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Resilient Design & Masonry

22K views 183 replies 15 participants last post by  Kris Johnson 
#1 ·
A somewhat recent buzz word in the design / architectural arena is the term resilient design. The gist of it is to design / build buildings for the long haul,centuries if not longer. These buildings should be capable of withstanding natural and anthroprogenic (man made disasters,like terrorism). That said,obviously masonry has a real good chance to play a big role in that arena.


Was giving this topic considerable thought for some time.Re-enforced masonry appears to hold much promise to "assist" buildings to withstand high wind loading and seismic events. Having examined the pitfalls of rusting of steel embedded in concrete and masonry,(yes even epoxy and galvanized steel along with stainless) . I started to examine the possibilities of plastic re-bar for such applications. For what I read,the tensile strength is more than steel size for size.


Does anyone have any experience with plastic re bar ?
 
#55 · (Edited)
Somehow this popped up on suggested viewing.

Hagia Sophia. 1500 years and withstands earthquakes. maybe at least our single family units should take this as a model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlkkLNd4P44

the first question 50% of people ask when they look at a vault of mine is "what about earthquakes ?"

Hopefully today i can stay awake to watch the whole clip. I spent a whole day walking around inside. It was a most inspiring day.

(what is it with NOVA, they talk like everything is a gripping Star Trek adventure)
 
#56 ·
Some dismissed the cave design, but i am thinking that more buildings should be 3/4 underground or at least a living roof. The reasons are so many I would doze off listing them. It would not work everywhere ( New Orleans).

I grew up in a place where summers were 90-110 and I could not sleep upstairs, but in the boys basement bedroom we used blankets all year round. I want to go back to that.
 
#58 · (Edited)
There is survivor bias in old homes, art work, even ideas, the really poorly built, done, or conceived will have died an early death.

Like nutty reincarnationists, they never existed as peons or slaves, they were always nobility in their past lives.... no sod huts or thatch roofed chimney less one room cottages.

Fundi Beg, buy, or steal a textbook on Materials, it will save you years of wasted time, repeating the errors of past experimenters. Read it, Twice! Get an engineer you can talk to explain elasticity to you,( the concrete/mud/rammed earth has failed before the bamboo has even been stressed a tiny fraction of its tensile strength)

Abe Lincoln, " I'd sharpen my axes for hours before I'd start chopping a big tree down..."

Over taxation thus seeking respite from taxes by using depreciated buildings to shelter income from the Taxmen/women is what has driven 1st world nations into building throw away crap, Shrink Big Government= Architectural freedom, Quality construction in the USA is pummeled by real Estate taxes and inheritance taxes.
 
#59 · (Edited)

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#62 ·
Lead guitarist of the Guess Who and 1/2 of Bachman Turner Overdrive is Randy Bachman.

This is the fairly recent rammed earth home he had built in British Columbia. The place is so incredibly beautiful, and I/we know the cost/sq ft is beyond all but the very wealthy, and then only those with esoteric tastes. I believe this one is done using the "SIRE" rammed earth system, which sandwiches blue foam board between outer and inner walls of earth.

All the more curious, in that BC has the highest earthquake rate in Canada.
http://www.bcaa.com/campaigns/earthquake/overview
 

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#64 ·
While it is impossible to guess the needs of future occupants of the buildings we build,some have attempted to build in such a way to make adaptation easier to pull off. The timber framing guru Ted Benson is one such person. Several years ago,I read he was in the process of publishing a book on the topic,I have not researched if in fact the book came to fruition.


For those interested in some of the concepts he promotes regarding adaptability this will get you started.



http://bensonwood.com/sustainable-design/open-built/
 
#68 · (Edited)
My truck weighs 5000lbs empty and a 25 year old 150 hp, 250 ft/lbs motor moves it along just fine. What sort of HP did the 283 put out? I'm sure the modern hondas are doing way better.

The point is that function should predominate over form, but if form doesn't exist then once the function declines even a bit it will be chucked rather than repaired

edit, the 283 did alright for itself...195hp, but there were plenty of truck engines putting out 100, 120 hp and not a ton of torque
 
#69 · (Edited)
The Rolls has a 6.8 liter, and you can mix a drink while it gets to 60mph. Worth it though, the interior is comfortable and quiet, and it will purr along at 80 all day long.

And the only reason it is still around is because, with all of it's faults (and there is a long list of them), it is still a reliable, comfortable, well built car.

As noted earlier in the thread, old things self select for preservation, those worth it do, those not worth it, do not.

