GBlist: medium-tech???

Uliian@aol.com
Fri, 28 Mar 1997 02:08:03 -0500 (EST)

I have been following with great interest the discussion of the CO2
controlled air ventilating system. The idea fascinates me (I never herad of
it before), but I have some problems to make up my mind about it.

On the one hand are people that are building low-tech houses out of straw and
wood, because they want an ecological and sustainable house. I believe in our
world this can only be a marginal approach to todays architecture.
The other side is high-tech. Using innovation and technology to save energy.
Just like this idea with the CO2 sensors.

But all this extreme technology has an ecological price, too. You have to
calculate the laboratories, plants,.... And you have to think of the costs
and efforts to maintain a high-tech system, too. Someone calculated that to
produce a normal car that weighs 1 ton you need 13 tons of raw material, i.e.
you get 12 tons of waste (unfortunately I don't have any exact numbers). I
guess that in construction this ratio is not so bad - but when we follow the
idea of high-tech housing we will get to the same point - or not?? I

So I am trying to start a discussion about the risks of high-tech - wouldn't
it make more sense to construct a simpler (but not primitve) architecture
without making a building so intelligent that it can only be run by a
computer? Maybe MEDIUM-TECH is the greener way to construct??

Uli Stehling, Darmstadt
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