This Month In Dwell: Sustainability is Here To Stay
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.16.07
Dwel has just been getting better and better as of late, and the current issue is the best yet in its current renewal. There is a lot more online, great coverage of Jennifer Siegal at home, good coverage of our favourite sustainable vehicle, the bicycle, and a project by Della Valle Bernheimer in New York that is not single family housing for rich people, a rare thing in shelter porn.
There is an RV setup in Texas that is a great example of low impact living and affordable housing in Houston. Old White Male of the Month is Ralph Rapson; Cy Merkezas writes a terrific essay about how "If all homebuilders had to cart their materials by hand to their sites, houses might be a lot smaller.", which reminded me of Andre Lessard and Barbara Dewhirst's La Tour de Bébelles, where they carried everything in. Great reading at ::Dwell.
Quote of the Day: Paul Krugman on Doing the Right Thing
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Virgin Atlantic testing Bio-fuel on Jumbo Jet
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I'm so tire of so-called "sustainable" homes that have to be built in a factory, with resins, IKEA furnishings, and less than efficient 2 inch thick walls. The most sustainable home you can build is with earth: rammed earth, adobe, strawbale, or a combo of all three, which also are the most efficient, as well as affordable (the price of an average 300sqft prefab can buy you a 1000sqft home with the above earthy materials, and are even DIY to make it yet cheaper).
Regrettably, its a rarity to see any modern magazine point out how awesome these materials are for any climate, and how they are "sustainable", lasting hundreds of years... Where is the rest of that running article on the strawbale home on treehugger that never finished its term!!?? Its news like that story that can help get the word out better to the masses about the "real" sustainable dwellings.
(And are other houses now "not sustainable", and will fall apart with one huff and puff? Or is it like the "organic" movement that negatively suggests that any alternative is "inorganic"?)