Material Innovations

To account for every material that goes into building a new home in America would be a daunting task I will not attempt here.  I would prefer instead to compare the methods of late with traditional building methods particularly, earthen plaster.  The McMansion, with its nod to a post-modern identity crisis aesthetic is indeed an exercise in excess.  And, if I believed that most of them were well constructed enough to be around in 100 years, I might suggest that someday they would serve as fine examples of naive architecture reflecting a culture which chose the consumption of energy as the ultimate status symbol.

Since 1950, the average new house has increased by 1,247 sq. ft. Meanwhile,the average household has shrunk by 1 person. … The average new home requires 13,837 board feet of lumber and 19 tons of cement. Read more scary stats here

Luckily, the economy went to hell and stopped the obsesive building of these nightmare homes. when our economy is proped up by objects that require a dispropoortionate amount of energy to produce them there is bound to be a massive failure that will require a rebalancing of the economy.  And if lessons are not taken now they will become harder to face and more dificult to recover from.  The desire to “reinvent the wheel” has always driven the American economy, it is deemed innovation and assumes that new means better.

Earthen Plaster is a material that has been used for thousands of years.  The oldest know structure is the Ramesseum in Egypt

Clay is one of the most common materials on the planet, it posses incredable insulating power.  Clay has anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties and it also allows moisture to escape when partnered with other breathable materials such as straw. This makes it an attractive material for use in damp climates. As this  video about straw bail houses in Germany points out, the construction and destruction of buildings makes up about 40% of the German economy!  The time for innovating with these natural materials has arrived.   Visionaries like Samuel Mockbee and Paolo Soleri can give us a good place to start.