Resilience: Rethinking How & Where We Live

Resilience1.jpg

Closer to Nature... that would be MY dream... and this re-imagined cow shed in Spain would be part of that dream if I could realize it for myself...

When Carlos Alonso and his sister Camino (partners at Madrid architecture firm Ábaton) were looking for a country home for their extended family, they stumbled upon an abandoned stable in rural Extremadura, Spain and recognized it as a special place.

High on a hill and far from city water or an electrical grid, the crumbling cow shed was far from the conventional image of luxury estate, but Carlos and Camino could envision a transformation.

What would or does YOUR dream home look like?

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Gerrit's picture

so inspiring. TY for this!

The way they use the old barn doors to open and close in front of the house 's big south-facing glass is exactly what I needed to see. A while ago, we discussed underground greenhouses: http://caucus99percent.com/content/personal-climate-resilience-undergrou... WoodsDweller showed us how powerful the winds are becoming and will become. So I wondered about a way to close a protective barrier across the south-facing big glass and this is exactly what I pictured in my mind. w00t!

Big TY for this. I will show it to Lovie and daughters so we can all see the how-to. Have a great day, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Gerrit's picture

see the clip about an earthship in Alberta and how easily it rolls through winter. It is truly amazing - w00t!
https://youtu.be/EAvY5JeMz9w

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

Attawapiskat.

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Gerrit's picture

such housing for every band member. Wow, it would transform the village and its economy.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

with the grey watering system being its source of water. That is great. I want to find out more about their rain-water system, I would really like to set one of those up. And that tiny stove? Hmm, I'm curious about that. It must be very efficient.

All in all it's an inspirational house.....so many good ideas.

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Gerrit's picture

earthship-systems.jpg
I hope it shows the water systems for you. Ask away my friend, it is great to get to discuss this concept.

Here is the floor plan for our earthship. Our engineer will finalize the design once we select a property and he could take the terrain into consideration.
Our earthship design floor plan.jpg

We are so excited. It is such a cool project :=) Have a great day, my friend,

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It is just stunning. Please keep us updated as you go along.

This summer we are planning to put in a solar water pump with a group. It is for an off-grid place that needs to draw water from a lake and then filter it. We are just in the research portion of our project. I will keep you all up-dated and may have questions for all of these smart people here.

I am so happy about this resilience project that you all are doing. It is fabulous so thank you all. I am going to start to learn how to navigate around that library....it is an absolute treasure trove.

Have a lovely day yourself Gerrit, and again, so glad you are all here.

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Gerrit's picture

project as you folks advance. Send us some pictures, eh? Have a great weekend, my friend,

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To help me get a company going that would build these self sustainable partially earth sheltered homes. The father in law was a master stone mason (HE placed the cornerstones) and the son's were in construction, so it seemed a great fit of talents to me. Alas, divorce ended that plan.

I've been trying to convince my best friend that he could have a 3 walled basement built into the side a hill, and place a nice trailer home in that basement. Then using passive solar systems with a large sun atrium and large water tanks for solar heat collection on that open sun facing side. He could save a lot of money on the construction and energy costs of his planned retirement home. Using the other technologies you've shown here completes that picture.
He is limited in his dreams for his retirement home by costs (aren't we all) but he is also very industrious so I think this would be the cheapest best way to go for him. He's leaning towards an A-Frame or log cabin though. I like my idea better.
A poor mans earthship!

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

Gerrit's picture

you've drawn it up. I hope your friend reconsiders. An A-frame is all very 70s, and is a good idea in Alpine terrain with heavy, heavy snowfall, but it has some drawbacks too. And isn't nearly as energy-efficient as an earthship-type structure, like you propose.

The dirty fucking hippies were right about a lot of things! Including energy-efficiency and RE. Cheers, mate, enjoy your evening,

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

depending upon my health at the time, I might enjoy coming and helping on your project Gerrit! If nothing else I could help with the cooking and such...

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Gerrit's picture

would have a lot of fun. My back limits me so much; I'll be mainly advisory while the young ones do the hard work. We would be so grateful the cooking help, but you're also a carpenter with lots of experience. We would appreciate your guidance on carpentry and from any of all your collected skills. We hope to gather enough volunteers, and especially skilled ones, but we do need lots of strong backs to position the tires, fill them with concrete, and finish them off.

Do keep us in mind, my friend, when we get closer to the promised land :=) It is funny, in that synchronicity sense, that you posted this comment now. I was just heading here to copy the earthship stuff into a single post for today! I wanted to use it to show folks how talking here has provided development in the concept. The resilience group really could generate lots of practical action.

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Love the way they used their surroundings. The water and plumbing, my god, imagine how complex the whole thing is. The sunlight dancing on the walls. Nobody but a couple of architects or billionaires could have done this.

Thanks for sharing this.

dk

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

engineer, I could build that myself. Of course, I do have 10 years of construction experience...but this would not take billions of dollars to do. Would it take a long time if I did it myself? Yes...and I would need helpers....but there are ways to do anything if you really want to.

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to pay the architects on down for all of the labor, materials, equipment, and transport. DYI is not on my radar. No talent, skills, or experience.

