This book has a long title: Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs. But then again it is a big book. Written by Tim Callahan and Clarke Snell this book overflows with 600 pages and 1500 images. The book aims […]
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I had been avoiding the movie Food Inc for a while. I’ve seen lots of animal rights movies: they are depressing. They make me angry because of the barbarity and frustrated because I feel helpless. But one evening I was feeling especially brave. It turns out the movie is UPLIFTING! Sure it jumps all over
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“To leave the land no worse than you found it” is the manifesto of Gentle Architecture, a concept coined by Architect Malcolm Wells, who recently died. He made an impression on the green movement of the 1970’s and his work is getting attention with the new green building movement we are currently having. There are
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I was just blogging how much we like earthen floors because for one it doesn’t use CO2 producing concrete. Then I decided to calculate how much CO2 your typical Brownstone basement would produce if you poured a concrete slab. Answer: Almost ONE MILLION cubic feet of CO2 is let off to pour a simple brownstone
The correct way to finish off a brownstone is to put lots of insulation and then a concrete slab, right? Correct maybe but not the greenest way. Concrete creates way too much CO2. The greenest way and a great alternative to concrete is to put lots of insulation and then an EARTHEN floor. Yes earth,
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Today’s modern home is loaded with toxic and polluting substances designed to make domestic life easier. The cost of these commercial, chemical-based products can be high — long term health concerns for the family, and environmental pollution caused by their manufacture and disposal. In the US, for example, 1 in 3 people suffer from allergies,
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Here is a great image. It shows the true value of a Brooklyn brownstone green renovation. This is something you can’t put a price to. It is like the credit card advertisement: Insulation $10 Radiant floor $15 Fiberglass Windows $12 Watching your baby play naked while it snows outside: Priceless This photo really shows the
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I was just speaking with an Eco Brooklyn intern who is an architect for a non-green firm in Queens. She was lamenting a current job she is working on where they are tearing out beautiful cherry wood details to turn the building into crap rentals. All my workers have similar stories and one of their
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The book “The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty” by Robyn Griggs Lawrence attempts to bring the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi to the American homeowner. Firstly Wabi-Sabi, like the Zen culture it comes from, is hard to describe even in Japanese. How do you describe the sound of one hand clapping? But trying
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“Sustainability is like teenage sex. Everybody says they’re doing it, very few people actually are doing it. Those that are doing it are doing it badly.” -Aussie architect Andrew Maynard Here at Eco Brooklyn we definitely aren’t getting enough sex. Lucky for us green building turns us on almost as much and we have plenty
Quote of the Week: Sustainability is like teenage sex… Read More »
