Cohousing-L Mailing List: D.I.Y's Eco Neighborhood (1/2)

[Harry Pasternak (Harry_Pasternak]

This note is for folks who are Unpaid Volunteeers who are
developing/designing/building their own neighborhood to enhance their own
"social networking"--this king of neighborhood is sometimes called cohousing
or collaborative housing or cooperative housing; but, can be found in many
middleclass communities all over the western world.

For those of you who wish to build ecological homes and neighborhoods, here
are some proven methods. By the way, ecological to me means--how to live on
this planet without destroying it--the less--the better.

In order to not be p...ing into the wind--you first have to cut down the
amount of money you are making. The more income people have-the more they
destroy the planet. Contact Michael Phillips (The Seven Laws of Money, Honest
Business, The Briarpatch Review, former board member of the Point
Foundation/Whole Earth Catalogue) in San Francisco, for a copy of his essay.
He went to the Feds statistics for the basis of his essay--it shows that the
more money you make --the bigger the homes--the more materials used, the more
water used, the more electricity used , the more pesticides used etc. etc. So
really, the first step is reducing the amount of money you make, yet at the
same time have everything you really NEED--maybe stop working for money in
total.
 How do you do that? Contact Joe Dominguez or Vicki Robin (non paid
volunteers) at the New Road Map Foundation in Seattle or read their (no money
to the authors) book Your Money or Your Life.
The more the materialsthe more shipping, the more waste metal (dead trucks),
the more asphalt highways, the more gas and oil etc. etc.

Here is a Starter's list from my Knack of Home Construction

* Build seven homes per acre--leaves more land for trees and food production
and costs less money so you dont have to work more which destroys the planet
more etc etc..

* Build 14 or so homes in clusters/cul de sac style (your cohousing
neighborhood could have one or more clusters)--reduces the amount of sewage
services, water services, electrical services-- which reduces the amount of
materials and labor required.

* Have the homes attached on both sides--saves on materials and labor for
side walls by 50% or more.

* Build homes that are around 1400 sq. ft--saves the planet.

* No garages, no auto roads--- just foot paths--more costs saved on materials
and labor. Nobody owns a car--bikes and roller blades--or Mini Vans or a few
low impact autos Honda Civics for collective Mass Transit--forget electric
cars they produce 10 times the amount of waste materials ( read Paul Hawken)
that gas cars do.

* For growing food utilize the Square Foot gardening approach-- which uses
90% less water, 90% less land, and 90% less labour and no tractors. Read
Square Foot Gardening or get the video from PBS. Part of the food production
squares should be used as landscaping in the FRONT yards of the
homes--utilize seeds that havent been programed to require pesticides and
herbicides.

* If you are going to have a fireplace, is it 90% efficient or normal 10%
efficient? (yikes!) utilize copicing (sp?) dont cut down trees--instead you
systematically prune the branches from trees--the trees grow
forever--constant spply of branches.

* Roofing materials--only use pine shingles, or clay tiles or diamond shaped
terne metal shingles.

* Siding, use extremely low cost exterior cladding (for example, painted
tempered hardboard) on walls and cover with trellises that are hinge at base
for easy maintenance of walls and grow lots Russian Ivy --grows one foot per
week--replaces the oxygen you use and cools the home in the summer.

* Windows -- superglazing with Surewall s R16 glazing--no heating system now
required--saves money on energy, furnace, and ducts--windows must be properly
sealed to walls.

* Foundation--replace conventional basement and first floor system with a
concrete or soil cement slab on grade/with a thickened edge/insulated on the
outside/very shallow foundation--read Journal Of The Soil Mechanics and
Foundations Division, Sept. 1973 Design of Insulated Foundations by Robinsky
and Bespflug--saves around 80% of the materials and labor that goes into a
conventional basement and first floor system.

* Floor finish--imprint the fresh concrete floor above with ceramic tile
imprinter and color concrete--saves $4000. 
 
* Exterior wall construction:
-utilize 9.5 floor trusses as studs filled with 9.5 inches insulation.
-which insulation? they all have problems, probably wet cellulose properly
treated is worth considering--maybe.
-properly installed air retarder (Simplexs R Plus)
-properly installed vapor retarder-properly finished joints and properly
painted, on aluminum (yikes!) foil-backed drywall with appropriate seals.

* Lighting--use natural light and a well designed TASK DERIVED lighting
system with energy saving bulbs (see Consumers Reports)--for example, no
light fixtures (please) in the middles of ceilings in bedrooms, instead
bedside lamp controlled by light switch at bedrooms doorway.

* Water:
- Collect water off roofs into cisterns.

*** Continued in next message... ***