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Re: GBlist: Rant: Strawbale



I don't know where to begin. Terry's comments summed up my general
response to the more philosophical edge of your enquiry so maybe I can
deal with some of the more specific aspects. I'm not sure if a darkroom
or 700 sq. ft loft is an appropriate model for addressing modalities of
sustainability of megurban areas. I lived in enough 5 floor walkups east
of A to think that their might be some more significant models to choose
from. So the first issue I would deal with is "appropriateness of
endeavour" for darkrooms.
DARKROOMS
Darkrooms deal with toxic chemicals that have the potential to
contaminate both their immediate environment (the darkroom itself) and
can migrate via air, water, transfer of materials (clothing etc.) with
the potential of disrupting other environments. (anecdote: a friend of
mine is critically ill because the air in his office came from a
crawlspace that an adjacent darkroom had been venting into). The
construction materials that make up a room that contains darkroom
equipment will become contaminated and might at some point become toxic
in themselves which brings up issues of future use of the area or
disposal of those materials. You can define, based on the list of
chemicals used strategies for dealing with potential problems, you can
even refine the design to allow for recycling of materials, etc. 
In the context of 'megurban' issues of environment and sustainablility
the basic question of appropriateness that comes up for me is:
Should darkrooms or similar 'private unregulated' chemical processing
facilities be allowed without adequate safeguards?
Or more simply, how could somebody in good conscience build a chemical
processing facility (however small) in a city or the country without
thinking and preparing for all the consequences of their activity.
If this seems too extreme then I don't understand the point of the
enquiry.
I'm curious - was this 700sq. ft.loft once low income housing and if it
was where did everyone move to?

John
 

White Crow / RSDC wrote:
> 
> I don't get it.  All this discussion about strawbale seems to me to
> fall
> into the category of *penny wise/pound foolish*.  The pattern of
> development that supports strawbale is at best suburban sprawl and at
> worst
> exurban creep.
> 
> How do we make the megurban areas of NY, Paris, Tokyo sustainable,
> much
> less Cairo, Calcutta, and New Haven or Bridgeport?  How are we going
> to
> deal with all these people?
> 
> The strawbale/earthship model reminds of the various back-to-the-land
> utopian efforts throughout American history which seem more about
> turning
> away from technological trauma than about solving problems.  Someone
> here
> mentioned Thoreau living in the forest; he lived in a glade of trees
> minutes away from his cohoorts.
> 
> My suggestion is to use part of this forum as a charette for pulling
> together the various modalities and direct efforts to megurban
> problems and
> solutions.  It is not an issue of asking for *free* design services.
> Its a
> matter of having a framework onto which to connect up expertise and
> ideas.
> 
> A couple of problems:
> 
> -*- At the beginning of the list, I floated out the problem of a small
> darkroom.  No takers.  The problem has, in a very manageable scale,
> issues
> of air quality, water quality, chemical disposal, electrical sheilding
> and
> tempering, and even the appropriateness of the endeavor.  I offer it
> again
> as a problem area to discuss.
> 
> -*- We will be renting / buying a loft in NYC.  What kind of systems
> can be
> brought to bear within a very space-confined envirnoment?  Grey water?
> Lighting systems?  Add-ons to the ubiquitous steam heat system?  Air
> cooling?  Air conditioning?  Waste management?  Insulation?  Window
> systems?  I would be happy to provide a floor plan of a small 700 sf
> loft
> which we did *not* get.
> 
> Any takers?
> 
> amos
> 
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