INTRODUCTION TO GREEN AND NATURAL BUILDING
Saturday March 29th | 9:00 am-3:30
Presented by Joshua Thornton, www.naturalbuild.ca
Hosted by The Working Centre
- GOING GREEN HANDOUT Green and Natural Building pdf
- Presentation on Green and Natural Building
- Sound links of Green and Natural Building
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| Introducti |
In partnership with The Working Centre (www.theworkingcentre.org) located in downtown Kitchener, the Grand House Cooperative again welcomed Joshua Thorton for an introductory workshop on natural and green-building.
This workshop first provided an introduction to building principles and the rationale behind building sustainably. Joshua made an important linkage between the patterns of consumption of North American culture and a lifestyle that treads lightly on the earth. He provided several examples of green and natural building, including a project he worked on near Durham, Ontario, which features timber framed wood structure, and clay-straw and wattle and daub walls, as an example of natural building.
Natural building tends to make use of the local materials that are available in a region, such as clay, straw, local timbers, reeds, stone etc.. Green building is represented more by standards such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which is a series of points in terms of their environmental performance that respective projects can gain. LEED is more applicable to larger scale projects, but ultimately both natural and green building seeks to minimize the impact of building construction on the planet.
>> Books
Snell, Clarke and Callahan, Tim. Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide To Alternative Building Methods. 2006.
Roy, Rob. Complete Book of Cordwood Masonry Housebuilding: The Earthwood Method. 1992.
Magwood, Chris; Mack, Peter; and Therrien, Tina. More Straw Bale Building: How to Plan, Design and Build with Straw. 2005.
Baker-Laporte, Paula; Griggs, Robynl Laporte, Robert. Econest: Creating Sustainable Sanctuaries of Clay, Straw, and Timber. 2005.
Guelberth, Cedar; Chiras, Dan and Bednar, Deanna. The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime, and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes. 2003.
Chiras, Dan. The New Ecological Home: A Complete Guide to Green Building Options. 2005.
Jenkins, Joseph. The Humanure Handbook, Third Edition: A Guide to Composting Human Manure. 2006.
Van Lengen, Johan. The Barefoot Architect: A Handbook for Green Building. 1982.
>>Websites
Green Home Building, Resource Guide
web address: http://www.greenhomebuilding.com
Ontario Straw Bale Building Association
web address: http://www.strawbalebuilding.ca/
Canadian Green Building Council (LEED information)
web address: http://cabgc.com
