00 - Present and future articles

There is a lot to be explored in this blog.
 

I am going to start with dwelling construction articles but I will add other topics as frequently as I can find them. At the moment I have the following ideas and published articles:

• 00 – Inspiration
• 00 - Just a thought for the week
• 00 - Present and future articles
• 00 - The inspiring idea
• 0.. - Good features in a dwelling
• 01 - Heat and humidity
• 02 - Humidity in buildings
• 02a - Humidity in a dwelling - how to avoid
• 03 - Building ventilation
• 04 - Natural building ventilation
• 04a - A dwelling with good ventilation
• 04b - Good ventilation habits
• 04c – More on natural ventilation  
  
• 05 - Protection from the heat and the cold
• 1.. - Building types and solutions
• 10 - Modern or traditional style
• 11 – An idea for a social center 
• 11a – Another idea for a social center 
• 2.. - Building materials
• 21 - Mixing soil for compacted earth blocks (CEB)
• 21a – More about adobe and rammed earth 
• 22 - A manual CEB CINVA press
• 22a - The manual CETA-RAM press
• 3.. - Household tools and appliances
• 30d - A rocket stove with adobe blocks
• 4.. - Agriculture and Permaculture
• 40 - Rainwater harvesting 
• 42 - Sun-dried tomatoes
  
• 5.. - Arts and crafts and more...
• 50 - A kanga backpack
• 51a - Making lye with ashes 
• 51b - How to render tallow for soap 
• 6.. - Business models
• 60 - CEBs - a social business model
• 60 - Value chains - general info
• 61 - Value chains
• 62 - Value chains from scratch
• 63 - Value chains – examples
• 63a – Value chains – another example, soap
• 64 - Value chains - how they work
• 7.. - 

Any valuable ideas and contributions will be welcome.

 

I would like to add ideas and articles from the most varied sources and I want to express in advance my appreciation for all and any contributions.

  

All this may seem excessively ambitious but I think it is very attainable.

04c – More on natural ventilation

There is an interesting article on natural ventilation in residential dwellings published in mestiçagens, a Portuguese language blog.

  

The contents are similar to what has already been published here but it may still be of interest.

  

And so, here is the reference.

10 - Modern or traditional style

Traditional or modern style? Traditional or modern materials? 

 

Two themes that have greatly influenced the way in which we have built and still build our dwellings. And the choices we have made have not always yielded the most desirable results.
 

Let us explore a bit these tow themes. I invite the reader to also explore these two themes with friends and family.

TRADITIONAL OR MODERN STYLE?

 
We know all too well the origin of the forces that made us view everything we were familiar with, everything that was traditional, as inadequate, old, and no good. We do not need to review again that part of our history.
 
But we know that it was due to those forces that we stopped building our dwellings the way our elders and our ancestors used to build and started imitating the style and the materials that were shown to us in the cities of concrete.
 

I find it very interesting that today, all over the world, we can see a revival and a recognition of that traditional style in the construction of new hotels... 

  

 

... residential buildings ...

  

 

... beach facilities ...

 

... and other buildings replicating and imitating our so called traditional style.

 

This being the case then, why can't we build our homes, no matter how humble and small, in the way that was so familiar to us, the way that was valued for so long, and is now being valued again by so many people in our countries as well as overseas?
  

Like this example that I find so simple, comfortable and beautiful ...

 

 

... or this one, a bit less elaborate, but with a lot of good taste ...

 

 

... and based on a mix of details and readily available materials.

 

I think that the times have changed and that the door is open for us to make use of so much time tested traditional knowledge. And we can enrich this knowledge with a mix of ideas to create dwellings we can build ourselves with materials readily available in nature. Dwellings that can be so much more comfortable and healthy.
  

TRADITIONAL OR MODERN MATERIALS?

 

Traditional building materials are very well suited to build dwellings in the so called traditional style. The style people call ecological but I call human and nature friendly.

 

In future articles we will identify natural building materials, traditional building materials, how to obtain them, how to build well with them and how to improve their comfort and efficiency as residential buildings.

Ideas to be explored

There is a lot to be explored in this blog, but I want all topics to be to the point, concrete and directly applicable to the construction of low cost dwellings that can be of benefit any to and all communities that can use the information collected here.
 
Most of the information presented here is neither new nor original. It is in fact collected from various sources, sources that I consider valuable for the intended purpose - to provide alternatives and ideas for the construction of comfortable and dignified dwellings.

The target of this blog are low cost simple dwellings. I have investigated and I cannot find information aimed at this type of dwelling. I have found a lot of information but not in a way that can be of value to the builder of these simple dwellings.

Before continuing, I want to say what everyone already knows - very few low cost dwellings are comfortable or dignified. There are multiple reasons that contribute to this reality. One of these is the loss of popularity in the use of traditional materials.

Over the years a lot of negative propaganda has been leveled at the use of traditional materials. At the same time a lot of marketing has promoted the use of so called modern materials, such as concrete, corrugated iron and plastic, among many.

 

These modern materials do have their advantages, but they have also given rise to the proliferation of very uncomfortable dwellings with trivialized appearances. I would even venture to say that their appearances are aesthetically offensive. The great majority of these dwellings, built with modern materials, are very hot during hot weather, or when the sun shines, and very cold during the cold months of the year and at night.

In addition to these problems, many dwellings do not have sanitary conditions for one reason or another. How can a human being, living in one of these dwellings, feel rested in the morning and motivated to face another day of work?

The ideas I want to explore in this blog have the primary goal of improving on this situation with the revival of traditional materials and building methods and the integration of various ideas from different regions of the world to create dwellings that are comfortable as well as pleasant to the eyes of those who live in them and those who see them from the street.

I wish the ideas to be of the most varied origins. To this end I solicit and appreciate in advance any and all participation from the most varied sources.

All this may appear to be a very ambitious goal but I think it is not that unattainable.