Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: list of "waypoints" DESIGN comes first.

[Lion Kuntz (lionkuntz]

--- Brian Bartholomew wrote:

> > R. Buckminster Fuller wrote a dozen books and travelled the globe
> > hundreds of times lecturing that design comes first above all other
> > priorities. Nobody got it then, and you still are not getting that.
> 
> Let me see if I understand what you're saying.
> 
> I am in a forming cohousing group.  Most people have stated they
> expect to spend $100-150K.  In my opinion, their energy-use feature
> wishlist would make their houses Walt Disney EPCOT technology
> demonstrators, and you can't build that for $150K.

True, but you could build it for $30K if your design process was right.
That's why design comes first. It's too long to 'splain how that $30K
figure is derived, but I've had two CPAs check my math without flagging
any serious errors in assumptions or equations. I'd like to have it
more rigorously vetted, but it's still too early in the design process
to have fixed concrete numbers on everything. Want to download some
Excel spreadsheets and check the match? I can give you links to online
files available for public download.

 
> A few of us have said, let's not build even ordinary tract houses for
> $150K, instead lets spend $15K and cut and paste houses from shipping
> containers.  Almost all of the reactions have been: that's too ugly.

Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder. It so happens I just finished
teaching an online seminar in architectural design principles to a
small self-selected opt-in list of 17 subscribers. I still have the
photo-study pages posted online which accompanied the text.

One of them was on prefabbed containerized dwelling modules in Montreal
built in 1967 for the Expo there (which also featured the US Pavillion
of Bucky Fuller's Geodesic Dome).
http://ecosyn.us/1/Habitat_67/Habitat_67.html

While it has a stark ugliness to it, it has appreciated in value.
Intended to be "affordable housing" (at 1960's dollars), it has become
pricy condos with people buying up multiple neighboring units and
remodelling them into multi-story rambling mansions. Units now sell for
upwards to $2M.

The architect later took some of the best concepts and deleted some of
the worst to make something in Cambridge which was designed as luxury
condos from inception. These units are on the market upwards towards $4
million, also merged adjacent units as McMansions. The very high
turnover rate and numbers of units up for sale speaks about deep
dissatisfaction with this building.

http://ecosyn.us/1/Esplanade/Esplanade.html
Sorry, no enlargements available at this time.

Both of these photo-studies are just part of a large issue of terraced
building designs, offering private or semi-private outdoor patio space
in taller building structures. For now I point them out to illustrate
that "containerized" structures share much in common with what is
thought of as perceived very valuable luxury homes.
 
> Are you saying that, for instance, finding self-built containers
> acceptable is the sort of design that needs to come first, because a
> 10X change in cost overwhelms most other decisions?
> 
>                                                       Brian
> 

Not exactly. My own explorations show me that containerized housing has
no advantages and some disadvantages, and it has been tried, both in
Habitat '67 and in millions upon millions of factory-built mobilehomes
and "manufactured" houses that are towed to sites.

The most expensive decision of one's life ought not be casually made
without spending some serious self-education efforts in fundamental
design issues. This is a decision you may have decades to regret that
you didn't spend more time learning first before learning the hard way
later. A wrong decision in lighting, heating and cooling may haunt you
with three times the expenses over 30 years than the building your
equipment is in cost in the first place for materials. Some different
choices in materials up front might have changed that equation
substantially. Some different choice in design might have made the same
materials three times more effective.

People's experiences are limited. Nobody can afford to live in every
type of house and your experiences only equip you to know a very few of
the total array of options. At least a design self-study group can talk
through a larger set of options from a larger set of options
experiences. The sad part is nobody will come to the meeting with
experiences in the 21st century lifestyles at all, and you might settle
with failed 20th century design already obsolete before the day you
move in.

That's why I conducted my online seminar. To give people views of
architecture far outside their common experiences.



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Sincerely, Lion Kuntz
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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http://www.ecosyn.us/Welcome/
http://www.ecosyn.us/Interesting/
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