Green (or Brown) Architecture

   Several years ago two undergraduate students from SPEA , Nathan Harmon and Paul Nord, built a cob house on my friend's property.  It was a huge undertaking of labor, requiring the incessant effort on their part, my friend and her neighbors, and many other volunteers.  I had the pleasure of spending several days working on the house as well.
  Originally they were going to build a bath house, but my friend's trailer burned down before they began.  She has three children, whose father died when the youngest was just three months old.  They had to live in a bus for almost two years before the house was finished.

  The plastic on the side is covering a large opening where a kitchen is planned to be built.  Large eaves and awnings surround the structure to keep water off of it. The blue dots are glass orbs they embedded in the cob.
  The cob is made of clay, sand, and straw which are similar to many building materials we use in conventional houses.  The straw creates a fiber that interlocks and holds the clay together, much like the polymers you find in dry wall and joint compound. The clay and sand harden to the consistency of concrete.  The clay came from the grading of the foundation, from right underneath where the house now sits.
    The walls are at least 12 inches thick.  I think of them as a great heat sink that, once warm, can contain and radiate heat for a long time.  Of course the house would be warmer if they had all of the windows they need and the kitchen finished.  Another great attribute of cob construction is that the house doesn't have to be shaped like a crackerjack box.

   Since not everyone is ready to live like a hippie here is an example of a more stylish home made from cob.  Cob construction was very popular, even in wet climates like Ireland and Britain, up until 70 years ago. However it is making a comeback, especially for those of us interested in sustainability.

  The imagination is the limit on the designs people can come up with for these structures.  I just wish this layout would let me put pictures side by side.

Frito-Lay sends noisy, 'green' SunChips bag to the dump

  This  current event perfectly aligns with this week's topics in waste management and the economics of sustainability.
Sun Chips is doing quite a bit towards promoting sustainability. Check out their website to learn about their photovoltaic system and compostable bags.  http://www.sunchips.com/healthier_planet.shtml

However their sales are down 11 % this year because of the compostable bag and so they are pulling the majority of these bags off of the shelf.  Here is an instance where the "consumer muscle" enforced a change on a manufacturer, but in the wrong direction.  I think part of the problem may be that most people who care about waste management do not eat a lot of processed snack food.

Majora Carter and Social Equity

   Majora Carter's presentation was inspiring.  Her ability to mobilize the community of South Bronx to create a greener urban environment where there had been no green previously is monumental.  Through much hard work, dubbed "sweat equity', she was able to channel community labor and federal/state funds into the clean-up of the illegal dump and restoration of the riverfront along the Bronx River.

    Ultimately Majora is driven to create social equity.  People living in urban poverty are mired in so many feedback loops that it is near impossible for them to find their way out.  They end up shouldering the burden of environmental deficits as cities hoist pollution and sewage onto their communities.  The pollution has proven affects on the mental abilities of the youth who are already struggling with below average schools.  In addition these urban communities are concrete wastelands, which is also proven to affect the mental health of the occupants.  Unemployment in South Bronx was 25%, and many people made money from sales of illicit substances.  

    Perhaps the largest component of the success of Majora's work is the creation of training programs and green jobs for the residents of South Bronx.  She is well aware of the environmental and economic benefits in sustainable management, such as rain water management through installation of green roofs.  However it is her emphasis on the social benefits of bringing green jobs to disenfranchised individuals and ending prison recidivism that was truly compelling.

     Oddly, this was the part of the presentation that the business-school- fraternity boys had the most disagreement with.  It was clear from the start that such students had been baited to attend with the promise of extra credit and they had no respect for the work of such an inspired genius.  It offered a certain degree of perspective.  From the group of eight boys sitting in front of me one got up to ask the first question of the discussion session.  His first question centered on the possible displacement of poor individuals, thus increasing homelessness, through these green neighborhood improvements.  Majora assured him this wasn't occurring and that people were better off through increased employment.  His final question asked 'is it the tax-payers responsibility to help create jobs?'  Somehow he overlooked everything she said about the cost savings for keeping people out of prison and utilizing more efficient sustainable practices.  This taught me more than anything that bottom-dollar- minded people only use poor people to further their own gains when convenient, but they will not support agendas that truly benefit our poor even when those benefits are transferred to the whole society.

     I watched the boy's reactions to Majora's answers to other questions.  I had to ask myself "how did these young boys come to believe that they know so much more about how the world works when they obviously live in a minority of white privilege and wealth?"  Where does this severe, close minded, resistance to sustainability come from?