Natural building & opportunity in unprecedented times
a call to natural building professionals
The term ‘unprecedented times’ has been used repeatedly over the last several months - mainly apologetically, sometimes in anger, and often with frustration. I, personally, see it more as a doorway than an apology, a way forward to new ways of thinking. It’s our modern ‘big bang’ and right now we can adjust our gravitational ‘sticking points’ about what it means to take control of our living (quarantine) environments.
Lets go beyond the masks, way beyond.
As building design & science professionals in natural building, in particular, now is the time to move and bring forward the health and safety benefits of professional natural building, re-framing the indoor environment as one that benefits and adds to our health, comfort, and security. We have a chance at a new audience, one ready to listen to the messages of clean indoor air, home business opportunities and food security, fire-resistent structures, and inherent beauty.
Building for the rest of us.
Unprecedented times means unprecedented opportunity, but part of the way forward is making professional natural-building approachable. There is no denying the awe factor when looking at million-dollar natural homes that operate whisper-quiet, incorporate the latest green-tech, and sit in remote settings of unparalleled beauty. But we also need these beautiful designs and systems in our communities. On a small approachable scale we can still take energy efficiency, design innovation, and building science to the backyards and corner lots of our population centers.
And yes, we have tried this before. If you look carefully you will see many of these structures already exist. This is what they exist for… having laid down the groundwork for times such as these. In the same way that markets time product-releases for best exposure and reception, right now in unprecedented times we can focus in, and use these existing buildings to frame a directed message of living and building security, accessible to any and a way to re-build fractured community.
Unprecedented, sort of
We know there is precedence. But we also know that we are in a new age requiring new solutions. Natural building provides old reliable tools. If we can, where we can, we need to re-frame what we have done to make it approachable, scalable, accessible, and available to address the current fears. With clear messaging that natural building is a solution for living and food security, we can start a journey for many that often leads to skill-building work opportunities.
When we have to stay home, when the power goes out, when store-bought supplies are scarce… We need solutions on-hand, skills, and a pathway to resilience.
Approachable designs & local solutions
What can we do right now, locally? We can showcase our local projects and how they fulfill the current need for healthy indoor (and outdoor) environments, present backyard and retrofit solutions, showcase projects that illustrate the strengths and creative abilities of materials, and bring people to a touchable real-world experience. Lets answer local needs, with local solutions, permaculture-building style — designing for the local spaces and areas.
Online presentation has provided multiple opportunities to introduce our projects, designs, and data. Let’s get accessible information online and framed for our current concerns and needs. At the very least we can show that we are working on solutions that address indoor health and security, that our stories are in fact everyone’s story, and that these solutions aren’t just up in the clouds for those who have the money, but also here on and in the earth, where our feet touch.
