The Sleepers

Getting out of the ground is something of a relief. The stone filled trenches, compacted and levelled, can now receive the sleepers which will support the weight of the building. The floor structure will rest on these sleepers and be fixed to them creating a sort of giant raft. This will ‘float’ around 450mm or 18″ above the surface of the field so, should I be inundated with water as a consequence of climate change, I can sit and contemplate the best course of action. As the floor itself will contain 300mm or 1 foot of insulation the water would have to rise a full 750mm or two and a half feet to get inside.

As I write, incessant rain is cascading down in unseasonal amounts. If it were not for the long days one would suspect that it was autumn. Perhaps the Irish obsession with talking about the weather will now awaken the national consciousness to what is actually happening!

For our part we now need a few weeks clear weather to get the structure up and the roof on. After that we can continue work relatively protected. We are currently completing the last of the Peter Posts under the lean-to. The jig is indeed proving its worth – we can turn out a post in around 20 minutes. Floor beams are also being made – these take around 15 minutes each. Our slow preparation time is now paying us back one hundred fold!

Grave Imaginings

Who would have imagined that digging foundation trenches would touch our sense of mortality so deeply? Is this because we usually bury our dead in the ground? Or because scrabbling in the earth brings us face to face with our own substance? I suppose it hardly matters what the reason is. What’s important is to plunge into the feeling and to extract some meaning from the encounter.

Building anything habitable will always stir deep emotions. These oftentimes mount a threat against our sense of security, leaving us howling at the moon or curled up in the full foetal. None of this is bad, merely an indication that ultimately we will die and return to the earth in the age old tradition of natural recycling. Why building work – particularly the laying of foundations – carries such philosophical weight is something of a mystery. Perhaps it is because habitable buildings offer such potentiality for living that the chemistry is activated to such an extent. This, I think, is where we come face to face with our own destinies and are challenged to live the lives we have been graced with. It’s not so much that we fear death but that we fear living.

That buildings can assist us in living our lives might be something of a truism but the truth is that most buildings, particularly the ones we inhabit, are rarely fashioned to accommodate our uniqueness. The ‘one size fits all’ approach to house design is as absurd as the idea that everyone might fit into a single size of glove or shoe. So, possibly, as the foundations of a building are laid we are confronted not so much by the shadow of death but by the bright light of our own potentiality dazzling us?

The Foundation Story

Things are moving on. Peter Post action is happening under the lean-to. Out in the field the art studio footprint has been oriented to solar south, foundation trenches have been dug and are now being filled with stone.

We’ve lit our midsummer fire and bathed in the dawn light before retiring exhausted. This seems to have provided the energy for us to push forward. A blue moon is also engorging itself in the sky, blurring the edge between day and night. We’re on the downhill run to the equinox now, a time to focus and set firm goals.

Nothing like foundations to get one focussed. When this happens repressed fears emerge from the dark like so much unwanted baggage. Will it sink? Will it fall? Will I die? No matter what level of denial you employ in answering these questions you are sure to err on the side of caution, just in case. This involves a lot of work and quite a bit of grief. It could also get extremely expensive. Friends and neighbours, not to speak of family, all of have firm opinions on the subject. Oftentimes it is the weight of their fears which pushes one over the edge. As you fall you hear them proclaiming ‘it’s all for your own good!’.

Wood is a very loving and forgiving material. Even if a foundation sinks a little a wooden building will simply bow gracefully like a ballerina or a good waiter. This has so much charm that one might even want to create a deliberately weak foundation in order to encourage a little bowing here and there. Stiff materials like concrete or even hemp-lime are another matter entirely. They are like biscuits or overbred mares which snap if you look at them sideways. No charm in that – only cracks in the walls and endless I-told-you-so’s.

So, we’ve stripped off the topsoil in this sodden Leitrim field, a mere four to six inches of peaty stuff bound together with roots and the occasional worm. Below that there is grey daub, limestone ground to dust by the retreating ice ten thousand years ago. This is impervious to water so the trenches filled up when it rained, necessitating the digging of a small pond to dry them out again. Next, the trenches were filled with stone and roughly levelled . These ‘footings’ will now be dressed with smaller stone and railway sleepers will be laid on top of them to receive the floor structure. This will ‘float’ over a foot above existing ground level, just in case that climate change gets out of hand and I get inundated with water…

On the video clips you can see the process of filling and roughly levelling the foundation trenches. More to come on the construction process shortly.

 

Midsummer Sheltermaker

To join the Sheltermaker eMailing List, email sheltermaker @ gmail.com

Sheltermaker has now been incorporated into the revamped Living Architecture Centre website and blog. You can seen the various postings on the right. Some of these include video clips of what is happening here on the ground. This focuses mainly on the EconoSpace Project which follows the construction of a low cost sustainable building. This work will be summarised in a book+dvd to be published in the autumn.

The LAC is now exclusively powered from the wind. You can view the installation of the windcharger in ‘Getting Wired‘.

