• Searching for Slowness – A Future Paced Ethos

    In the fall semester of 2020, Caroline Amstutz and David Pankhurst, a couple of MIT Architecture grad students, researched the theme of Slow Architecture and interviewed several firms around the world, including Todd Williams Billie Tsien Architects, RMA Architects, Studio Mumbai, Aamodt / Plumb, and MASS Design Group. They did a fantastic final project and we wanted to share their work with our audience. Below you’ll find an essay by Amstutz and Pankhurst and images of the beautiful final booklet they made. Here is a link to the Aamodt / Plumb interview.

    _____________________________________________

    PROJECT DESCRIPTION BY AMSTUTZ AND PANKHURST

    “Searching for Slowness” is a new architectural manifesto, taking form in a kit, which asks participants to contribute to a common understanding of Slow Architecture. The kit invites readers to fold and assemble a series of conversations into booklet format. Then, readers interact with the recounted conversations by categorizing portions of the text into the “tenets” which we uncovered in our search for slowness. Finally, readers deconstruct, refold, and reassemble the booklet into the second reading of the manifesto – the tenets, a thematic synthesis of principles and values of Slow Architecture.

    <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/yVfZYWTVLn8″ title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

    Linked below are the two different “readings” of the booklet, and above is the time-lapse video of this assembly, disassembly, and reassembly process.

    Searching for Slowness Tenet Booklet [Click to download]

    searching for slowness booklet 1

    Searching for Slowness Conversations Booklet [Click to download]

    searching for slowness booklet 2

    Booklet Folding Instructions

    searching for slowness folding instructions

    _____________________

    ESSAY: Searching for SlownessA Future-Paced Ethos 

    By Caroline Amstutz + David Pankhurst, MIT Architecture Department, December 17, 2020

    Speed is a hallmark trait of the 21st. century; from fast food to fast fashion, our digital and global moment demands a pace previously unimaginable. But with speed comes compromise at the cost of our environment, health, and culture. An antidote to our fast-paced, technologically driven lives resides in carving out space for deliberateness; for slowness – and nowhere is this more relevant than in the design of the spaces which encircle our lives. If our behavior, well-being, and sense of belonging are tied to how we dwell, how can the practice of architecture allow us to slow down and re-pace our future? 

    Fleeting a single definition, slowness shifts meanings as it impacts individuals,  communities, and environments. Searching for Slowness attempts to quantify and qualify the ephemeral idea of slowness, asking the question: what does it mean to create Slow Architecture?  While our understanding of slowness meandered as our research gained more perspectives and nuance, Slow Architecture, like Slow Food[1], can ultimately be defined by three principles: Clean  – sustainable for the environment; Fair – equitable for individuals and communities; and Good,  which is harder to evaluate, but could be defined as high quality – both materially and experientially. 

    Initially, our perception of Slow Architecture was characterized as a highly material  practice centered on human experience; a literal slowness embraced in the temporal drag inherent to physical mediums as part of the design process. Paradoxically, the deliberate slowness imbued in this process could translate into an ethos which posits a solution to the most pressing issues troubling architecture: sustainability and equity. Slow Architects, we believed, could be identified by several key traits. Firstly, a slowness induced by method through electing to design using haptically transferrable mediums and resisting quick impulse technologies. And secondly,  an unconventional practice structure, such as craft and artisan informed ateliers, design-builds,  and non-profit firms which encourage higher levels of engagement with constructive processes and communities. Equipped with criteria to identify Slow Architecture, we sought to understand how these models resist the industry trends which distance architecture from material and labor and dissociate the architect from the long-term implications of their design decisions. 

    Acknowledging these foundational assumptions, we interviewed firms (from here onward called conversations) which fit our definition of Slow Architecture, hoping through conversation to uncover how they understand their work within the context of slowness, how their practice reinforces slowness, and where their definitions of slowness diverge from our own. As we probed our understanding, we compiled these recounted conversations in Searching for Slowness – a new architectural manifesto inviting readers to dwell, reflect upon, and contribute their own ideas about Slow Architecture. Our conception of Slow Architecture evolved as we gained new  perspectives from our conversations; our manifesto acknowledges that there is no single or “correct”  definition of slowness, but rather Slow Architecture is defined by a series of principles, presented as malleable tenets, which were found resting under the surface of our discussions. 

    As we molded our understanding of Slow Architecture through conversations, we crystalized our conviction of the need for a Slow Architecture through reading and revisiting texts addressing issues of environment and equity. Research beyond our conversations helped to contextualize Slow Architecture within a larger disciplinary discourse. Parallel “Slow  Movements”, such as Slow Food [2], or Citta Slow [3] (Slow City) , grounded our critique of Fast Architecture’s unqualified embrace of globalization and homogenization. Borrowing the Slow  Food movement’s “Good, Clean, and Fair,” provided productive friction as we expanded their verbiage to fit an architectural scale and positioned the concepts relative to current disciplinary conversations. 