The crux of the argument then becomes, "How do we build so that is has intrinsic value, without having to pay up front for it"

That is to say, monumental buildings have high value, but they cost a lot of money up front and in maintenance. Private homes in the low to mid range cost do not have the intrinsic value because they are built with low upfront cost, and low down-range cost. They are built with a life-cycle, as are economy cars.
 
#70 ·
#72 ·
The answer has nothing to to with fit or finish, it has to do with the basic makeup of the building. That is why rammed-earth, CEB, etc. are such a good value, as is almost any type of masonry over sticks.

They all have intrinsic value, over and above the fit and finish schedule.
 
#76 ·
I disagree almost 100%. If a home doesn;t have the right character it doesn;t matter how efficient or practical it is, it will be torn down for something new. And if the new one isn't attractive to later generations the same thing will happen. If i moved into a community with the CEB homes in that video I'd be looking to tear it down and build something new. to me they look like Soviet russia tenement housing
 
#80 ·
Economics, or more importantly, what I call the "Scrooge Effect" plays a huge roll in how we capitalize our home purchases.

Also, how we view home ownership in the USA is afr different than most other places.

I've remarked before that in our(the companys') peak build year of 2005, there was not but 1 or 2 conventional "20 down" mortgages. All the rest were bridge loans, secret "Mom & Dad fronting the money tricks". liars loans, 0-down. flex, etc.
But meanwhile, up in Canada, or over in Germany, my home buyers would tell me how 30% downs were the minimum acceptable by banks, and in Germany, 40-50% downs.

What they also said, is that the average new home in Canada was going to be somewhat smaller, less yard, all brick or at least a lot more brick. It's only recently that the gov of Canada has decided to put focus on "Suburbanization", instead of the city-centric build-outs.

In Germany, they have this same idea, only there. its common to have rectilinear concrete shells, with lots of wood on the inside.

So here in the USA, we want to just get a deal signed, get that "money flowing. The sooner the money flows and the more often it is turned, the better for "the economy". There's a truth in that, I agree, and it was my religion for many years.

Where was I going with this...oh - yeah, back to the USA, we've reached our first build-out. We've run up against water, sewer, road infrastructure limits.

So, does that mean we'll see more 50-100 year building stock being erected, or will it continue to shift downward to the 25 year life vinyl/cardboard/composite dwellings?
 
#81 ·
In Canada a `conventional" mortgage is 25%. But since the early 2000's 5% while considered "high risk" is basically the norm. I don;t see much masonry except veneers here and a 4 side veneer is rare. 2 maybe 3 side if it's a corner lot...you know the rich guys in the neighbourhood

we've been US wannabees for quite a while. When I was a kid a lot of people looked to Europe particularly England as a source of inspiration...Lots of war brides made for lots of influence. These days it's full on US influence. Wouldn;t be a bad thing if it weren;t coming almost solely from the television
 
#92 ·
Little bit late to this topic and this may have nothing to do with anything,

My home was built in 1934 ish, the guy who built it was a Brickie and built it for him an his wife.
She passed away shortly after it was finished, and he sold it to the lady I bought it off.
What attracted me to the home was the fact it was solid masonry built,plus the fireplace, garage and garden, it had and still does have all of the original trim, kitchen doors and wooden panels around the walls.
The only work I have done to the original house was rebuilt the chimney about 3 years ago.
The brick windows sills on the back are still I great shape as is all the brick around the bottom of the home. I have made a few upgrades like a/c, new windows and small addition on the back but I bet this house will stand for another 80 years...
The reason it was built with knowledge, skill and pride 3 very important things a lot of people in this business today are missing, it's all about $$$$$$$.
Home's today arrive on trucks for Christ sake, the are thrown together in days and the masonry is slapped up in the same amount of time, in all weather conditions, I have seen it.
I have worked on homes for people in subdivisions, replacing sills, rebuilding pillars and fixing cracked arches, all while the 2nd or 3rd phase of the subdivision is being done, don't even bring up the warranty as it never works out for the h.o.
Sure quality of today's materials might not be up to scratch as those of years gone by, but neither is the workmanship of those laying it. My 50 year old timber frame garage will outlast most new builds as will my grandmothers 300 years old stone house in Ireland, which is still lived in today by my aunt.
 
#96 ·
There' an old axiom of "form follows function". What the carcass of a dwelling requires in traditional construction dictates its final appearance, eh?

I'm not saying I disagree with you: My first experience wit adobe homes in New Mexico - even the ones built by gringos, seemed just too alien and monolithic to me, compared to the bloom-framed, fancy trimmed farm houses in mid-Michigan.

