Before I start my review I need to make clear that I see Woods as [...]]]>

I just read the book “A Natural System of House Design, An Architect’s Way” by Charles Woods. I was interested in it from Wood’s involvement with Malcolm Wells, a great natural architect and the pioneer of earth covered building.

Before I start my review I need to make clear that I see Woods as a fellow green builder and any critique I have is as one colleague to another. He is clearly an ally in my path of making the world a greener and healthier place.

In his book Woods sees himself more practical architect than Wells who has very strong but sometimes impractical views about ecology and how natural homes should be built. Woods says that Wells is, “stricter on this than I am. But I think I have come up with a reasonable compromise.”

And it shows in his architecture, which tends to be a lot more conventional from a systems point of view. I’m not talking visually but in terms of the materials specified (or more often not specified), the discussion of (or lack of) green systems like solar panels, gray water, composting, material recycling etc. and how they integrate into his designs.

Earthship

At one point he calls one of his house designs an Earthship and makes mention of another “environmental architect” who also calls his work an Earthship.

Woods writes,

“my houses have been looking more and more like ships of sorts. Why? Well…our houses really are like ships if you think about it. They do travel – not through sea or air, but through time and space.” But this shows Woods complete lack of understanding of an earthship.

The other architect is Michael Reynolds, a true natural builder and revolutionary thinker. To compare Reynold’s Earthships to his own work shows how ignorant Woods is of what defines an Earthship or a natural home. As an architect, and in my opinion like most architects, Woods is primarilly concerned with the visual aspect.

Throughout the book Woods is concerned with his “signature style” of design. For me this lacks the vision of what true green building is about. Yes green building can have a signature look. But green building is an acknowledgement of systems, the interconection of them and the impact they have on the planet.

If you look at Reynolds’ work it definitely has a very powerful style that is unmistakably ”Reynolds” or “Earthship” but that is not what makes an Earthship.

An earthship can look however you want. The true definition of an Earthship is that it is made from local natural materials that have the lowest embodied energy possible and that it is off the grid in terms of gas, electricity, water and sewer. And in terms of food production to a large part too.

It is entirely defined by its systems and how they impact the environment. It has nothing to do with how it looks. In fact I wish the Earthships did have more great designers involved since they usually all look the same – they have a DIY weekender look. Which is of course because most of them are DIY buildings by the owners. And that is the genius of an Earthship. But that is another topic.

Woods Design

In terms of Woods book I enjoyed looking at the pretty drawings of houses. They are mostly rendered by the extremely talented Malcolm Wells. And when you combine Woods immaculate aesthetic you get some trully striking designs.

Frank Loyd Wright Influence

Woods is completely overwhelmed by Frank Loyd Wright’s style which isn’t a bad thing. The houses look beautiful. They are works of art even if they aren’t original. We would all benefit from a house designed by Woods.

But despite him saying that students of Wright “became little clones” and that Woods is “still overwhelmed, awed, and humbled” by Wright’s designs, Woods sees himself as having his own style unique from Wright. I see small differences in Woods’ work but overall they look like Wright designs to my untrained eye.

For example a design by Woods;

And the famous one by Wright:

Note: I am about to go on a long rant. And it may possibly be hard to follow – not because I am dealing with things above your head but because I don’t think I articulated it very well. Hopefully you can hang in there and not get too bored because it really is important stuff!

Architect as God

I had a hard time getting through Woods self importance. He constantly threw himself next to the great architects like Corbusier and Wright. As a teenager he says he was a “little prodigy.” Towards the end of the book he wraps up his perspective by quoting Ayn Rand’s fictional Architect and epitome of arrogance, Howard Roark from her book the Fountainhead, “I don’t build in order to have clients – I have clients in order to build.”

Green Builder Defined

I am a green builder. And as such have thought long and hard what my reason for building is. I have concluded that green building puts nature first. Period.

So anyone, including fellow green builders like Woods, who has an agenda other than putting the wellbeing of the planet first is not benefiting the planet (and thus humans as part of it) to their full potential and not technically fully a green builder in my eyes.

They may be a great builder and a wonderful human being. But I think it is important to own the definition of green builder. Hell, Woods doesn’t even call himself a green builder. He says he is a natural builder. But I think he would call himself a green builder too.

Woods’ attitude as an “Artist/Architect” with a capital “A” hampers his ability to be a true green builder. As long as his vision is more important than anything else the vision of the planet will always come second to him.

The Howard Roarks of this world with their purity of self expression and their laser sharp personal vision are isolated from the wholeness of the universe, in fact that may be their genius. Or you could argue they are taping into the greater universal energy.