    “Clean” and “fair” are existential and immediate, often directly intertwined in addressing the challenges of coexistence. Godofredo Pereira’s “Towards an Environmental Architecture”  illustrates the interdependence of issues of sustainability and labor. [4] Pereira communicates the  imperative “to re-assess the legal, ethical and political limits of architecture’s responsibilities” in  order to move “from the position of providing services to that of critically supporting ongoing  processes of social transformation.” [5] The social is entangled with the environmental, and Pereira  suggests that the “environment” should be reframed as “relations of coexistence.” [6]  

    Addressing “fair,” Mabel Wilson’s “Who Builds Your Architecture?” highlights the “risk  adversity and class divisions that [characterize] the prevailing mentality of the construction and  design industries.” [7] Wilson’s text prompted our interest in engaging with alternate models of practice; those with a propensity to take more ownership of the entire production of architecture,  from pre-design through post-occupancy. Wilson identifies a disciplinary disconnect wherein  “those most intimately knowledgeable about the design and engineering of projects […] likely  never set foot on a construction site or interact with the workers for whom they produce  instructions about how to build their designs.” [8] Slow Architecture has the potential to bridge this gap. Wilson attributes this disciplinary cocoon to two key factors: an imperative to avert risk and diminish liability, and an increasing focus on “algorithmically created form making […] that  concentrate[s] creative energies on articulating the surface of architecture rather than its material  impact.” [9] These two concerns are central to Slow Architecture as they expand the principles of  “Clean” and Fair” in relationship to the more nebulous “Good.” 

    Our Conversations reinforced the ideas introduced by Wilson: this segregation of services does not eliminate risk, rather it is aggregated and spread, scattering the responsibility to deploy environmentally sustainable and fair labor practices. The shift of designer priorities from material impact to surface articulation further illustrates how priorities can be encapsulated in the processes and medium of production. Or, as John May articulates in his entry to Log 40,  “Technics contain specific models of time, which resonate with lived life […] the structural pace with which any given technical system allows us to record our thoughts and actions is inseparable from the ways of life it makes possible or impossible.” [10] With exception, there is a tendency toward technological dependency to degenerate into solipsistic, parametric “form-making” that  displaces the concern for the human experience and material realities. Our conversations engaged with firms whose design begins with a profound concern with materiality and human experience – practices who rely on tactile translations of design through models, material investigations, and true orthographic drawings. While Slow Architecture can transcend media and method, there is a speed ascribed to the techne of production. 

    In conversation, however, we found these concerns of particular mediums of design to be  largely circumstantial; some favored orthographic iteration, others relied on material mockups, and others still conceded that the international nature of their organization necessitated a purely digital design process. This speed-of-medium to speed-of-production relationship which initially framed our understanding of slowness proves to be just one of many critical exchanges, while larger attitudes of “empathy,” “empowerment,” and “ownership” more readily reveal a practice of Slow Architecture.  

    Not overlooking material or method, our conversations revealed that more important is the appropriateness of its application; using the right tools to interrogate or communicate design decisions. This idea of appropriateness underscores our own process of searching for slowness as we move between definitions and perceptions of what it means to practice Slow  Architecture. Without hard rules or boundaries, appropriateness encompasses our principles of  “flexibility,” “locality,” and “interdisciplinarity.” Our Conversations outlined appropriateness as a means to derive design from context and root architecture in culture, environment, and time.  

    The recurring themes of the conversations we had, and will continue to have, shape our perspective of a future-paced ethos of architecture. We will perhaps never be able to pin down the fleeting experience of slowness, but in starting to evaluate what constitutes Slow Architecture,  we stride towards a more sustainable and equitable future.

     

     

    1 “Good, Clean and Fair: the Slow Food Manifesto for Quality.” (Slow Food International, 2016) 2.

    2 Good, Clean and Fair: the Slow Food Manifesto for Quality.” (Slow Food International, 2016) 2. 

    3 Citta Slow: International Network of Cities Where Living is Easy.” (Cittaslow International, 2019)

    4 Pereira, Godofredo Enes. “Towards an Environmental Architecture.” (e-flux: architecture, 2010) 

    5 Ibid.  

    6 Ibid.  

    7 Wilson, Mabel, Jordan Carver, and Kadambari Baxi. “Who Builds Your Architecture?—An Advocacy Project.” The Gulf: High Culture/Hard  Labor . (OR Books, 2015) 100. 

    8 Ibid, 110.

    9 Wilson, Mabel, Jordan Carver, and Kadambari Baxi. “Who Builds Your Architecture?—An Advocacy Project.” The Gulf: High Culture/Hard  Labor . (OR Books, 2015) 110. 

