GREEN BUILDING---WHY?
These pages serve to show one man's attempt to make sense of the madness. "Life in the fast lane" has resulted in voluminous amounts of waste product, making trash a good business for those equipped to get these resources out of the way so even more merchandise can be made available for sale...whether it's really needed or not!
Stuff gets in the way of more stuff arriving. In a matter of seconds, in the consumption process, containers go from necessary and valuable to problem, and big money is paid to those who will help keep space open for arriving shipments, by being disposers of those, boxes, plastic, pallets, tires, bottles, etc.
Here at Rancho Los Quijotes S. de R.L. de C.V. in Baja California Sur, Mexico, where we currently have 6 buildings under construction, our goals in green building technologies are directed towards the homeless people of the world.
For this reason, cost is a major factor in our constructions. Society's waste offers many opportunities for the disadvantaged to utilize materials seen as useless. Balancing labor and materials so that the bottom line comes out to be less can be an elusive task.
We as a people must find the way to get roofs over more of the heads of our citizens without making virtual slaves of them. Many areas are lacking of affordable housing, and the consequences of that failure are visible in various negative syndromes in society---i.e., drug abuse, high crime rate, increased divorce rates, and more.
Often I encounter green motivated folks expecting to find building costs to be far less than conventional systems when we speak of green building, and sometimes that's true.
However, many times, you will pay the same or more to go true green, depending on the design and planning employed. If you insist on using imported Italian tile (for example) instead of lower cost materials, your house will be more expensive...and that's your fault.
Many times, cost-cutting strategies exist but the owner is unwilling to use them, or local codes won't allow them. And there seems to be a certain moral imperative attached to going green, to be part of the solution. We want to help the planet, not exacerbate the problems overpopulation has created.
GREEN COMPARED TO WHAT ?
We hear much discussion about green things in the world today. Many times, green is a buzzword to sell products and it is disappointing to learn how far from ideal many supposedly "green" things often times are (admittedly, true green can be very elusive to actualize). The term "green-washing" applies to the process used by those who try to sell goods and services that often times fall short of being truly green by simply calling them green.
True green should really be earth-friendly and not involve processes that cost great amounts of resources in their creation or transport. An exception to that would be materials society discards (aluminum cans, paper, and tires, for example)....they are costly to produce but once tossed out on the junk heap, their carbon footprint is somewhat irrelevant.
True green should really be earth-friendly and not involve processes that cost great amounts of resources in their creation or transport. An exception to that would be materials society discards (aluminum cans, paper, and tires, for example)....they are costly to produce but once tossed out on the junk heap, their carbon footprint is somewhat irrelevant.
It should be said that there are shades of green...light, medium, and dark green, thus giving latitude for inclusion under the green name to some products that have hardly any actual greenness.
At Baja Green Builder, we strive to honestly be as truly green as possible. All our designs put foremost the use of natural and recycled materials, user friendly technology, and our intention is to bring the homeless into the ranks of the green participants in the world of natural building.
At Baja Green Builder, we strive to honestly be as truly green as possible. All our designs put foremost the use of natural and recycled materials, user friendly technology, and our intention is to bring the homeless into the ranks of the green participants in the world of natural building.
If we are unable to reach those who truly need the discoveries made by pioneering souls worldwide, that would truly be a shame for all concerned, and we as alternative builders will have failed to meet our challenge.
Aluminum can, carrizo cane, steel reinforced oval can house
What value do breakthroughs and discoveries have if they are kept as intellectual property for the few and not applied to the masses who urgently need them?
Big tire house south room pre-plaster details---Baja California Sur, Mexico.
So then, what REALLY is green for building? On site soil is about the greenest thing you'll find for material. Once we start having to haul and/or buy materials, the impact on the environment increases.
Discarded car tires are a great under appreciated resource across the world (and my personal favorite for solving habitation problems) but can cost considerably to get to the site, losing some of their "free" status through gasoline burned and labor required.
They are still very much worth the trouble you run into to get them, however. Our work here in Baja California, Mexico requires planning for hurricanes and earthquake activity for proper safety and longevity of the structure and we incorporate many tires in the process of achieving that goal.
Steel being the main reinforcer available, is the most common method of giving a building tensile strength and it has a known shake resistance, as proven by the post-tremor photos coming out of the various areas of the world slammed by quakes.
Much of the steel we buy is recycled, so is of a lesser environmental impact to the planet. New steel's greenness is debatable, being mined and refined from the earth, requiring making big holes in the planet.
However, iron ore to make steel from is very common across large areas of the earth's crust and so for it's abundance, effectiveness, and prevalence worldwide, it bears mention.
The old time vernacular building method of achieving the lateral strength needed in walls is wattle and daub, also called bajareque in Latin America...(known as "trabadillo" here in Baja California Sur).
Sticks, canes, or boards are placed (nailed, tied, or woven) lengthwise on vertical posts along the wall and then plastered over with a mix of some type....usually earthen mud or cement based substances, often times with straw added in as a binder.
Here at Rancho Los Quijotes, we grow carrizo cane (like bamboo) and use it for reinforcement in constructions. It is one of the fastest growing plants on earth and is strong. The small diameter and high piece count of the cane takes some inventing to make it efficient, but it's very useful still and very easy to grow.
Discarded car tires are a great under appreciated resource across the world (and my personal favorite for solving habitation problems) but can cost considerably to get to the site, losing some of their "free" status through gasoline burned and labor required.
They are still very much worth the trouble you run into to get them, however. Our work here in Baja California, Mexico requires planning for hurricanes and earthquake activity for proper safety and longevity of the structure and we incorporate many tires in the process of achieving that goal.
Steel being the main reinforcer available, is the most common method of giving a building tensile strength and it has a known shake resistance, as proven by the post-tremor photos coming out of the various areas of the world slammed by quakes.
Much of the steel we buy is recycled, so is of a lesser environmental impact to the planet. New steel's greenness is debatable, being mined and refined from the earth, requiring making big holes in the planet.
However, iron ore to make steel from is very common across large areas of the earth's crust and so for it's abundance, effectiveness, and prevalence worldwide, it bears mention.
The old time vernacular building method of achieving the lateral strength needed in walls is wattle and daub, also called bajareque in Latin America...(known as "trabadillo" here in Baja California Sur).
Sticks, canes, or boards are placed (nailed, tied, or woven) lengthwise on vertical posts along the wall and then plastered over with a mix of some type....usually earthen mud or cement based substances, often times with straw added in as a binder.
Here at Rancho Los Quijotes, we grow carrizo cane (like bamboo) and use it for reinforcement in constructions. It is one of the fastest growing plants on earth and is strong. The small diameter and high piece count of the cane takes some inventing to make it efficient, but it's very useful still and very easy to grow.