Either way they are separating themselves from their earthly environment. As long as an Architect or Artist insists that “everything filter through my mind” first (as Woods puts it) before it becomes reality then they are claiming that they are the only and ultimate authority.

But no person is an island, regardless of your divine talent.

Although I suppose to us lesser mortals it is inspirational that these Artist/Architects have this talent, and I suppose like the pre-Martin Luther priests we know who to turn to if we want a conduit of Godly creation.

Me as Artiste

But as a person who was one of these Artists for over a decade, who lived and breathed the Roark inside me (I read the Fountainhead like a bible twice), who created great works of art that only my soul could create, I understand what it means to be driven by an inner truth.

It is an intoxicating state of mind. Your soul’s voice is the only voice you hear. You guard it like a precious jewel from the vulgar baseness of the world that is constantly trying to pull you into mediocrity.

And in so doing you separate yourself further and further from the world. You are a single shining light who gets it power from its own solitary divine source. And there is nothing wrong with this. Some of the greatest accomplishments in the world by humans came from this attitude.

But then things changed for me. I realized that the world needed me and that my actions, no matter how pure and honorable, were not helping the planet. I heard the planet’s SOS call and it pulled me to look outwards instead of always inwards.

Note: You are about half way through the rant. Congratulations and keep going!

Sebastian Bach Inspired

This is when I flipped from aspiring to be Mozart and started aspiring to be Bach.

Mozart was a Roark who like Woods could only create from their inner voice. As Woods says (arrogantly?), “I don’t think it is a matter of arrogance – it’s the only way I know how to work.”

But Bach was a lowly draftsman with a large family to feed. He was on meager salary by the church to churn out show tunes each week for the sermon, no more glorious or divinely inspired than the underpaid mason who built the beautiful cathedrals. Bach was a humble employee with a boss and a weekly deadline.

In his time nobody proclaimed him a genius. He was just the guy who helped put the weekly sermon together. Now I don’t know what Bach’s reason for being was. It is not important since it is speculation for me. I know little about the man. I’m just using him as a metaphor. To make my point I am going to make up his purpose and say that he wrote for others – for his boss, to feed his family.

And I think that is what a green builder does. They are servants to the planet. Their creative genius comes second to their devotion to improving the planet. I would actually say that is their creative genius but it is a selfless one.

I’m not saying the Artiste isn’t selfless. I would have died for my art. Nothing was more important than creation. My friends, myself, my family, the world, it all came second to my creative purpose. I sacrificed it all for the art. My point here is that the health of the planet was very low on my list of priorities.

Also, some people who don’t have the holistic vision of  the universe – that we are all connected – would see this servant attitude of putting other things before personal creativity as failure.

For example you see it portrayed in the film Barton Fink, where a writer strugles with these very issues of inner vision vs. worldly corruption of that vision.

There is a scene in the movie when Fink the idealistic writer is explaining to the life hardened producer about wanting to write “something beautiful” with the screenplay. The producer, Lipnik, lays him out with the “hard truth”:

“You think the whole world revolves around whatever rattles inside that little kike head of yours? You think you’re the only writer that can give me that ‘Barton Fink’ feeling? I’ve got a HUNDRED writers that can give me that ‘Barton Fink’ feeling!”

But if you understand that we are all connected, that the flap of a butterfly does create storms on the other side of the planet, then you know that the most self preserving, self satisfying thing to do is to serve the whole with an understanding that you are not separate from it.

And even more importantly you can see that serving the whole and following your inner soul is one and the same.

There is no choice between one or the other. We are always doing both. The important thing, though, and this in my mind is really, really, important, is to understand you can’t do one without the other. To truly know it – and this can be a life long realization. It is the basis of most religions and how many enlightened people do you know? For most people becoming one with the universe is an elusive experience we may never have.

But just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

This was the source of Fink’s struggle and the producers hardness. They could not see the wholeness of the universe. They thought that self creation was separate from universal unity. And likewise does Woods and Roark.

Perhaps that view is their contribution to the world – their inability to see the whole? “It’s the only way I know how to work” as Woods says.

But I don’t think so. Regardless of our talents, we all have something to contribute in the grand scheme of things. From a universal point of view the mail carrier and the Mozart are all crucial. And to know that is to know we are all connected.

Focus On Our Connections

So the trick for me is not to worry about my talents but to focus on my connections – to the planet, my family, my neighbors, the air I breathe and the food I eat.

And to serve. It almost doesn’t matter what – Serve my family, my clients, my workers. Ultimately I hope it all goes to serving the planet and the universe. Ultimately I hope, in my limited understanding of how things work, that through serving I am served. Because an interconnected web always comes back to itself.