    10 May, John. “Everything Is Already an Image.” Log 40. (Anyone Corporation, 2017) 10.

     

    Bibliography 

    1. “Citta Slow: International Network of Cities Where Living is Easy.” (Cittaslow International,  2019) 
    2. “Good, Clean and Fair: the Slow Food Manifesto for Quality.” (Slow Food International, 2016)  www.slowfood.com/about-us/our-philosophy/
    3. May, John. “Everything Is Already an Image.” Log 40. (Anyone Corporation, 2017) 
    4. Pereira, Godofredo Enes. “Towards an Environmental Architecture.” (e-flux: architecture,  2010) https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/positions/205375/towards-an environmental-architecture/
    5. Wilson, Mabel, Jordan Carver, and Kadambari Baxi. “Who Builds Your Architecture?—An  Advocacy Project.” The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor . (OR Books, 2015)
  • How to Recycle Vinyl Building Products

    Vinyl siding, a plastic exterior material, can be seen on many homes throughout the United States. In 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 33% of the new single-family homes constructed were covered in vinyl, making it the number one exterior siding that year. It is easy to install, inexpensive and low maintenance.

    It is even touted by the industry’s lobbying group, the Vinyl Institute, as the “material of choice for diverse products that enhance the quality of life.” Demystifying this statement is key.

    Vinyl throughout its production, use, and disposal off-gases harmful toxins into our environment and into our homes. We need to understand what vinyl is, to understand why it is so important that we phase this material out of our built environments.

    Toys made of vinyl. Photo by Christine Larsen on Unsplash

    Toys made of vinyl. Photo by Christine Larsen on Unsplash

    Why Is Vinyl Bad?

    Vinyl, also known as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or #3 plastic, is used for many purposes: building materials, healthcare products, automobiles, electronics and toys. 10 Billion pounds of vinyl resin are converted into vinyl products in North America every year, and 70% of that is for the building industry.

    Why is this a problem? Vinyl is 57% chlorine, and chlorine production releases dioxins into the environment. Dioxins are a human carcinogen which contribute to cancer, reproductive, developmental and immune problems, in which there is no safe level of exposure. Throughout the lifespan of vinyl, these dioxins readily migrate into the environment during its production, its use, and its disposal.

    In addition, the creation of vinyl products requires toxic additives, including heavy metals such as lead, endocrine-disrupting phthalates, and toxic flame retardants, in order to be made into stable and usable consumer products. These additives are also released during both the use and disposal of PVC products. PVC products that are meant to be rigid, like vinyl siding, may also have lead added to them as a stabilizer. Other places you might find vinyl in your home include your windows and drain pipes.

    10 Billion pounds of vinyl resin are converted into vinyl products in North America every year, and 70% of that is for the building industry.

    The most dangerous impact of PVC in your home is in the event of a fire. As PVC burns, the chlorine in the material escapes, creating an acid smoke that contains hydrogen chloride. When hydrogen chloride enters the lungs, it becomes hydrochloric acid, that can result in internal chemical burns in a person who inhales it. In a house fire this could kill you or the firefighters before the flames or carbon monoxide. The fire will also release dioxins into the neighborhood, affecting the people around you for years to come.

    Vinyl and PVC should be banned from production, like lead-based paint, however that doesn’t seem likely in the near future. Almost 20 years ago a young filmmaker named Judith Helfand released a documentary on the harmful effects of vinyl. But nothing changed. We at the Slow Space Movement have started to share her film, Blue Vinyl, to local audiences. See more information about our events here. For conscious consumers the best thing to do is not purchase any vinyl products in the first place. Reduce market demand for the material and limit its production. But what if your home already has vinyl siding on it?

    toxic building materials pvc

    PVC pipes are standard in residential construction. Photo: Wikimedia

    Recycling Vinyl is Difficult

    PVC products cannot be recycled with any other recyclable plastics due to contamination. They can however, be recycled into other PVC products, if you can find a recycler. Used vinyl can be ground up into pellets that can then be melted down to create other vinyl products. However, it is important to note that more dioxins are released during the recycling process because the material needs to be melted.

    To locate a certified recycler in Massachusetts, for example, you can go to Recycling Works Massachusetts online to search for local recycling plants to bring your vinyl to (as well as any number of other materials!). These websites exist for every state. The Vinyl Institute, in their efforts to increase recycled content, also has an index you can search. However, since the tariffs for import/export to China have recently been raised, many recycling plants that used to send certain materials, including vinyl, to China, no longer accept it, so make sure to call your local facility beforehand. If there are no plants in your area, you can also donate your vinyl if its in good condition to a Habitat ReStore where they can resell it as is.

    A lot of these PVC products end up in the landfill because they are not part of conventional recycling efforts and incineration releases dioxins. Contained landfills may be the safest place for the used vinyl, but the best solution would be to ban its production outright.

    Wood is a sustainable alternative to vinyl. Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash

    Healthy Alternatives To Vinyl

    The best solution for avoiding the harmful effects of PVC in your home ultimately is to not use it at all. Though PVC is the cheapest way to side your home, or cover your floors, it can cause lasting damage to your health, the health of your family, and the world around you. Spending a little more money on sustainably created and maintained products like wood siding, cast iron pipes and stone or ceramic tile is worth it. You could compare it to eating fast food everyday because it’s the cheapest, fast solution, but it will ultimately lead to a decline in your health. Essentially, PVC is the fast food of the building industry. Choose ‘slow’ products that are good, clean and fair for your own well-being and the well-being of the planet. Read about more options in this article: Sustainable Building Materials for Slow Spaces.

  • Are Passive Houses Also Slow?

