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Building Without Borders Advance Praise for Building Without Borders Building Without Borders is the most important recent book on sustainable building, because it’s about serving those in greatest need of inexpensive, efficient, and culturally and locationally appropriate housing — the world’s poorest billions. From Manila to Mexico City, Calcutta to Caracas, Nairobi to Rio de Janeiro, vast teeming slums shame us all and dim the human prospect. Building Without Borders shows practical ways to make the world better and safer, one dwelling at a time. —AMORY LOVINS, CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute and sustainable home owner/designer Building Without Borders shows, with an elegant and understated flourish, that housing the world’s burgeoning population is not an intractable problem — that the poor and displaced can and do house themselves with affordable solutions, and that the best of these have a sensitivity to the human ecology that points us all to a better future. — ALBERT BATES, President, Global Ecovillage Network The book we all have waited for. Quite unique in development literature, and full of thought-provoking case studies, applicable to our own housing problems. Empowering and encouraging. — IANTO EVANS is owner/director of the North American School of Natural Building and Cob Cottage Company, co-author of The Hand-Sculpted House and Helping People in Poor Countries I Advance Praise continued Rarely does one movement address so many needs so elegantly. In Building without Borders, an articulate, caring community of natural builder/activists recounts everything from the housing and ecological problems to be addressed, to the nuts and bolts (or mud and straw) of the building techniques employed, to the complex social issues of how white Americans can work effectively with indigenous people worldwide, and ultimately the satisfaction of housing people while teaching them skills they can use to house others.The world is a richer place for the work that is chronicled here, and my own world is richer for having read about it. —CAROL VENOLIA, eco-architect, Natural Home Magazine columnist, and author of Healing Environments This book is truly inspirational and a great source of information for those wanting to enter the world of development and low cost sustainable building. As a natural building development worker, I have been waiting for a book like this to again feel reconnected with all the activities going on in this field. It would be fantastic if there were a new volume that came out every decade to present the contemporary problems of this forever changing global crisis. — PAULINA WOJCIECHOWSKA, author, Building With Earth, www.EarthHandsAndHouses.org II Building WithoutBorders COURTESY OF LA CARAVANA IV Building Without Borders SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION FOR THE GLOBAL VILLAGE Edited by Joseph F.Kennedy NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS V VI For my wife Rose and daughter Taya Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalog record for this publication is available from the National Library of Canada. Copyright © 2004 by Joseph Kennedy. All rights reserved. Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover photograph ©Bill Steen,The Canelo Project. Printed in Canada by Transcontinental Printing. New Society Publishers acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities. Paperback ISBN: 0-86571-481-9 Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Building Without Borders should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please add $4.50 shipping to the price of the first copy, and $1.00 for each additional copy (plus GST in Canada). Send check or money order to: New Society Publishers P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada 1-800-567-6772 New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society,and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action.We are acting on our commitment to the world’s remaining ancient forests by phasing out our paper supply from ancient forests worldwide.This book is one step towards ending global deforestation and climate change. It is printed on acid- free paper that is 100% old growth forest-free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable based, low VOC inks. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely,visit our website at: www.newsociety.com NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS www.newsociety.com VIII Contents Preface Edited by Owen Geiger ................................................................................... xiii Foreword by Judy Knox ................................................................................................ xv Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... xvii Introduction by Joseph F.Kennedy ................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Shelter and Sustainable Development — Susan Klinker............................... 5 Population Growth and the Global Housing Crisis ................................................ 5 Traditional versus Post-Industrial Building Techniques........................................... 6 Sustainable Development and the Built Environment............................................ 8 The Natural Building Revival .................................................................................. 8 Empowerment and the Participatory Development Process ............................... 10 Social and Economic Considerations and Sustainable Development ................... 11 Gender Perspectives in Housing........................................................................... 13 Policy,Affordability and Building Codes................................................................ 13 Toward Sustainability ............................................................................................ 15 Case Study: Tlholego Development Project:A Sustainable Ecovillage in Rural South Africa — Paul Cohen................................................................ 16 Case Study: Straw Bale Construction in Anapra, Mexico — Alfred von Bachmayr.................................................................................... 23 Tech Box: The Pallet Truss:A Low-Cost Alternative Roof Structure — Alfred von Bachmayr ................................................................................... 27 Profile: Sri Laurie Baker,Architect — Ayyub Malik ............................................... 30 Chapter 2: Speaking the Vernacular: Mud versus Money in Africa, Asia, and the US Southwest — Jean-Louis Bourgeois...................................................... 35 Case Study: Woodless Construction: Saving Trees in the Sahel — John Norton... 40 Case Study: Natural Building in Thailand:From the Earth a Village Is Born — Brendan Conley........................................................................................... 46 Profile: Elegant Solutions: The Work of Hassan Fathy — Simone Swan............... 50 IX Chapter 3: Sustainable Building As Appropriate Technology — David A. Bainbridge ..................................................................................... 55 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 55 Sustainable Building Materials and Building Systems ........................................... 56 The Basics of Climatically Adapted Design........................................................... 58 Other Key Issues for Building Designers .............................................................. 62 Making Sure Things Work...................................................................................... 63 A Seven-Step Program for Addressing Problems with Housing, Resources, Health, Sustainable Food Production or Environmental Restoration............... 65 Case Study: New Beginnings:The American Indian Housing Initiative — David Riley .................................................................................................. 68 Profile: Crow Girls’Winning Science Project is Not the Last Straw — Michelle Nijhuis .......................................................................................... 73 Tech Box: On Creating an Affordable Straw Bale House: A Cautionary Tale — David A. Bainbridge ..................................................................................... 75 Case Study: Casas Que Cantan: Community Building in Mexico — Susan Klinker .............................................................................................. 78 Tech Box: Straw-Clay Blocks — Joseph F.Kennedy, from an interview with Bill Steen ................................................................................................. 82 Chapter 4: Down to Earth Technology Transfer — Kelly Lerner................................. 85 Local Solutions for Local Problems: Go with Questions....................................... 86 Determining the Goal: Constructing a Building versus Technology Transfer ....... 87 Marketing: Selecting Target Populations and Building Types ................................ 88 Rigor and Excellence: Build the Best Quality that Local Materials, Skills and Budget Will Allow............................................................................
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