But as a green builder I serve first and foremost nature, with the understanding that both the oceans and my tap water, the Savannah of Africa and my close family are all part of the nature I serve.

I set out each day with this intention and over the course of a million decisions each day the question is always – which choice serves nature best?

Does this mean I piss my girlfriend off? My neighbors? Myself? Yes. Unfortunately. Regrettably. Embarrassingly.

My acts don’t always harmoniously balance the universal whole with loading the dishwasher in time. I tend to err in favor of some universal planetary savior thing, which ironically is due to me being self centered and forgetting that loading the dishwasher is just as much a part of the whole.

But my life is not over and I hope that as I mature I will improve the balance between immediately local needs like mortgages and more esoteric needs like saving rain forests I have never visited. Both are important.

Note: Congratulations you managed to wade through the entire rant. Now if you could comment below and tell me what I was trying to say that would be great because I lost myself about half way through. But I know it is important and would love for somebody to explain it to me.

Module System

Back to the book. Woods’ main point in the book is the connection between geometry and earth, and that nature is inherently geometric. He thus presents the Module System.

The module system is very simple: always design in measurements of 4 feet.

A room should be 12′x20′ and never 9′x23′. Always use increments of 4′. You can go smaller. A closet can be 2′x6′. But never 2.5′x5′. Like wise a house can be 32′ high but not 33′.

The reason for this, and I agree entirely, is that the module system forces the home to be inwardly symmetrical. Like our body, a seashell, a leaf, the house retains an inner harmony where all the parts resonate on the same linear language.

I think his choice of 4′ as the module foundation is a little random. I don’t know enough about nature’s measurements or sacred geometry to know if 4′ is any better than say 3′. Maybe we should be building along the Golden Triangle?

But either way if you stick to a modular foundation, and 4′ makes a lot of sense in today’s building since things are often in segments of 4′ – the 4′x8′ plywood for example – then you create an inner harmony. The 4′ foundation is also a hell of a lot easier than some of the more complex sacred geometry ratios.

Like a dew drop that holds itself together, the house will also hold itself together. There is an inner tension that holds all parts tegother. Without it the dew drop falls apart and becomes chaos. Without an innner harmony in a house it starts to look like a bunch of sticks and stones randomnly thrown together and it is painful to live in.

This modular system is both simple and genius and everything in the world should be built using a foundation grid.

Having seen the future of contracting he had started to use low VOC paints and he [...]]]>

A couple years ago I was looking into the cold blue eyes of a lying, money grubbing man. He also happened to be a neighborhood contractor. And he said to my face in all seriousness, “I am a green contractor.”

Having seen the future of contracting he had started to use low VOC paints and he had hired a construction manager with LEED AP credentials. I saw right through it. He was simply a smart business man with good marketing skills. Yet maybe he did see himself as a green contractor. Maybe he just had a different definition. To some people he probably did look like a green contractor.

I walked away with an acute awareness that the bandwagon called “green” was immense.

How many times has a middle aged burly man stood up in the aisles of Lowes and miraculously become a “Green Contractor.” These days it happens all the time.

But then I started thinking:

What if this despicable human who couldn’t care less about the planet and only cared about his selfish gain actually acted like a good green builder, meaning he recycled, used non toxic materials, built lots of green roofs and helped people live a healthy life?

Sure he was doing it for all the wrong reasons but does the outcome render the intention immaterial?

What if you expand this person to all people so that the entire world population were obsessed with being ecological, some out of love and others out of self serving interests?

Would we not turn the planet green nonetheless?

I don’t know.

What I did realize from that man was that I needed to own the definition of green, not types like him. I had to define it to the world. I do this both though my actions and my self imposed Life Label as a “Green Contractor and Builder”, combining name and act to create a definition people can gauge other people by.

Ever since that contractor put on the same team jersey as me despite not being on the team I have been obsessed with what it means to be a “Green Builder.” I am constantly searching, like a soul is explored, into what it really means to be a green builder, fully knowing that my definition will immediately become outdated.

How can you define a living entity? Have you ever stared at a cloud, how the only way you know it is changing shape  is because the shape looks different than a second ago. But you never saw it change! It is too subtle.

And again, does it matter if in the end they build green?

But last week it hit me like a ray of sun shining though FSC sawdust in the air. This time I really think I got it.

Here it is, the definition of “Green Builder”:

Somebody who puts the welfare of the planet before anything else.

Period.

It is not how many VOC’s your paint has. It is who you are looking out for.