    When it comes to building methodologies “Passive” and “Slow” sound related, don’t they? In many ways, they are. Passive House (‘passivhaus’ in German) is a building approach and certification of energy efficiency that creates healthy and comfortable living environments. The Slow Space Movement encourages wellbeing by promoting buildings that are good, clean and fair. While the core principles of Passive House align with the Slow Space Movement, the energy-focused building approach could benefit from the Slow Space Movement’s holistic credo.

    What is Passive House? 

    The Passive House approach maximizes energy efficiency to produce buildings that are not only environmentally friendly, but uniquely comfortable. Passive homes achieve such a high standard through ultra efficient insulation, orienting the building to maximize sunlight in the winter and shade in the summer, and an air-tight yet well ventilated enclosure. Passive homes often make use of solar energy to further reduce their carbon footprint. A well-insulated home takes advantage of the incidental internal heat sources such as appliances and our own body heat to add warmth in the winter. Through natural temperature regulation and fresh air circulation, passive homes improve our health and quality of life.

    Why do we like it? 

    Passive House buildings directly improve our health. These structures make use of natural daylight which helps our circadian rhythms, productivity, emotional wellbeing and more. Passive houses also constantly circulate fresh air which is not only comfortable, but reduces the risk of mold, dust, pollen and other pollutants and allergens. When we spend 90% of our time indoors, the improved air quality in passive homes has a direct affect on our health. Furthermore, these buildings are so well insulated, there is incredibly little temperature fluctuation even in extreme weather conditions, thus regulating a health body temperature.

    Passive homes also indirectly improve our wellbeing.  By creating a home that reduces the need for electricity through daylighting and temperature regulation, Passive Houses are less dependent on technology and fossil fuels. Even if the heating system breaks in the winter, the house would remain comfortable for days.  The level of insulation in a home also helps our quality of life. Imagine being able to sit in a cozy window nook in the middle of winter without the hint of a draft or cold air radiating from the glass. Moreover, a well insulated house reduces noise, creating a peaceful, quiet living environment.

    Passive Homes also need to be very well built in order to be airtight. This means they are highly resilient to weather conditions and will last much longer than the typical house. Well-constructed homes not only benefit the homeowners, but support the work of local craftspeople and the communities around them.

    What can be improved?

    Passive House is a highly effective building methodology that creates efficient and healthy environments which we love; however, it is not necessarily a wholistic approach.  One of the major issues we have with some high performance buildings is in material selection. For example, many Passive Houses are insulated with spray foam insulation which can be highly toxic.  

    The Slow Space Movement encourages the use of organic, renewable materials such as wood fiber insulation as an alternative.  Wood fiber insulation can insulate a house well enough for Passive House certification and is non-toxic to people and the planet.

    Toxic materials have a negative impact on the house’s inhabitants, the workers that build it and the planet. The Slow Space Movement promotes good design, clean healthy materials and fair labor practices. This includes creating a healthy environment for the workers during construction.

    Of course, proponents of Passive House have no intention of using toxic materials or unfair labor.  But it is all too easy in the construction industry to focus in on one goal and lose sight of the entire process.  As we strive for Passive House standards, let’s maintain a holistic approach that considers energy efficiency along with good, clean and fair practices.

  • Slow Space Movement Calls for an Immediate Ban of Asbestos

    Asbestos is a naturally occurring material that is widely known to cause significant and irreversible health risks such as cancer, mesothelioma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Its fibers are microscopic, so they cannot be seen, smelled or tasted. Furthermore, it does not cause any immediate symptoms, so it is easy for a person to consume asbestos dust without even realizing it. Once in our bodies, these fibers never dissolve. Over a period of twenty to fifty years, the fibers cause inflammation, scarring and eventually disease. The World Health Organization estimated that in 2014, 107,000 people die each year because of asbestos related diseases. Worldwide, it is responsible for half of all work-related deaths from cancer.

    ban asbestos

    Overwhelming evidence of the dangers of asbestos lead to heavy regulation of the material in the 1970’s. But it was never banned. Many common building products still contain up to 1% asbestos. The US is only developed country in the world that has not outright banned asbestos. Then on June 1st, 2018, despite the known dangers, the EPA announced that the Signification New Use Rule (SNUR) would allow manufacturers and importers to seek the agency’s approval to reintroduce asbestos into their manufacturing or processing of certain products on a case by case basis. This would allow for huge loopholes for big businesses.

    The Trump administration has certainly supported these policies. His fortune was made in real estate development and he was a known fan of asbestos as a build material. In his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, he said that asbestos was 100% safe. His main concern was probably just having to remove asbestos from his buildings, a process that claimed was a scam that started with “the mob”.

    ban asbestos

    So while asbestos is highly toxic, it is also highly profitable. It is cheap and easy to source from American mines and can be used in a variety of building materials, such as cement sheets, roof sealants and adhesives for floor and ceiling tiles. The University of Kentucky put out a useful fact sheet on asbestos.

    The Slow Space Movement condemns the EPA’s new ruling allowing more asbestos into commonly used building products and calls for an immediate ban of all asbestos and asbestos-containing products.

