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project news main feature futurarc interview futurarc showcase projects people commentary happenings books products/technology “If you have an iPhone with a light, maybe you atmosphere of the Last Resort for hours on can get a picture.” inspection visits—Marin county authorities have Deep Green California: taken legal action against Hoffman for his many I was being shown a giant toilet in West Marin, admitted building-code violations. He attributes a network of sunny hills hard on the San Francisco this to the changing of the guard at the building CoDes, stanDarDs, anD bay—where the air is as clean and crisp as a office—the retirement of an older generation piece of freshly unwrapped peppermint gum. This he believes deeply appreciated the dozens of Creativity in resiDential remained true even as I stood by a large cement buildings on his sprawling hillside compound: chamber the size of a tool shed filled with worms, equal parts tea shrine, Tibetan Buddhist temple, landscaping clippings, and what my host, the well- and cluttered laboratory for a lifelong salvager, BuilDinG known tea importer David Lee Hoffman, called tinkerer, and visionary. Stacks of tools and pipe by Jalel Sager Jalel Sager is a writer and PhD student in the “humanure”. As he spoke, Hoffman held a large fittings surround Buddhist statues and share Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the University of California—Berkeley, studying climate change handful of the dark humus—mature compost— table space with pewter figures engaged in and socio-ecological systems. Previously, he was from the chamber. Bringing it to his nose, he took traditional methods of making Pu’er tea—a the founding director of the Vietnam Green Building a deep breath, exhaling happily. I took a deep specialty of Yunnan province, China—which Council. breath and did the same. The mixture smelled like Hoffman introduced to the US many years ago. the floor of a pine forest after a rain. As I sniffed again, the graphic designer and tea enthusiast Realising that good tea was nearly impossible with us, Michael Pieracci, stepped forward and to find in the US, Hoffman began his tea importing took a photo, but declined to use the flash; he business in the early 1970s, after 10 years thought it might “disturb the worms”, hard at work spent enjoying it in Tibetan monasteries while converting something we don’t like to talk about making recordings of the Dalai Lama, among into something essential. other Buddhist luminaries. His desire to bring joys discovered in the East to his life in the US clearly This is California at its deepest shade of Green. transcended the realm of tea: his architecture and “guerrilla” civil engineering both draw on Eastern “My love of the planet is forms and philosophy. Yet this is not simply a greater than My fear of case of an infatuated Westerner copying exotic the law.” flourishes: the plainspoken Hoffman, who received The compound Hoffman continuously builds— me in well-loved work clothes, is nothing if not while introducing the US to fine teas from Tibet authentic. His 40-year project has been called “an and China, and conducting experiments in closed- important and significant example of East-West loop human-ecological systems—is now 40 years folk art” by Berkeley professor of architecture old. Its name, the “Last Resort”, today carries Sim Van der Ryn—who is also the appointed several dimensions of significance. California State Architect, as well as an admirer of, and consultant to, Hoffman’s great project. 1 Margarido House 2 A courtyard and filtration For one, after decades of looking the other channel at the Last Resort way—or enjoying the relaxed, otherworldly Nevertheless, the graceful timbers and cosy Image courtesy of Mariko Reed 1 2 Image courtesy of Michael Pieracci 96 FUTURARC FUTURARC 97 c o m m e n t a r y “One of the jokes is when someone says, ‘I want a LEED projects often win such prizes, while more often take liberties with the rest. Thus unless a based solar energy executive, avoided Green building’, the answer is, do you want a LEED building or do traditional systems, integrated with natural system perfectly accommodates the natural laws standards altogether—though like all California you want sustainability?” says Levy. “Because they’re not cycles, often get pushed aside. He draws a constraining growth, its products may exceed the residential projects, it observed the stringent connection to organic food—grown with ancient limits necessary to holding our planetary ground. Title 24 energy codes, adopted in 1978, after the always the same thing. CalGreen is LEED-lite.” methods, they should be cheaper than petro- US energy price shocks. Many energy experts foods, he believes. They’re not, he says, mainly So we may identify three versions of residential believe California’s excellent performance in per- Last Resort tea nooks of the Last Resort, guarded by metal for use in site landscaping and a solar-powered for “political reasons”. Green—the “high standard” (see sidebar), the “no capita energy use since the 1970s rests on Title 3 A passage through the Hoffman compound renderings of dragons and phoenixes, seem to shower. Hoffman harvests compost from the standard”, and the “anti-standard”. Each works on 24 and its updates. 