Who is number one on the list? The health of the planet.

As a builder, does every single decision you make hover over how you can make the planet healthier?

If you answer yes then you can call yourself a “Green Builder.”

Before you accuse me of being impractical and fanatically idealistic, remind yourself that the client and the contractor belong to the planet, so their health on all levels is part of the “Green Builder” equation. The contractor needs to make money and the client needs a home to be “healthy”.

For they are part of the whole we seek to keep full of health.

But a Green Builder does not dwell too long on the health of the client and his own self. After a breif pause on those needs, the Green Builders pans out wide again, very wide to see the whole picture, relegating the needs of client and contractor in context to the whole world.

We are not narrow sighted in our outlook but far reaching and broad. We see global. Take it a step further: universal. Forget Earth, how about:

A Green Builder wants to make the Universe healthier.

They do it with every stroke of that paint brush.

With this definition everything is so easy. The next time I look into those cold blue eyes and the man tells me he is  a Green Contractor I simply need to ask myself, “Does this man put the health of the planet above all else?”

The answer is no. So it does not matter how well he walks the walk of green building because with this definition the attention is shifted away from action and results and put on PRIORITIES.

It is all about priorities. Two babies drowning in a pool. The one you save first is your priority. Where do this person’s priorities lie? With himself, with me, with the world? The two first options are atomistic, meaning singular and exclusive. The third option, the world, is holistic and include the other two options.

Ever heard of the “Win Win” concept in business where instead of only you win or only I win we both win. Not yin, not yang but the circle of both. Holistic.

So this brings us to the grand finales of Green Contractor Defined!

A green contractor is one who always thinks holistically

Sure they put the world first, sure they also help the client and themselves but more important than those atomistic details, the Green Contractor is constantly looking for the entire picture. They are endlessly trying to see the always changing whole.

Like cloud watchers they strive to define the undefinable, to peek ever so quickly into the meaning of life that ties all these parts into a unified mass. In the end a green builder doesn’t build houses. A green builder builds meaning that makes sense when looked at close as a paint stroke and far as a nebula.

Right now that meaning is green, tomorrow it may be something else. Only the green builder will know.

The optimist thinks, “The glass is half full.” The pessimist thinks, “The glass is half empty.” The green builder thinks, “That glass is twice as big as it needs to be.”

Word on the street is that the Gowanus Canal is going to be designated a Superfund site. The canal is two blocks from the Brooklyn green show house so it is dear to our heart and very clearly part of our ecosystem.

The Gowanus is definitely a good candidate for a superfund designation. [...]]]>

Word on the street is that the Gowanus Canal is going to be designated a Superfund site. The canal is two blocks from the Brooklyn green show house so it is dear to our heart and very clearly part of our ecosystem.

The Gowanus is definitely a good candidate for a superfund designation. It is a common belief among the locals that those living near the canal, between Bond and Hoyt, get cancer more often than other areas in Carroll Gardens.

There have not been any studies that I know of but that is what the Italian old timers say. And for them to say the canal is toxic really means it is toxic. These are lifelong Carroll Gardens residents who grew up when it was fine to start smoking at twelve.

So what does a superfund designation mean? For one it means that the government will finally formally recognize what any moron can see: that the canal is toxic and needs some serious clean up measures. It also means there are different rules for construction and use of the site until it is cleaned up.

This effects me because it might mean that we can’t have the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club use the canal, which is also just down the street from the green show house. You can’t have people paddling around in a toxic superfund site.

We have spent many an hour gliding along the canal, basking in the sun and watching the city from the very interesting perspective of the canal. It is a beautiful place. The water winds around old relics of industrial industry. There are hidden inlets and unseen tunnels.

You are six feet below the city in your own forgotten world. You can imagine that the city has been abandoned and you are a future explorer discovering a lost civilization. It is a very calming experience to paddle the canal.

During the summer when it has gone a couple days without raining and the water has had a chance to run out to sea a few times the canal is very pleasant. It doesn’t smell and almost looks clean. You see the mussels planted by local ecology groups to help filter the water. The occasional minnow furtively kisses your canoe.

Of course if you take a ride in the canal after a heavy rain the place smells like crap and you have all sorts of disgusting bathroom refuse like floating tampons and condoms. This is because the sewer system overflows into the canal when it gets overloaded, for example during rainstorms.

This is why we are going to such care to decrease the rain water runoff and general water use at the green show house up the street: gray water system, rainwater capture, low flow fixtures, efficinet washing machine, green roof and the myriad of other intelligent water management practices a green contractor should consider in Brooklyn brownstones.