    The AIA has also strongly condemned the EPA ruling in a press release, stating:

    “The EPA has offered no compelling reason for considering new products using asbestos, especially when the consequences are well known and have tragically affected the lives of so many people. The EPA should be doing everything possible to curtail asbestos in the United States and beyond—not providing new pathways that expose the public to its dangers.”

    Learn about healthy building materials.

  • Tadelakt — A Clean Finish

    Tadelakt, an ancient lime plaster finish, is a three-millennia-old clean building solution that originated in Morocco. The all-natural material is antibacterial, hypoallergenic and regulates moisture — essential properties for a healthy living environment. Traditional lime plaster, which is free of toxic compounds, slowly reabsorbs carbon dioxide from the air and is 100% recyclable.

    A rare artisan and ambassador of tadelakt

    As part of our series on Clean Building Solutions for Slow Spaces, we spoke with Fabio Bardini, who has spent many years studying original texts about different traditional lime plaster techniques. He experimented with the original recipes to revive the lost art of true Venetian plaster and other traditional lime plaster finishes, including a technique called “tadelakt.” Now living and working in Salem, Massachusetts, the native Italian is one of only a handful of artisans in the United States who master the ancient tadelakt technique.

    Tadelakt is based on an aged lime putty Bardini imports from his home country of Italy. “Anything built with lime, whether it is tadelakt or Venetian plaster or any kind of plaster made from the lime putty, is the ultimate green material,” he says. “When you use the lime putty, it will begin to carbonate and the material itself reabsorbs all the carbon dioxide released from the burning of the limestone, so it has a very low carbon footprint.”

    Anything built with lime, whether it is tadelakt or Venetian plaster or any kind of plaster made from the lime putty, is the ultimate green material. – Fabio Bardini

    In Italy, the lime putty has been produced the same way for thousands of years: Earth-abundant limestone is fired in wood-burning kilns at 900 degrees Celsius for several days before it gets slaked and aged in open-air pits for a minimum of three years.

    tadelakt

    A time-consuming, intricate process that requires the skills of a “maalem” — a tadelakt artisan: The application of Marseille olive oil soap and polishing it with small semi-precious river stones gives tadelakt its silky feel.

    Bardini makes his tadelakt primarily from the Italian lime putty, sand — silica sand or marble sand — and water. Other components, also all natural, can be mixed in. He applies the plaster with a small trowel (called a “cat’s tongue”). Once the lime plaster dries, it begins to absorb water again. That’s why an additional step becomes necessary to make the finish waterproof. “For the tadelakt, for example, we use Marseille olive oil soap, a traditional, ancient type of soap that is made in Marseille, France,” the skilled artisan says. “You rub it in with these hard, semi-precious stones, pebble-like, polished stones, and that gives the plaster that polished, smooth surface.” The chemical reaction between the olive oil soap and the carbonating lime — the so-called saponification — solidifies and waterproofs the plaster. Once cured, Bardini typically treats the plaster with natural beeswax to further protect the surface without altering its beneficial qualities. The velvety smooth tadelakt thus becomes an ideal finishing material for building sinks, tubs, floors, even entire shower rooms.

    The origins of tadelakt

    Tadelakt originated in Morocco, where the technique was used to line water cisterns for drinking water. “It’s a very good material to keep water because it’s antibacterial, antifungal and antimicrobial,” Bardini explains. The material is also high in pH, with a pH of 12.4. It has always been well known for creating a healthy environment, even in a home. For example, lime plaster finishes have long been used to paint basements and root cellars. “People would do that in the fall, before they would store all their winter vegetables, like potatoes and onions,” Bardini says. “It’s also been used to paint the cow stalls and other animal stalls before the animals give birth. So it’s an ancient sanitizer.”

    Even before tadelakt was used in Morocco, it is believed that the Romans brought their lime plaster techniques to the North-African country on their conquest south. “The Romans were masters of these classic techniques using lime and aggregates like marble dust or marble sand,” Bardini says. “The Romans invented this finish called marmorino, which translates to ‘little marble.’ It was the lime putty mixed with the marble dust that they used to line the walls of their villas, and that resembled a slab of marble when you applied it. They brought that method along with them.” The Moroccans then adapted the lime plaster finishing technique to the implements and materials available to them. They used a different type of limestone, for instance. “And instead of metal tools, they used little rocks, little polished stones. So the finish has a style of its own, but the basic ingredients and applications are very similar to the Roman-style walls.” The beauty and benefits of tadelakt later brought the lime plaster finish to the hammams (public baths) and private homes in and around Marrakech.