4 David Hoffman pointing out an aspect of his composting toilet system 5 After moving through the place third in Hoffman’s affections behind two Worm Palace and Le Grand Pissoir at intervals to Can I disagree? These days, ecological a different level of ecological vision and embodied “worm palace”, water from the house is further filtered other loves: tea and worms. The latter weave the feed his extensive food and ornamental gardens. solutions are often sold as luxury consumption— responsibility. The 25th Street client wanted a “net positive in a series of channels containing fast-growing plants compound into the cycles of life, the gold standard Meanwhile, captured rainwater augments the margins often trump Mother Earth. Clearly, this energy” home that generated surplus power like duckweed 6 David Hoffman explains the “living wall” filtration component of his composting toilet of ecological design. “Charles Darwin’s last piped water that gets the Last Resort through must change. Hoffman’s 40-year project, the anti-standard to the grid while providing integrated electric system 7 A handful of clean (and clean-smelling!) book was on worms,” says Hoffman, unrolling a California’s dry season. Little that goes down the case, reflects a deep understanding of ecological vehicle charging. “His premium for 8 kilowatts compost from Le Grand Pissoir display poster for his grey water/compost system, drain is wasted. Codes, Creativity, and the systems and, perhaps more importantly, spiritual of solar and other bells and whistles was about presented at an ecological conference in 1972, eCologiCal truth and creative attitudes we need to work in harmony $60,000, and he looked at his simple payback when the worms at the Last Resort, like its owner, Even in water-stressed California, this is a Here lies the heart of the issue disturbing with them. Unfortunately, that stance now threatens as nine years,” says Ross Levy, the principal at were still in their salad days. “He thought they rarity. Hoffman’s bucolic life. California has always the Last Resort’s existence; it faces a $200,000 LAA (and—disclosure—a friend of mine). The were the basis of all life.” been a process, a testing ground for US fine, or even worse: Marin authorities may force him renovation aimed to be the first “completely self- Hoffman is submitting the Le Grand Pissoir environmental policy. Here the “rubber” of radical to tear it down. Such are the perils of “loving the powering and carbon neutral” project of its type They are also the basis for Hoffman’s composting design to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, environmental thinking meets the “road” of planet more than the law”, a philosophy difficult to in California. Neither client nor architect pushed toilet, “Le Grand Pissoir”, a name duly recorded in which has $6.5 million for inventors who join construction practice, economics, and politics. convert into practice. for a Green rating, focusing on energy aspects Marin County records. Though Marin, like California its quest to “Reinvent the Toilet”. Hoffman’s It recently adopted Green building codes and integration of a historic Victorian façade with in general, sees itself as one of the Greenest places solar-powered pumps, rooftop “digester”, wetland known as CalGreen, becoming the first state Two other projects I discovered in Northern modern design ideas. in the world, its codes prohibit composting toilets integration, and sweet-smelling worm chambers to write ecological standards into construction California, a “zero-energy” renovation in San (a restriction often more about preventing new seem perfect for the contest, which aims to regulations. Yet this triumph hides a problem Francisco and a new Green palace across the Bay “One of the jokes is when someone says, development than public health). Nor do they permit provide privies to 2.6 billion people it claims for those who worry about ecology and climate in Oakland—less exotic productions of architects ‘I want a LEED building’, the answer is, do grey water recycling, even if done through the have no access—without the miles of pipes and change (and creativity). and contractors—face no such threats. Both you want a LEED building or do you want bellies of earthworms. The beating heart of the Last millions of gallons of water Western plumbing display ecological awareness. Nevertheless, one sustainability?” says Levy. “Because they’re not Resort is the “Worm Palace”, a smaller concrete requires.

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