Why develop the same old cookie cutter community crap that everyone else does? Aside from the fact that McMansions built out of Styrofoam and formaldehyde suck ass I mean. It is not for lack of good examples.
Michael Reynolds, architect, developer, visionary of the Earthship Biotecture may be a bit hippy dippy at first, but his point is damn well taken: housing can be constructed to have a no resource footprint. His communities are true models for long term sustainable living. Thinking about our future, housing must be built this way; we cannot consume at our current level, the global changes already underway are catastrophic enough without us continuing to dig the hole deeper.
The following piece will give you a taste of his vision, and if you want more watch the documentary Garbage Warrior – it will give you that kick in the ass you need.
I know what I would like to do – make one of these in the middle of San Francisco. Now all I need to do is figure out how.
Well, much thanks to the Chronicle for a very kind story yesterday in the Sunday paper. As I am a dirty landlord already, it is nice to also be an evil greedy developer =) Yes, I am referring to the lively discussion over at the Chron boards on the story, though I have to say it was pretty cool. A lot of people had some valid points, and even the trolls were funny. One criticism that came up that warrants more discussion was about demolition. Many people were upset at the thought of tearing out material and sending it off to a landfill. While it is true, construction debri is a serious, serious problem, as something like 22% of the total waste stream in the state comes from construction debri, sometimes you have no choice but to tear things out. For 2139 39th ave, the house had some serious termite damamge. There were parts of the first floor hardwood flooring that had so much termite damage, you literally stepped through the floor when you walked on it. There is nothing to salvage there. When a bathroom gets water behind the tiles and under the shower pan, sorry, but those walls are coming down. So my point is, sometimes demolition is unavoidable, and do not let the trolls get you down if you have to tear something out. It is a little like surgery, sometimes you have to remove a diseased part of your body to save you. Here are some before shots to consider:
Honestly, 30 year old red shag carpet? How are you going to salvage that?
Honestly, 30 year old red shag carpet? How are you going to salvage that?
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