    Mixing Marrakech Lime with water and yellow pigment to make tadelakt in Morocco. Photo by Joaoleitao

    Bardini first learned about traditional lime finishing techniques when he attended art school in Florence, Italy, and studied architectural history from the old Egyptians through the Renaissance period. “These types of finishes kept on resurfacing from Roman times through the 1400s. Then, with architects like Palladio, they again resurfaced around the 16th, 17th century,” he says. Much later, during the 20th century, the techniques experienced yet another resurgence, when architects such as the Italian maestro Carlo Scarpa brought the materials and applications into modernism. “These are beautiful finishes, sought after for their beauty and resilience,” says Bardini, who regrets that today very few craftspeople master these traditional lime finishing techniques in the United States. “They just get confused with modern, industrial products, but they look quite different,” he says. “Unfortunately, people give commercial plasters a lot of names: Stucco Romano or Venetian plaster per se, these are all products made with acrylics and a lot of chemicals. The classic materials of the past were very simple, made with lime putty and marble, and very little additions of these natural ingredients, like linseed oil or olive oil soap, and also beeswax for the final polishing. Those materials used for the past 3000 years never changed. You can still use all those materials and achieve the same results.”

    “These are beautiful finishes, sought after for their beauty and resilience. – Fabio Bardini

    An ancient art for patient people

    With all the evident benefits and advantages of tadelakt, why then are these traditional lime plaster finishes — timelessly beautiful, long-lasting and environmentally friendly even by modern standards — not implemented more widely in the building field today? Besides blaming the lack of maalem (tadelakt artisans) who could train others in the United States, Bardini says about mastering the technique: “It’s more like trial and error, and people like me take the time to study and try and finally come to a good product that can be applied.”

    Bardini considers himself both an artist and a craftsman. “And that’s the type of person you need to be to work with these finishes,” he admits. “It is very tedious.” Finishing a bathroom with tadelakt takes about two month, then a sink or a shower has to cure for a month before it can be used. Tadelakt continues to change its color and harden over the months, years and even decades. “So it’s important to be very careful when it’s first applied,” says Bardini. “It is softer in the beginning, so if you were to do a floor in tadelakt, you wouldn’t want to walk on it with shoes at first.” After this initial time period, though, tadelakt becomes very durable and will last for many years, according to the master.

    Tadelakt

    Tadelakt is a popular finishing material for building sinks, tubs, floors and showers. Photo by SpOon.

    What’s more, traditional lime plaster finishes are typically applied directly over masonry structures. “So we have an additional challenge here in the United States, being that buildings are stud-framed,” Bardini points out. To apply tadelakt over stud-framed construction and modern substrates such as drywall prior preparation of the surface is necessary. Tadelakt in wet environments requires a cement board and a half-inch-thick lime-and-sand plaster base.

    Bardini describes the tadelakt surface as being “hard as stone yet soft as silk,” and to appreciate the allure of tadelakt, he says it is necessary to caress it. “The beauty of these finishes is unmatched by anything available commercially or industrially produced,” he says. “But, you know, there are people who are willing to go through the process and to pay for the work, and they will enjoy it for the rest of their lives.”

    The beauty of these finishes is unmatched by anything available commercially or industrially produced. – Fabio Bardini

     

  • Sustainable Building Materials for Slow Spaces

    Clean building practices are the line of defense against the thoughtless, ubiquitous use of toxic building materials. The Slow Space Movement advocates for buildings that are good, clean and fair. This is Part 2 of a two-part series on toxic building materials and sustainable building solutions.

    Many toxic materials lurk in our homes and buildings, and they are a danger to our health and the planet. So what is the solution? We think it is going back to basics, slowing down the techno frenzy and learning from techniques that have been tried and tested for thousands of years. I am not going to give up my iPhone, but I want to stop jumping on the bandwagon of every new material technology.

    mud hut sustainable building materials

    The perfect wall: Mud hut with framing, a bark weather barrier, dirt insulation and grass rainscreen.

    This past summer, my husband and partner in (solving the building industry’s toxic materials) crime, Andrew, and I took the kids to Norway, where we always like to visit the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History because they have assembled buildings there from all over the country, extending back a thousand years. For instance, there is a recreation of one of the oldest native structures that offers us a great lesson in building science for cold climates.

    This mud hut has framing, a bark weather barrier, dirt insulation and grass rainscreen. In fact, this wall assembly meets the definition of a “perfect wall” as defined by Joe Lstibureck and the Building Science Corporation.

    From this example we can start to build a list of clean, healthy building materials. Chemical-free, non-toxic, natural materials: wood, bark, dirt and grass. We could also add stone, straw, clay, cork, wool, sand, leather, hemp, brick, bamboo. Any others?

    Speaking of wool, I am reminded again of Joe Lstibureck and his sweater analogy.

    sustainable building materials

    A true Joe Lstibureck-ism: To stay warm, it is much more efficient to wear your sweater, rather than eating it.

    Joe is a funny guy. In a building science seminar Andrew and I took with him, he was describing some fundamentals of insulation. He explained that in Canada, where he and all great building scientists are from, they have learned that to stay warm, it is much more efficient to wear your sweater, rather than eating it. Huh? What he meant was, put your insulation outboard of the framing, not between the studs.

    It is much more efficient to wear your sweater, rather than eating it.

    wool clean building material

    Wool Insulation: Buildings have sweaters.

    But instead of expanded polystyrene (yuck!), why don’t we actually use wool? It is renewable, non-toxic and no animals need be hurt in the process. We have been shearing sheep for thousands of years.

    wool sustainable building materials

    Wool Batts. Image by Havelock Wool.

