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Single Use Materials? 30.7.18
I’m up early. It was cooler last
night but and I was unable to sleep. Single use materials weighed heavy
on my mind.
This train of thought has been
prompted by images of turtles caught in nets and seas of plastic
bottles. I’m delighted that the world has woken up to the problems
caused by single use plastics. There really is no such place as ‘away’
when it comes to the disposal of packaging.
However my big concern is single use
building materials. It’s a subject that grips me vividly and makes me
shout with angst from tall places. I literally see red over the misuse
of cement and excessive use of concrete.
Set in concrete
This happened to me recently when I
was reading through the specifications for a restoration project. I
just don’t understand how a timber frame building that has stood for
300 years now needs underpinning with concrete footings. I also know
that in its current incarnation that building could be taken apart and
every last component reused.
The Ultimate in Recyclability
Timber frame pegs can be popped out
of their mortises and 300 year old timbers dismantled. You don’t have
to be a building historian to unpick their previous lives and the
stories locked in their carpentry joints. Re-use of old timbers is, and
was common. The rise of reclamation yards and the wealth in second-hand
materials illustrate how old buildings are living on. Surely this can
only be a good thing?
So why then can we not design and
build modern buildings with an eye for the future? Why can’t new
houses be built with materials that could be taken apart and re-used?
The technology and materials have been with us in vernacular buildings
for hundreds of years. In our speed to embrace modernity we have
overlooked the wisdom in our built heritage.
There is much we can learn from past
practices that will enable us to build a greener future.
I’m not holding my breath that the
sea-change will happen as quickly as the overnight awareness of single
use plastic, but for the sake of our planet big changes need to happen
in our building industry, and they also need to happen fast.
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