We had friends who bought a historic home on historic Mackinaw Island. That means all materials and equipment for any project have to be ferried or flown onto the island. Since they don't allow cars on the island either, it means horses and wagons have to be hired to get everything including the laborers to the site. Big bucks.....

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Raggedy Ann's picture

We built our dream home a mere 15 years ago. It wasn't exactly what we wanted at the time, but we're transforming it. We now have wind and solar energy, so if the grid goes down, we don't. We are building a cash crop of garlic, along with a big garden to sustain us. We added sunrooms to grow veggies during the winter, it's working.

We have a long way to go. We have acreage and plan to buy some containers and build a home underground with them. That excites me. When they come looking for us, they might not find us. We'll see.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Gerrit's picture

system? I would love to see it and I'm sure it will inspire all of us resilience folks.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I'm not a picture taker - don't own a camera and often forget there's one on my phone. Quit laughing, now. However, I will do it. It would be great to take pics and then upload some narrative (he will have to narrate as all I care about is that everything works - hey - he eats and has clean clothes, doesn't he???). Summer project, for sure!!!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Gerrit's picture

camera either. Or a phone. R.Andy would get that. Why would I create more opportunities for people to talk to me? LOL! I use my daughter's cast-off iPod to take photos when I remember :=)

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Gerrit's picture

our earthship engineeer begins a new building project, he puts out the call to the earthship community for volunteers and they flock to help. They volunteer to get the practical experience to build their own - and because it's fun and an adventure.

Our job as the builder family will be to house and feed those who need it: so a cook/mess tent, some trailers or tents, a few space shuttles (SA army term for port-a-potties :=)

"If you build it, they will come" :=)

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

I was going to do it yesterday, but the plumbing in my apartment backed up and I had to hang around for the plumber....all fixed now... going to go pick up my taxes and get them sent in... and perhaps stop by the nursery and pick up a few pansies. The city came and put in my Service Berry tree yesterday! It is SO pretty. Once it blooms I will snap a photo and share it with y'all.

I will check in later!

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and I really like the way it melds into the countryside. The Japanese concept of inviting nature into the house as much as possible is nice. For the times you want to protect from nature, those big wooden shutters seem to do the trick.

We do a similar thing in Texas, in the heat of the day we close up and draw curtains and shades and then in the evening through the night we open up and let the breeze through. The old Texas frontier houses had what was called a breezeway and very large roof overhang all around the house for shade. The old timers knew what they were doing when they built and positioned their houses. You could live in them without air conditioning (well, they had to) but now the houses require air conditioning simply because they aren't designed properly to take advantage of what nature could provide.

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

Those big verandas did a really good job of cooling the air...and if you opened upstairs windows the air is drawn in down low and the heat is expelled up high.

How many of us remember the old attic fan... had one in a house in Kansas growing up. It would drone on all night and it would make it down right cold in the depth of summer...

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Lenzabi's picture

Very nice alternative houses. Myself, if I could have, would have gone with a Rammed Earth hole in a hill with a attached solar green growing house, and solar and wind powered.

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

GREEN MAGIC HOMES

They have configured these things into some really neat uses... here they are optimized to grow food.
http://www.greenmagichomes.com/pdf/FARMING-HOUSES-EN.pdf

They have models for cold climates as well as deserts. This may be the easiest way to build an underground home for those of us who may not be able to build from scratch.

Edited to add: I read somewhere that these run about $41 US per square foot.

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riverlover's picture

I have a 1980's version of a superinsulated house, with passive solar. It was designed by my husband, architect, who had a very forward view for his time. We missed out one some technology because no one had marketed it then.

Nowadays, I am not sure that the house is much better than current NY building codes. I am drawing off memory: R 48 walls, R-greater than that ceilings, styrofoam insulation between slab and earth, care made to seal vapor barriers (this is a weak link), styrofoam sheathing over 2 X 6 wall studs external. Now comes the vapor play. And it is a big one. Water is the enemy of construction. You can wrap a house in Saran Wrap, and the interior moisture buildup will begin penetrating the structure, with no escape.

Bad things obviously happen then. Black mold (no comment), damp structural wood or steel or stone and increasingly bad interior air quality. Air exhaust through the entire structure is needed to maintain integrity. How many of you have seen house-attached greenhouse glass with water dripping down? I had a lapse period when all of my interior glass was dripping water. A crisis. How many window units do you want to replace?

In the situation here, Marcellus Shale, a known high-radon area. There are air-quality tests for radon (using radioactive trace marks) that my house is veerrry close to failing. Architect was aware, and this house was designed with an air ventilation system, actively exhaust inside air, using external air exchange to warm up the "open window" effect. We had an early A-to-A model, there were icing problems in the winter.

The lapse occurred when I modernized the boiler system and the heat-exchanger went away. Dripping windows, mold growing. I have a modern I/O heat exchanger and all is fine.

But please remember indoor air quality in construction or renovation. It is very important for house health as well as human health. My latest model cost about $2K, IIRC, and will require the supply and return venting to do. More ductwork.

Forward!

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.