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Building Locally and Appropriately
Bamboo
There are 1,050-1,070 species of bamboo. Bamboo is used for building houses, as containers for food and drink, for making all sort of household and agricultural implements, for making weapons, instruments, water pipes and gutters, fences, baskets, as food, animal fodder and as medicine.
"The qualities of the plant are such that it can never be replaced."
- Christine Recht and Max Wetterwald, Bamboos.
Sub-Trop. to Trop. House
Essential Elements
Orientation to winds
Shade
Reduction of mass
Venting and air flow
Trellis and shade-house
Air scoops
Tanks and cisterns
Insect screening
Guttering and rain catchment
Drainage (Site specific)
Shelter from hurricanes, tsunamis, wind, eroding beaches, (See planning for catastrophe)
Open design (air, light, ambience)
Solar heated hot water on roof to reduce or eliminate use of fuel powered water heaters.
Design techniques
Walls stop short of ceiling
Verandas
Roof vents
Separate kitchen
White, reflective, insulated roof
Wind barrier? (Bamboo)
Temperate House
Elements
Orientation of axis to sun
Insulation and draft-proofing
High thermal mass
Ventilation
Insulated ground under house
Heat banks
Cold banks and wall shading (deciduous trees if possible)
Attached greenhouse/shadehouse/watertanks
The use of large eves to let winter sun in, keep summer sun out.
Design strategies
Careful draft proofing of all doors/windows
Insulation of walls and ceilings (Reduces heating bills by 50%)
Attached greenhouse to the sun side. (double glass or closed off from house)
Adding heat mass as concrete slabs, tanks, and brick or stonework
Catastophe Design
Learn climatic and landform history of area and site. Use common sense, and if there are rare external energies (ex. hurricanes)assume they will happen and plan accordingly.
Keep damp mulched gardens
Design with ponds
Include succulent ground covers
Acquire appropriate foraging animals to 'rake' up leaves
Plant slow-burning, high-ash-content (least combustible) species
Other issues: flood, earth-movements, cyclone, hurricane, tsunami,
lava!
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