The adobe was awesome to live in, especially after a 10-12 hour day doing geoseismic work - just not crisply "homey".

But even worse,is contrivance-what we do now -trying to stick bits of "looks like" on crackerbox shacks.

I used to get a laugh, and even took a picture of a home down the road from me: It was basically a New England Saltbox. They used lick&stick fake stone for the bottom half of the front elevation, and then plastered the two dormer dog houses with the fake stone as well!

I can just imagine the real estate agent point out the "stonework", and then the proud home buyers showing it off to their friends saying "What really sold us, was it being so close to the lake, and all the handcrafted stonework".

All I know is, I've hit a personal "wall". I just cannot do any more Walmart housing. It literally makes me ill in my gut. It is NOT what I got in this profession to do.
 
#97 ·
Below is a vid of Portmeirion. Maybe Fundi will get some inspiration?

The guy who designed it Clough Williams-Ellis, did some of the structures with eammed earth.

He wrote a paper/book on it (rammed earth) nearly 100 years ago. The choice for him was also an economic one: post WWI, a severe lack of wood and brick.

"It is not the land of my Fathers that concerns me so much as the land of my children"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wna2GTKVIQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAtuRenrOBY
 
#98 ·
Well, dammit, now I'm on a roll.

The last time I got married was in 1985. I was working for the county at Oakland Airport, a busy executive airstrip (we used to have the most take offs and landings in the entire USA). Lot's of high-rollers and shenanigans.

Anyhow, fellow I knew was chief pilot for Alfred Taubman (of shopping mall and past owner of Sotheby's). This fellow bought a place on Mackinaw Island, and was about 80% complete in bringing it up to modern standards. He offered me "The Audubon Suite" as a wedding gift for a week.

Well, there went Niagara Falls, in came Stonecliffe. It was built by an Irishman who made a fortune in the meat packing industry, Michael Cudahy.

There's too much to tell about the place, except that it had a damned manual return bowling alley in the basement, and I was fascinated by that.
 

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#102 ·
It's true...to an extent. Like I said about the art deco couch, you could have a couch that was made of 2x4's and it could be just as comfortable as a Louis XIV, but I'm pretty sure I know which one is considered disposable and which one will have ladies lounging on it for another 300 years. The louis had more energy put into it initially, but after about the 3rd generation of use that investment is coming back
 
#103 · (Edited)
Yes, energy. That's really at the center of what has me absolutely frustrated.

I was looking at what it takes to build an R-40 wall. Double stud walls, cavity filled, foam on the outside, then osb, vinyl, brick, whatever, drywall plaster on the inside.

Metal straps to hold joists to walls, roof to walls, bolts, etc.

In other words, all the "crap" that goes into a wall "system". All those factories someplace, burning up the BTUs, cranking out the parts, transporting them, warehousing them and so on.

And because of "economy of scale", and cheap energy/labor from 3rd world economies, and because we don't bear the responsibility of renewing what we extract, the "upfront" costs are comparatively cheap.

And then I got to thinking that if I did a cost analysis based on "labor hours" vs "labor dollars", I would come up with very different numbers.

If I thought like a farmer, who has to think not just of the crop he sells at market today, but that he has to put away money and seed, and maintenance of the land for the next year, and the next, and so on, I also get a very different number for what a piece of lumber, or bag of Portland actually costs.

I'm not in the business of passing judgement, or being a "climate change alarmist", or "exploiting 3rd world peasants moralist" - I'm someone who has spent a lifetime working with "systems", whether it's whole houses, or communities. I am always looking for overall efficiency

So, I have the philosophy of a pragmatist. When I look at how we have come to do things these last 100 years, it is wasteful from a design, production, and long term economic valuation. When you add it all up, when you put honest numbers on everything.

Hmmm, what we all are saying here in this thread I think, in one form or another, is that it "seems" that if you look at the total energies put into a dwelling built of substantial materials, and with "good" architecture, then if you project out over 6, 10, 20 generations, the total cost is less for these, and the total living experience is better, than with the throwaway housing we've become proficient at.

But for that to work, the whole notion of who "owns" the older and oldest housing, how a young couple gets to live in their "own space" before middle age, etc.

It comes to mind, that my Aunt told me her parents - my dad's grandparents, lived in a flat above a 15th century shoe-making shop in Augsburg Germany. That it had always been a shop, that the flat had always been there. That's is how they did it in Augsburg.

God, I wish I knew how to write with fewer words.
 
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