Re: [papercreters] Re: dome construction

Thanks for your post, Kristin.

 

It is remarkable how certain people move to a climate very different from where they came from, yet they bring with them their old ideas of how houses should be built and keep doing it that way.   They know no better.

 

So when you travel through cities such as Albuquerque, for example, you will see mixed architectural styles mixed together that have come from different regions of the country.   Next to pueblo, colonial, and Santa Fe styles you will see two-story brick mini-mansions built by new immigrants from the midwest or east coast.  

 

New Mexico has an ancient centuries-old tradition of pueblo adobe building that is perfectly suitable for the climate.   Unfortunately some of the structures built with in these ancient ways and with ancient materials are now in disrepair and in danger of being torn down.   The native "green" knowledge of how to prepare natural materials to maintain the old structures, passed down through the generations from Indians to Spanish, etc., may be close to being lost.   The attempts to patch abobe structures with cementious materials have been a disaster.   Fortunately there are some efforts to commit the knowledge of these oral traditions to books.   

 

Neal

 

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Kristin Elder <kristin_elder@yahoo.com>

Thanks to the people who shared their experience with building domes etc. I'm glad to hear the positive responses.

I'm a little puzzled over the seeming attack on building with domes and vaults, a method of building which has an extremely long and rich history, and which has proven marvelously adaptable. I agree that in many climates building a papercrete dome might not be the best option, but for the desert southwest, where we will be building, it seems to be marvelously suitable. In fact, the climate of some of the southwest is in many ways similar to the middle east's, and I believe that the strangeness of seeing a domed house is in no way the result of that house being inappropriate to the location, but that we simply have an unnecessarily constricted view of the "American House". In fact, the greater pretension seems to lie in creating a rock or brick facade for a stick built house, or maintaining manorial lawns, or many other features which can be seen in any subdiv ision around any industrialized country.

In the ongoing struggle to create a new, "green" architecture, I'm convinced that the fault does not lie with papercrete or with most other alternative building techniques. The fact is that the housing industry is making a bundle of money building in the wasteful way is has been for a long time, and I doubt things will change until people find a way to start making just as much or more money building "green". I certainly can't answer that problem in general, but I can in a particular case, by building my own house.

As for me, I absolutely can't wait to live in my "exotic" looking house. One of the things that appeals to me most about papercrete is the fact that the materials are so common and easy to come by, and that the techniques for building are within the reach of the common handyperson. With our resources becoming ever more limited, and the divide between haves and have nots constantly widening, it's high time we revise o ur ideas on what a house ought to look like where and why.

For what it's worth
Kristin :)

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