Here are some reflections / notes from that workshop, as collected by me . The notes are specifically from the “technical group”'s work in the group session, of which I was a part.
The question that we discussed – from various angles – was: How can we make buildings more ecologically sustainable? Relates to building materials, household appliances, the inhabitants’ “behavior of living” etc… Notes by contributor:
Malcolm:
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Influenced by Brent and Robert Vale’s book “The Autonomous House”, an influential book in the 1970s. They approached a house as an input / output device. An “earthbound spacecraft” that should be self-sufficient. They thought about the flows going in and out: air, water, sewage etc… And then how to minimize the flows.
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The capital consumption (embodied energy etc.) to build a perfect building has to be considered when thinking if a building is ecological or not. (Comment by Ilaria: That’s the basic idea of circular economy.)
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Insulation: Usually you’d first insulate, then heat (as much as still needed). But there are challenges: Adding wall insulation on the outside of existing buildings is a problem. Because it may inhibit windows from working. And if you add insulation on the inside, the thermal mass of the building is of not much use for keeping the room temperature constant.
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Directly heating buildings with wind turbines would work. It’s the same hydraulic brake technology as on aircraft carriers, where the jet capture wire has to be slowed down rapidly.
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In older years, hot fill dishwashers and washing machines were standard. Not anymore. Reason? The policy seems to be an all-electrical energy supply now. At least in Belgium.
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When teaching physics in school, Malcolm asks children the ethics of moving from slaves to power tools and robots. A power tool is like having 20 servants. Even music was non-electric 200 years ago. Not anymore.
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Should we employ people to clean the place, or do that with robots? This is an interesting moral question. Cleaners nowadays are annoyed if they have no automated equipment – even if offered pay for longer hours of work in compensation.
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Resource hint: “Center for Alternative Technolog”, Wales.
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Malcolm has a rainwater system, from the early 20th century; then suddenly it started to stink; even the toilet smelled worse after flushing; the cistern had to be cleaned from the inside; before one could do laundry with it; the FAC website has the equipment for rainwater tech.
Isabelle:
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Might converting a building to be green be more expensive than building a new one? (Comment by Malcolm: Even if so, it’s also valid to make a conversion as a demonstration project of what can be done.)
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In France, there is a lot of subsidy for insulation etc… (In Belgium, not so much, according to Malcolm. Due to historical building status, the commune even wanted to have single glazing back in his building at one point.)
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What low-tech solutions are there in order to not be addicted to market-provided high-tech solutions? Because that’s needed to really be sufficient with the existing resources.
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Can low-tech solutions work in urban areas?
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Would generating electricity for the building with bicycle generators work? (Comment by Matthias: It’s just not enough. If you cycle 24 hours a day, you’d generate 2.4 - 3.6 kWh, out of the 6.5 kWh a typical person uses per day, taking the example of Germany.)
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To be ecological, it also has to be fair. In Isabelle’s work with utilizing abandoned buildings, the principle is that everything is based on free contribution, and everything has a value. This is “ecological relationships” as the basis.
Ilaria:
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Wood burning is polluting. In Milan, they proposed a law that says chimneys can only be used beyond 200 m altitude (“in the mountains”). But that got not implemented in the end. A lot of pizzerias would be affected, so they were against it. The problem here was that Milan is in the Padana plain, an industrial region with no wind and mountains around. That creates air pollution issues.
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With open source tech, a lot of things become affordable for everyone.
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Caring for the environment (the culture) is a closed, bourgeois club these days. It costs energy to choose ecological behavior. It has to open up. Changing behavior only happens when you see the value.
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Not everyone has the passion for the environment. People need to see the value for their own lives to engage in ecological behavior.
Matthias:
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Behavior setting theory is a nice framework for effecting behavior change by incentives in the physical environment. Could be well integrated into green buildings, as it deals with the connection between behavior and things that we found to be important for low-resource-use living.
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Recourse link: Low-Tech Magazine.
Vincent:
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The Romans did not achieve the industrial revolution (even though they were short before that) just because they did have slaves, and did not need machine power.
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What are behaviors / rules for common living that make buildings more ecological?
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It’s necessary to define to what degree / extremeness you want to be ecological with your building. It’s easy to be extreme, in a way. But when it means that the comfort level drops too low, you have to warn people before they join, or visit.