Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: dilemmas in choosing materials

[Hans Tilstra (tilstra]

- Chris Hanson's Cohousing Handbook points out how non-conventional
materials reduce affordability, as the engineer, the architect, the builder,
the supplier, the insurer spend more time figuring out how to work with this
new material.

- Charles Woods' Designing your Natural House makes a well-illustrated point
of being true to the material, again supporting whatever material is most
readily available in the context.

- Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They Are Built
comes out in support of steel roofs.

There are ample examples of really ugly buildings (eg. here in Melbourne,
those built just after WW2) where is shows how expensive it can be to ignore
multiple criteria.  Should we design houses a temporary footsteps in the
sand or as 'here to stay', non-biodegrable designs as is often done in
Europe?

Hans
www.vicnet.net.au/~cohouse
imagination is the voice of daring