A new series of LIVE Courses in Sustainable House Design & Construction have been scheduled for the Autumn 07 and Spring of 2008. Even though the brochure is still in production the Autumn Courses are filling up! This is in part due to the generous discount being offered to those who book and pay before July 31st. The discounted fee is only €425. An additional discount of €150 is offered where 2 people jointly attend a Course making the combined fees a mere €700! If you wish to attend a Course contact me at livingarchitecture@eircom.net or phone 071 962 1434 or 086 10 22 400. You can also enrol online by following the link above.

You can stay up to date with new postings by clicking on the ‘Entries RSS’ button on the right.

Next Sheltermaker due Lughnasadh.

To join the Sheltermaker eMailing List, email sheltermaker @ gmail.com

Best Wishes,

Peter

Waking Up To Reality

The jig is up! I’m waking up to reality. We have finally crafted our way towards the beginning of the art studio self-build. Why this has taken so long is something of a puzzle. The on-site facilities are finally now in place – the lean-to, the tool press, the deck, the wood supplies and the jig itself. These have all taken time to organise.

Even with my fairly extensive experience of self-building I am amazed at how long this has taken to get together. This is a true lesson to absorb – the time one has to put into the process of getting ready to build. If this is not done only muddled or confused buildings result. This is so common as to constitute a form of reality – we do not expect buildings to be clear and harmonious, but rather expect them to be muddled and obscure as if they harbor some deep mystery that we cannot possibly understand.

Muddled buildings arise from muddled designs and also from muddled construction processes. If major design decisions have to be made while construction is underway then one inevitably will take the path of least resistance if only because rain is threatening or knocking-off time is approaching. Such decision-making has an odd habit of coming back at one later in the form of unseen consequences. This saps one’s energy and dulls the potential of the building to express a clear and impacting harmony. This type of harmony is what we experience in nature. If it can be incorporated into a building the result is equally impacting. One simply feels connected.

The process of self-building and of preparing to self-build offers so much opportunity for self-realisation that it should be de rigueur for everyone to carry out some form of self-building at some point in their life, preferably while they are still young. The naturalness with which children approach building is another wake-up call for all of us. They simply play! It is such playfulness which activates our imaginations and transports us beyond the mundane. We need to recapture such joy when we design and build. This is hard as we first have to challenge the conditioning which tells us that buildings are so serious!

Yes, design and building is a serious process but unless we bring to it a clear idea of who are we end up making buildings to suit some form of reality that is not really us. This is one reason why the preparation is so important. It allows us to focus on exactly what we are doing and why. The questions which arise from this are life questions and the answers allow us to define who we are and where we are going. Underlying all of this is the need to make playful and imaginative buildings in which we can experience the joy of being alive.

In terms of the EconoSpace Project I think that the team needed to get to know each other and for me to settle into the deeper mystery of what the art studio is actually all about. While on one level it is about creating a home for the paintings, on another it is about making a creative and playful place where these mysteries can be pondered and possible answers can be hatched. I also needed to relax a little with everything and stop being so serious!

All of this leads us back to the question of time – giving ourselves enough time to enter the dream and to wake up to a new reality that might be closer to what we truly need.

Peter Post Jig

Peter Posts are a structural device which I dreamed up several years ago and have used successfully in quite a few projects. We’ll be using these in the EconoSpace Project to frame up the walls. There’ll be 20 in total – 6 to each long side of the building and four to each gable end. To make these we are in the process of assembling a ‘jig’ which is a template allowing for the posts to be easily assembled.

Peter Posts are made from four 2″ X 2″ sections fixed together using intermediate blocks which are also 2″ deep. This allows for a 2″ beam to be slotted into any side of the post thereby forming a strong joint. Easy jointing is the secret of successful building. Not much is needed in the way of equipment or facilities to make peter posts. A saw, hammer, a table or workmate, some nails, a square and a measuring tape will suffice. In the photos above posts are being made for the two mini-benches which will support the jig.

In the photos above you can see the mini-benches which have been made to support the jig. These are covered with recycled T&G flooring. We incorporated a shelf at the bottom of the benches which is a handy place to keep tools, nails and so on. After the posts are made the mini-benches be used for all kinds of other purposes.

The jig is screwed to the mini-benches. This allows the blocks which form the centre of the posts to be pre-located and held firmly in place while the 2″ X 2″ sections are nailed to them. This saves a lot of repetitive measuring and clamping. The bench height has been set to allow for easy nailing of the posts. All of this type of ‘thinking out’ makes life a lot easier for the self-builder.

Jog & Blog

Had a dream that I was jogging and blogging. Not sure what this means! It might be something to do with the ‘always on’ claims made by broadband. This, I think, is a reflection of universal connectivity. We have made a replica of Oneness.

Crash & Burn

With a click rather than a whimper my video hard drive expires. This is just as the first load of timber arrives. There may be a lesson in there somewhere. Focus on the work in hand? Get real? Or maybe just a new computer?

