I know something new. I know how to design and build homes that are dramatically better than any I’ve ever built. What I know is radically simple. It is systematically measurable and therefore proven. It …
Read the full story »Then think again. It’s time to ask some fundamental questions. Sometimes all over again. It’s time to think clearly. Then act!
Design matters. When we learn to use all the tools in the design toolbox we discover more and make smarter choices.
Build better. Its time to make smart choices about how we build and the materials we choose to build with.
And energy sense. Our future literally depends on our ability to understand and use energy wisely.
Experience. Imagination. Familiarity. We depend on the sum of these part to offer and make good decisions.
You know. The walking dead.
People have been talking about this “zombie economy” and referring to “zombie banks” and looking at “zombie industries” like Detroit or education or the health care system and wondering how to bring them back to life. What exactly does this mean?
These zombies all have one thing in common. They are operating as if what worked when “things were good” is going to keep working if we can just provide the right stimulus or discover the right technology or act more efficiently. Let’s make Frankenstein walk!
But really, when “things were good” is more appropriately expressed as “when things were different”. Now that “things are bad” we need to acknowledge a simple, and liberating, truth: Things are different.
What this means is that we can’t count on the modes of operation that these zombies once lived by; notably cheap energy, easy credit, and a willingness to consume resources faster than they can be replaced. Those debts are coming due.
This requires us to ask new questions. If things are different, how do those differences invite us to act? Probably not by hoping we can make a better version of what isn’t working. Probably by endeavoring to acknowledge and respond to what has changed.
The building industry, like so many others, walks on in “zombie” mode trying to build “green” versions of the outsized and remote homes too many still equate with a past we might return to. It’s not going to happen. And more importantly, it shouldn’t.
The prospects for a living building industry depend on this necessary realization: our homes must endeavor to provide comfort and utility while using dramatically less energy and resources, less space with better utility, and at the same time provide significantly better comfort, health, durability, and stability. In short, we need “future friendly” homes.
To operate a building business that intends to walk among the living and not continue to march side by side with the living dead requires a commitment to discovery. To own up to the reality that “things are different” we depend on a healthy dose of curiosity and a equal measures of commitment and courage. We get up and come to work every day emboldened by this challenge.
We know we’re equipped to make this work.
A few years back I heard this poem read by Manchester native Steven Straight at that great summer event at the Hillstead Museum in Farmington, the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival. It continues to stick with me as I think about what we should expect from a home. I grew up in a Cape Cod house in Newington not much different than this. As he says, a “swiss army knife” of a house.
The poem is a keeper. Really, what’s enough?
We measure others, and ourselves, by the values we see practiced in our work, with our families, and within our communities. And in our homes. Honesty, respect, trust, generosity. These are virtues we teach our …
My career started in the 70’s as a house painter. A painter touches the surfaces of each project three times: Prep. Prime. Paint. Over dozens of projects I saw and touched every finished part of …
That’s the complaint.
We stand at the refrigerator and stare at the contents. We rummage through the boxes and cans and bottles and jars in the pantry. We open drawers of spices and grains and close …
We are inclined to tolerate conditions that are less than ideal. When we end up sick, or too cold or warm, or find our homes too dry or maybe growing mold, we employ these readily available workarounds. Offered the opportunity to take actions to eliminate the conditions that create these maladies, whether in our existing homes or when contemplating constructing new, we become daunted by the necessity to make up front investments in perpetual relief from these intolerable states.
In answer to one of my many “why?” questions about how poorly we understand energy, engineer Marc Rosenbaum explained, “Honeywell put us to sleep!”
What did he mean?
Not that long ago when it was cold out, …
Here’s a thought exercise: Imagine 147 fit athletes pedaling bikes uphill – call them our energy slaves – to create the energy we depend on to live.
Our houses have habits. And we learn them.
Next thing you know you’re adapting your behavior to the way your home doesn’t work. There’s no place to organize the mail, so it lands on the kitchen …
I know something new. I know how to design and build homes that are dramatically better than any I’ve ever built. What I know is radically simple. It is systematically measurable and therefore proven. It …
My career started in the 70’s as a house painter. A painter touches the surfaces of each project three times: Prep. Prime. Paint. Over dozens of projects I saw and touched every finished part of …
The Zombie building industry hopes to resume life by building a better version of what we don’t need. It’s time we responded to what’s different.
The Zombie building industry hopes to resume life by building a better version of what we don’t need. It’s time we responded to what’s different.