All of this lessens the impact on the sewers. We see the direct effect of bad water management in the canal and we want to reduce it. Most people flush their toilet and are done with it. A green builder understands that there is a connection to everything. In Brooklyn a green builder understands that we have an issue with overflowing sewer systems.

Hopefully the green show house will become a leading example for neighbours to follow and it will help in the cleaning process of the Gowanus canal. We’re not talking a lot of money to do these changes to a green brownstone. If anything you make the money back in time through lower water bills.

If the canal is designated a superfund site it will probably finally get funding. This will clean it up and make it a recreation resource for the community. Not just dire hard Gowanus Dredgers Canoe members will be able to enjoy it.

This will better the community and the houses around it.

The irony is that the largest critic of the superfund site is a builder. The anithesies of green builders, Toll Brothers, is vehemently opposing the superfund designation. They have bought large tracts along the Gowanus canal and want to build shitty “luxury condos” which they’ll probably claim has “water views”.

They couldn’t care less about the toxicity of the canal. Let it rot for all they care. It does not effect their short term gains. In fact it effects their short term gains negatively. If the Gowanus is a superfund site then it has to go through all sorts of testing and clean up.

This could seriously hinder Toll Brothers’ plans to build. And they might even have to aknowledge that they plan on covering up toxic land and building over it. They might even be held responsible for cleaning up the land they bought.

The superfund designation means the Toll Brothers can’t sweep the dirt under the rug and build like normal. They want to build fast and cheap, sell high and get the hell out of there. Making a commitment to clean up the community and plan long term for its health is not part of their business model.

Toll Brothers are the Walmart of the building industry. Brooklyn Green Builders and Contractors are the mom and pop stores. The good news is that Walmart isn’t welcomed by Brooklyn residents and mom and pop stores are doing just fine here.

Green contractors and builders have a welcome community in Brooklyn and that is only going to increase.

The hope is that we find better [...]]]>

The green show house is an experiment in building. Sometimes we really get it right, sometimes we totally don’t. This kind of experimentation can’t be done on a clients house. But since this is a show house we want to show the process, both good and bad.

The hope is that we find better ways to do things or at the very worse confirm that we couldn’t improve on the existing way. Of course because we catalog the whole process, good bad and ugly, we do get flack from conservative builders who have their idea of how things should be done.

Here is a comment by one such person who posted on Brownstoner.com:

“oh christ its the former wedding officiator from ibiza that is attempting to redefine himself as a green contractor…look at the eco brooklyn blog..the guy does not have a clue about anything..everything is done 2 or 3 times because he keeps trying to reinvent the wheel instead of biting the bullet and paying a professional to do the work the right way..”

Yes I did try my hand at being a wedding officiator in Ibiza . Interesting but didn’t get me excited like green building.

Part of our process in building is to step back and admit that MAYBE we don’t have a clue about building. And who says the wheel is the best tool for the job?? Just because everyone up to now has used a wheel doesn’t make it the best way. How well is that working for us? Not that well if you ask me.

Lets face it, buildings take up insane amounts of energy and resources. It is one of the largest consuming sector in the world. Building a home is the largest expense most families will ever have next to college tuition for their children. The energy to run homes is also one of the largest drain in the world.

Why is that acceptable? Sounds like a pretty crappy wheel to me.

The waste and destruction that goes as the norm in building should be a pretty good indication that maybe we need to reinvent the wheel or get rid of it completely. We need to stick our necks out and try to find a solution that works better.

Sometimes we at Eco Brooklyn have found better ways. Sometimes we’ve discovered that the wheel is completely broken. For example I’ve posted before about the waste that occurs in Brooklyn when one sub-contractor throws out bricks and another sub-contractor buys bricks. ON THE SAME JOB.

The second guy was pissed when I pointed this out to him. But for the GC, this was normal practice. He didn’t care. The expense was simply passed up the line to the owner and the loss was passed down the line to the second sub-contractors profit.

We make sure our bricks get used again. That saves a lot on many levels.

I admit it is difficult sometimes when other contractors call me an idiot for wasting my time taking materials out of their dumpsters. “Why would you want that junk. It is garbage.”

It WAS garbage. But after I pay my workers to fix it it becomes FREE material. Even if it costs the same due to what I pay the workers I still see the benefit in doing it. But usually it costs less.

As green builders we have to do it better and if we don’t see the solution then it is up to those of us in the trenches with the knowledge to find one. The worst that can happen is we get it wrong or someone who hasn’t caught on thinks we are stupid.

I don’t care because there is no doubt for me that in five years there will be two kinds of builders: green builders and unemployed builders.