    Builder Magazine recently featured a wool batt insulation product by Havelock Wool. Wool, the article says, is naturally mold resistant, flame resistant and the amino acids in it naturally bond with and trap harmful chemicals improving indoor air quality. I know this is still an example of eating the sweater, but at least the sweater is non-toxic.

    warming hut sustainable building

    The warming hut by Aamodt/Plumb on the frozen Red River in Winnipeg uses wool felt for insulation.

    sustainable building materials

    Warming hut by Aamodt/Plumb on the frozen Red River in Winnipeg. Photo by Dan Harper.

    We have worked with wool felt a bit, and it is a wonderful product. We used it here to line the interior of the Warming Hut we did on the frozen Red River in Winnipeg. The felt acted as a warm blanket, keeping out wind and cold and reminded us of carpets or pelts that line indigenous tents and huts.

    Hemp is an example of a material you really should eat as it is loaded with healthy essential fatty acids.

    hemp sustainable building materials

    Clean materials you can eat. Images by Hemp for Victory.

    Hemp can also be used for clothing, building materials and fuel for your car. The only thing you can’t do with it is get high. That is hemp’s naughty cousin, marijuana. On this website “The History of Hemp,” it explains that hemp was a staple crop for thousands of years, and still is in many developing countries, because it is so useful and easy to grow just about anywhere. But around 1900, big companies like Dupont were threatened by the cheap sustainable material and had it outlawed.

    But it’s coming back, and we can help. Hemp literally has thousands of uses. A quote from a hemp website gives us an idea:

    “I wake up in bed in the morning on my hemp sheets, on my hemp mattress, on my hemp bed frame, and I put my hemp slippers on, and I walk across my hemp carpet. I drink my hemp smoothie, brush my teeth with hemp toothpaste, slip on my hemp clothes and drive my hemp car, which burns hemp fuel.”

    I have never used hempcrete, but a little research uncovers that this non-structural hemp and lime material comes as cast-in-place or block form. It is an excellent insulation and air barrier that is vapor permeable, and it is pest, rot and fire resistant. I think it would work really well as a rigid insulation outboard of the framing with a rainscreen or stucco over it.

    hemp walls sustainable building

    Hemp walls by Steffen Welsch Architects. Photos by Steffen Welsch Architects.

    Steffen Welsch Architects in Australia uses exposed hemp walls. And there are many other examples of low-tech building techniques that use inherently clean materials and many architects like Mass Design Group, Shigeru Ban and Studio Mumbai, are using them in very modern ways. Rammed earth, tadelakt, and charred wood are ancient building techniques that are finding new favor because of their inherent beauty and connection to the earth as well as our own humanity.

    sustainable building practices

    Building practices have evolved slowly over time. Photo by Studio Mumbai.

    Building practices evolve slowly over time to meet our needs, and through trial and error, cultures have learned what works and what doesn’t. But the the pace of innovation is so fast now that the feedback loop doesn’t reach us until thousands of buildings are built and hundreds of thousands of people are affected. What will our future selves say about the materials we are using today?

    Building practices evolve slowly over time to meet our needs, and through trial and error, cultures have learned what works and what doesn’t. But the the pace of innovation is so fast now that the feedback loop doesn’t reach us until thousands of buildings are built and hundreds of thousands of people are affected.

     

     

  • Toxic Building Materials in Construction

    Toxic Materials: What Are Buildings Made Of?

    Many toxic materials lurk in our homes and buildings and they are a danger to our health and the planet. The Slow Space Movement advocates for buildings that are good, clean and fair. This is Part 1 of a two part series on toxic and sustainable building materials

    Mama, what are buildings made of?

    sustainable building materials vs toxic building materials

    What do I want my children to imagine buildings are made of? I want to feed their virtuous imagination with a picture of bucolic forests and simple wood cabins. Photo by Owen Wassell.

    If you have kids, you know how this conversation starts. “Mama, what are buildings made of?” The picture I paint is one of bucolic forests, simple wood cabins with stone foundations next to flowing streams. It’s the same kind of imagery I use when they ask where milk or strawberries come from. We want our food and building materials to come from such inherently good places, but the reality is much different. Sadly, most of our building materials come from chemical companies, such as Dow and DuPont.

    toxic building materials

    Most of our building materials come from chemical companies: Westlake Chemicals, the largest PVC plant in the country, located in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

    Toxic Materials In Buildings

    In the 2002 environmental comedy “Blue Vinyl,” Judith Helfand discovers the toxic effects of vinyl after her parents decide to reclad their Long Island home in this harmful yet ubiquitous house-siding material.

    Polyvinyl chloride and other chlorinated plastics produce dioxins during their production, burning and disposal. Dioxins are some of the most potent carcinogens known to humankind and also create reproductive, developmental, immune and endocrine disruptions.

