Andy, Rog
These (hopefully) series of posts (which are too long for one and may
take me forever to complete) are the vein of Matt's thread: "Confessions
of a Fallen Priest"
Part 1-The Stupid Problem.
********
I confess that:
I've been following the back and forth between Andy and Rog over the
issue of
"sustainablity" or lack there of in most of the Western world and
particularly America. Coming of age in the "radical" 60's (graduating HS
in 62, a four year vacation in Vietnam, and then graduating with BA
architecture in 75) my education was laced with ample doses of the "new
sciences" of ecology and sustainabilty complete with proposed tools & solutions
such as natural resources audits, energy budgets, renewable energy
strategies, active & passive solar, earth sheltered, biomethane generation,
grey water recycling, and on and on. Thoughout my career, but particularly
just after college, I continued studying these topics and introduce them
to a broad range of clients. The vast majority of them have shown very little
interest and little of this vein of my education has been actually
applied. I'm sure
then, during my calmer times, I uttered words very similar to Andy's:
> My hope for some more enlightened views by our younger generation [then me] is all there
> is left.
And I'm also sure at other times I shouted (in frustrated silence) , in
the words of "my favorite.[now that he is] departed [after forging my
name and unsubscribing me from this forum] MOQ'r, killerblade. "OUT, OUT
DEMON OF
STUPIDITY"
Yes, I confess that there have been times when I asked myself,
"How is it that a vast majority of the people in the world, particularly
the well
educated, are so STUPID that they do not see the obvious moral
imperative to save our planet's environment from the ravishment of human
over population, use, and development?"
Indeed, I confess that my attraction to Pirsig's work stems from the
nagging questions about my role as an architect in the process of
creating a "quality" built environment. Or lack thereof.
After years of personal study and discussions here, my first conclusion
was that architecture, in the broadest sense of the word, meaning
everything we build that is or supports shelter; roads, buildings, dams,
bridges, utiltity systems etc, is a trailing indicator of societal values.
This conclusion is in direct conflict with the theory I was taught in
school and which, to a large degree, is still being taught. The "Modern"
movement in art and architecture was the first in history to espouse
being "avant-garde", the "advance guard", the leading edge, of societal
change. And while instrumental in changing the built world as we know
it, it was wrong in its claim to be the leading edge of that change.
Proceeding these changes by hundreds of years were sweeping changes in
intellectual values. A "modern" intellectual worldview was developed,
firmly entrenched, and very stable prior to the advancements in "Modern"
art and architecure even began. So if we want to change the world what
we build is not where we start, it's more towards where we end.
So again, similar to Andy, I my second conclusion was that, if mankind
truely wants to build a "better" environment in which to live, or a
"better" life, the essential first step is that mankind needs to,
> ... looked at ourselves to see what we might change about our ... values,
But in nature, of which we are an integral part, except for rare
instances usually in the wake of catastrophic events, evolution is an
excruciatingly slow process. And even though the evolution of human
worldviews has accelerated the process dramatically it still takes many
generations to go from proposal of a new one until wide spread tangible
evidence of
the shift is manifest in how a society builds.
**********
To be continued.
3WD
"The amount of money Americans spend on water is staggering.
The bottled water market is approaching $5 billion a year, Maisner
says, for both delivered
bottled water and water off the retail shelf, although the delivered
bottled water market is in
decline.
“When Coke and Pepsi devote vending machines to bottled water, you know
there’s a market,”
Maisner notes. Both Coke’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina are produced by
reverse osmosis.
Bottled water companies deliver RO-purified water at $1.50 to $1.85 per
gal. A homeowner,
however, could have a plumbing contractor install a $200 under-sink RO
system and get the
same water for 4 cents to 6 cents per gal". Contractor Magazine Aug 2002
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