The wood is basking in the sun waiting to render service in the name of mortgage-free shelter. It’s burning hot. Global warming is knocking at my door and staring in my windows. Liz, Thomas, Willie, Natalia and myself scurry about making Peter Posts, measuring and calculating in the unfolding drama.

First, at solar noon we reconfigure the position of the art studio to line it up with the true south. This is significant and somehow energizing. Then we retire to the deck to contemplate the meaning of life over tea. Recapturing time is hard work. You think you have it in you grasp and whoosh, it’s gone again.

I apply myself to the drawing board against a backdrop of hammering and laughter. I am down to the fine detail now, checking and rechecking, scribbling measurements on paper to pass on the the work crew. They are making a jig out of which the Peter Posts will emerge. These will form the wall of the studio and hold up the roof. At this stage I’m always nervous. Are they too strong? Too heavy? Too weak? Only time will tell.

The evening brings no relief only waves of heat rolling in like breakers. The odd cloud hangs about suspiciously. The forecast is for more of the same. The windcharger hangs limp atop its mast. Tomorrow is another day.

Getting Wired

Back online. Feeling connected again.

Living in the countryside just ain’t the same without the information superhighway zipping through. I can take so much of the birds doing their thing or watching the clouds pass but then I want to be connected. Even if no one is logging on or reading this stuff it’s the possibilities of the internet that intrigue me. It’s like that night out when you feel it’s all going to happen. Maybe it’s just the moon building to the full or the fact that the EconoSpace wood is being sawed as we speak that has me excited. I’m also buzzing from a little thing I put together for a discussion on vernacular architecture at my local Arts Centre.

Architecture is composed of space which is hived off from the infinity of the universe by walls, floors and roofs which ‘contain’ the enclosed space. These 3 dimensional boundaries represent the 3 principle dimensions of the known world. When the time dimension is added – in the form of light – you have congregated the 4 dimensions which make up the world as we experience it. It follows from this that architecture is a representation of the known world, a fact seemingly understood by vernacular builders all over the planet. When this miniature space-time continuum is fractured, for example by selling one’s time on the open market by holding down a job to pay a mortgage in exchange for a place to live, then the magic spell is broken and buildings become dull and lifeless.

The ancient practitioners of the building arts understood these dynamics of architecture. Places such as Carrowkeel and Newgrange, not to speak of the Great Pyramid, attest to this. Traditional sheltermakers didn’t need any explanation for the mysteries they experienced building their own homes. They simply felt connected. This is one of the major things which has been lost by the commodification of everything from homes, to love, to food. Wrenching back these imperatives is essential if we are to truly feel the life which surges through us every day. This is one of the dynamics of the EconoSpace Project – exploring the freedom of mortgage-free building.

Anyway, while I was offline I managed to edit this clip on the installation of the alternative energy system at the Living Architecture Centre. Enjoy!

My Umbilical

In the blink of an eye my umbilical to the world is severed. I had a rather slow wireless connection beamed off Sheemore, an enigmatic hill to the northwest of me with 3 megaliths on its summit. Now, I have radio silence and must ride my bike to my neighbours Willie & Natalia’s to log on. They are connected to the same transmitter but run Windows as opposed to my Linux. That seems to be the source of the problem. What to do next is the question.

I feel cut off from the world and am even tongue-tied. This is strange. I love my online connection. I knew when I first heard of the internet that it was a way for me to live in the countryside. This has proved to be the case to the point where I now feel solitary and at a loss for words. Normally I can just glide over to the keyboard and let fly. Now, breathless from the bike ride, I try to think up things to say. Certainly I will be inspired on the homeward run which is all downhill.

I am buzzing from reading Carl Jung’s thoughts on consciousness. He says that raising individual consciousness is the purpose of life. I have a feeling that he is absolutely right. In his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections he also talks about designing and living in his own home. He says of this that he never felt so much himself. I’m inclined to agree. If we put those two things together then perhaps we can increase our understanding of the nature of Living Architecture which seems to offer the possibility of higher consciousness. Clearly this not for everyone but it suits me just fine.

He also goes on a lot about the space-time relationship which I have been mulling over myself. People don’t realise that our concept of time dates from the Industrial Revolution when national or transnational train timetables had to be devised! Before that local time was good enough. With the Internat we now have global time! The good old 24/7 syndrome. This drives me crazy. I like local time. At the moment I am rising at dawn when I wake, ignoring timepieces altogether. I eat when I am hungry and sleep when I am tired. I gauge time from the position of the sun in the sky. Conveniently my computer clock has gone haywire.

Hopefully I will be wired up again shortly and can resume my usual blather. In the meantime we are readying ourselves for the arrival of the EconoSpace wood. This is due to arrive next week. I have also decided to create a pond to drain the site where the building will stand. I will keep you posted on developments and shoot some video to accompany this.