    To put it in very clear terms, Agent Orange, the chemical warfare agent used by the US in the Vietnam War, is composed of dioxins. Agent Orange was sprayed over large parts of the country, decimating crops and landscape, and maiming or killing four million people.

    toxic building materials pvc

    PVC pipes are standard in residential construction. Photo: Wikimedia

    75% of all PVC is used in the construction industry

    75% of all PVC used is in the construction industry, and chlorinated plastics can be found in geomembranes, weather stripping, joint filler, water sealers, gaskets, adhesives, wire and cable jacketing, roof membranes and electrical connectors. PVC pipes are standard in residential construction, and few architects, builders or clients are willing to go to bat for an upgrade. Vinyl siding is also standard, and when Aamodt / Plumb was doing public housing work for the Department of Housing and Community Development here in Massachusetts, we were required to use vinyl specifically on all of our projects. Ultimately, we stopped doing that work, and the vinyl was one reason.

    toxic building materials vinyl siding burning

    Burning vinyl, e.g., in a house fire, releases carcinogenic dioxins. Photo courtesy of East PDX News

    Have you ever thought about what happens when a house with vinyl siding burns? I saw a dumpster fire the other day that was melting the vinyl siding right off the building next to it. It was also releasing carcinogenic dioxins into the neighborhood, but you couldn’t see those.

    And the final point that Helfand makes in the movie is that you can’t get rid of PVC. The recycling process requires melting, releasing dioxins, and you can’t burn it for the same reason. If you put it in a landfill, it leaches into the groundwater. So, it’s better not to make it in the first place.

    This all seems like it should be “Green Building 101.” It seems so obvious. But most people have no idea, or they don’t care. And maybe that is because our language around PVC as a product is pretty weak. In a recently published article by Perkins + Will, who are very strong advocates for clean building materials, they put PVC on their “Precautionary List,” and the Living Building Challenge and Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute “recommend avoiding” PVC. No wonder no one is listening.

    No, the government doesn’t have our back

    Maybe we assume that government regulations and bodies like EPA regulate dangerous things. But really, they don’t. We live in a free-market world. Many hazardous substances are only regulated after a class-action lawsuit by hundreds or thousands of harmed people eventually makes its way to the Supreme Court. That’s after people (and the planet) are already sick. That’s too late. Think about Erin Brockovich, Three Mile Island, and Flint, Michigan.

    We are on the leading edge of these stories and we can affect their outcomes. How do you choose your building materials? Do you get your information from the DuPont rep touting the latest innovation in building technology? Or do you use common sense?

    toxic building materials spray foam insulation

    Remember that song “Things that make you go hmmm…”? The contractors applying spray foam insulation in your house are wearing hazmat suits! Photo courtesy of Icynene.

    Let’s take spray foam insulation. Everybody loves it because it gives you a great R-value and air sealing at the same time to meet that stretch energy code. And every insulation contractor is doubling down on its marketing materials and making pricing more competitive. But when two guys show up in hazmat suits to spray this two-part chemical concoction doesn’t that make you wonder?

    Let’s take spray foam insulation. Everybody loves it because it gives you a great R-value and air sealing at the same time… But when two guys show up in hazmat suits to spray this two-part chemical concoction doesn’t that make you wonder?

    Remember that song, “Things That Make You Go Hmmm”? You don’t need to be a genius to figure out that this stuff is toxic. Oh, but the rep says that once it has cured it is completely inert. Really? Let’s  jump ahead 30 years and find out if he is right. And they don’t tell you about the 5–10% of cases where it doesn’t cure properly, and it off-gasses FOREVER. Oh, and you can’t get that stuff off. It really sticks.

    toxic building materials lead paint

    But lead paint and asbestos were once the “latest and greatest” building products. Photo courtesy of Hormones Matter.

    I am no material science expert, I am just sharing what I see. But lead paint and asbestos were once the “latest and greatest” building products too.

    Lead paint that has been banned for decades is still causing developmental problems in children from what’s left over on older houses. How do the kids get exposed to the lead? They eat it! Silly kids will eat anything. My friends’ son used to eat gum off the sidewalk. He’s fine though. So when you are walking around on the expo floor, wondering how to tell clean building products from dirty ones without having to read a bunch of Material Safety Data Sheets, just ask yourself, “Would I eat it?” If the answer is no, then just keep on moving.

    How do the kids get exposed to the lead? They eat it! Silly kids will eat anything.

    And don’t be fooled by yummy flavors. Just because it tastes good does not mean it is good for you.

    Let’s use the food analogy for a minute. I remember reading that to eat healthy, your pre-packaged foods should not have more than five ingredients.

    This practice is from Michael Pollan’s book “Food Rules,” where he writes, “Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients. The specific number you adopt is arbitrary, but the more ingredients in a packaged food, the more highly processed it probably is.” If there was an ingredients list for our buildings, it would be thousands of pages long. In fact, we already have something like that, and we call it a Spec Book. But it isn’t actually very helpful for knowing what is in the materials. Material Safety Data Sheets and Health Product Declarations help a little, but manufacturers aren’t required to reveal what is in their products. In fact, the ingredients are considered trade secrets.

    If there was an ingredients list for our buildings, it would be thousands of pages long 

    Read Part 2: Clean Materials and Alternative Building Practices