This is my last scheduled post for Green Building Advisor; undoubtedly, I find myself in a retrospective mood. For many years, I have actually worked as a contractor, a detective of moisture problems, and an editor.
For the last 30 years of my career, however, I have actually been a writer– somebody worried about the crafting of sentences and paragraphs.
A model of careful writing
Being in a retrospective state of mind, I find myself reviewing an old masterpiece of composing that I initially fell in love with at the age of 16: Henry Thoreau’s Walden. Thoreau was a thinker and a nonconformist. He was suspicious of authority and inclined to pacifism. He was a master artisan of the English sentence.
He was also a mindful contractor. Countless hippie carpenters and homesteaders have quoted his rhetorical concern, “Shall we permanently resign the satisfaction of building and construction to the carpenter?”
In 1845, Thoreau constructed himself a simple 10-ft. by 15-ft. cabin to live in; if a modern-day visitor were to enter this shelter, he most likely wouldn’t even call it a house. He constructed the frame from young white evergreen that he cut near the building website, and he covered the frame with recycled boards and wood shingles bought from the owner of a shack that had been demolished.
Here’s an informing information, though: In explaining the wall sheathing, he composed that “the boards were thoroughly feather-edged [with a plane] and lapped, so that it was perfectly impervious to rain.”
What a nice detail! He took some time to bevel the long edges of his wall boards, despite the fact that the sheathing would quickly be covered with shingles: “Before winter season I … shingled the sides of my house, which were currently invulnerable to rain, with imperfect and sappy shingles.”
In effect, Thoreau’s wall was designed as a type of rainscreen. I like to imagine Thoreau resting on the forest floor, running his airplane along each sheathing board, producing his bevels. He had all the time in the world, and lots of perseverance.
Social justice
The green building neighborhood would do well to focus more of its energies on social justice. The occasional GBA article has given a brief nod to social justice– as, for instance, in a 2017 post called “Fusing Green and Universal Style” and in a 2018 short article called “What Makes a City Green?” however the fundamental tension between “great homebuilding” (typically a code expression for costly real estate) and social justice is hardly ever addressed on these pages.
Thoreau’s composing dealt with social justice. In 1854, he composed, “I can not believe that our factory system is the very best mode by which males may get clothing. The condition of the operatives [factory employees] is ending up being every day more like that of the English [who were notorious for their exploitation of employees]; and it can not be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the primary things is, not that mankind might be well and truthfully outfitted, however, undoubtedly, that corporations might be enhanced. In the long run guys hit just what they aim at.”
As with clothing, so with real estate. He wrote: “Granted that the bulk are able at last either to own or hire the contemporary home with all its improvements. … However how do the poor minority fare? … The luxury of one class is reversed by the indigence of another. … The mason who finishes the cornice of the palace returns in the evening perchance to a hut.”
Cornice installers of America! Does this ring real to you?
Real estate affordability
In the U.S. today, we are facing a full-blown real estate price crisis. The system is not working. This crisis is intimately connected to the issues of income inequality and wealth inequality.
Our country’s failure to address these 3 concerns– the real estate affordability crisis, earnings inequality, and wealth inequality– are most likely to lead to a social explosion.
A few of us started calling ourselves “green builders” since we care about the environment. But there is no way to deal with environmental concerns without acknowledging that our work should focus on improving social justice.
On volunteering insights
It is a conceit of the elderly that more youthful individuals care about their viewpoints. Now that I’m 70 years old, I’m at that hazardous age where I might be lured to volunteer my insights.
There’s a quote from Thoreau for that, naturally. He composed, “You might say the best thing you can, old man,– you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind,– I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that.”
If, like the young Thoreau, you hear more attractive voices than mine, you must definitely hearken their call. Yet I still hope a couple of readers will keep in mind of a subject that concerns me.
Here’s my issue: I am disheartened by our nation’s growing contempt for the clinical technique.
Science matters. Those of us who create and construct houses depend on building science scientists to address our technical questions. Over the past 50 years, much of this research study has actually been conducted by national laboratories funded by the federal government.
Under the present Republican politician administration, these laboratories are being methodically dismantled. In the case of the premier environment science laboratory in the nation– the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado– the Republican effort will include the actual sale of the building and the elimination of the lab’s supercomputer. Why? It’s difficult to state, however the White House budget plan director, Russell Vought, stated that the environment laboratory in Colorado is “one of the biggest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Once lost, the institutional memory (and collection of talent) in these national labs will take a generation to reconstruct. In the meantime, as long-term research study projects lose their financing, crucial data disappear.
As our national laboratories are being taken apart, a growing variety of American moms and dads mistrust their pediatricians’ guidance on youth vaccines– a suspect that has actually added to a substantial boost in measles cases.
So here’s my plea: If you’re in school, focus in science class. If you’re in government, defend the function of science in public health and public security (including structure performance).
Otherwise, if existing trends continue, we are likely to get in a dark period of ignorance.
I’ve been lucky
On a more positive note, let me say that I look back at my career with really fond memories. I have actually seldom been happier than I was when I was 19 years of ages, resting on a ridge installing cap shingles on a sunny day. What a fantastic way to earn a living!
The community of authors and editors I have actually been privileged to deal with– at the Journal of Light Construction, Energy Design Update, BuildingGreen, Fine Homebuilding, and Green Structure Consultant— have all been wise, amusing, and relaxed. It’s been an advantage to work with them.
I’m retiring with a smile on my face.
— Martin Holladay is a retired editor who lives in Vermont.
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