canal-have-locks-how-much-cost-to-go-through-Suez-Canal-evg Subtitle paragraph: "Does the Suez Canal have locks?"
This give me such HOPE for the future!
THANKS for all your good work.
Housing is one of the biggest aspects of our life that we can control. If everyone took control of their own housing, the world would be a very different place.
Thank you Word.
Indeed!
Call me WH, I am not the Word, lol. Dat is toooo much responsibility, I just herd 'em. ;)
Fantastic article. I know there are straw bale builders here in Wisconsin. Thank you for going into such depth on this subject.
Thank you for reading all of it Fran.
Excellent article, thank you.
Thank you Robert.
The truth can be heartbreaking. Thanks for all your work, Kyle, and for helping pioneer natural housing.
Thanks for reading and chiming in Navyo.
In March, Californians will vote on "Proposition 1." This measure is about "mental health" services. It proposes to use existing tax resources, plus new bonds (over 6 billion dollars!) to provide housing and services to the homeless, as well as other people having trouble. It is a notable act of charity. But will it actually change the situation?
What if it were the actions of members of the ruling classes that was the major cause of homelessness (and mental health problems) in California? If this were so, then all that expenditure would get thousands of people off the streets, only to be replaced by thousands more, as the the true cause of the problem had not been addressed.
Your article points out how the construction industry, and several other factors, have chosen home building technologies that are expensive, wasteful and toxic. There are over 13 million "households" in California. Most of them probably live in conventional houses and apartment buildings. There is no way in the near future that this basic situation is going to change.
A conventional house can easily last for 100 years. As replacement costs go up, more houses will be kept alive by repairing them. Choice of technologies is in the hands of home owners, landlords and developers. If their minds are changed, you could eventually, maybe in a century, see a change in what sort of houses survive into the future. There is no way the state could provide enough financial incentive for builders to pick bamboo or adobe over conventional wood frame (etc.).
Meanwhile, a few smart people will build a few extraordinarily smart houses. Hopefully these will be impressive enough to make an impression. But the chances that bamboo will be used in modern urban high rises is quite small, though I believe something like this has been attempted. On top of that, to get rid of a modern skyscraper you have to hit it with a DEW in a staged "attack!"
While we need not stand by and just watch the latest corporate invader take over the galaxy, they will plod on with their business most likely regardless of our private choices, until our private choices become so pervasive and powerful that they can no longer be ignored. And then corporate might finally change its mind about the wisdom of being in the business of invading other planets and will settle down on their own planets to do something more sensible.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment Larry.
I agree, most of the money allocated by that new proposition will ultimately end up in the hands of the rich. As Julian Assange said, "The job of government is to take money from the poor and middle class and give it to the rich". Programs like that are perfect examples of how that works.
I also agree that the current misguided housing paradigm is not going to be changed tomorrow. But like everything else that's wrong, we have to begin making those changes now.
I also agree that bamboo is not the solution to all housing issues. As I've tried to make clear in this recent series of posts, the ultimate solutions lie with naturally occurring resources. Hence, the fictional couple I wrote about in this post who built a natural home from local resources. This has the advantage of creating the ultimate architectural style, vernacular architecture. That's not to say that we couldn't begin establishing groves of fast growing bamboo in appropriate climates around the world to serve as future local resources.
Thousands of your "smart" homes have already been built. And yes, they have been inspirational to hundreds of thousands of people. I'll be featuring some of them soon.
Good luck with your new 'stack.
Sea salt.
Drove through there in 79. Spent several weeks camping on the beach in San Blas in 86. Got chewed up by the sand flies.
Are there any Sal marina operations in the area. I'd like to get some. A lot actually.
heehee That would make you my first wife:) I never married.