Last Posts re: Issues from Living Building Challenge Presentation

And, here are a few more posts re: this dialogue  (again, pls read from the bottom, to top)   ~

B2,

I concur with everything you've expressed.  Overconsumption and overpopulation are both huge drivers of humanity's race to biophysical depletion.  The false religions of market capitalism and higher technology keep leading our captains of industry astray, and millions of us plebes as well.  But I seen an antidote - beyond becoming conscious and living light as a feather on the land - which we all should do anyway:  Rallying around regional community-based sustainable economic development (call it Regenerative Regionalism if you like).  This would bring many of us back to our senses and restore meaning to millions of people's work lives.  The primary goal of each region has to become providing for its people's basic needs:  food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare, etc. while simultaneously restoring space for other creatures.  Everything else is frosting.  Regions would be self-defined at scales so that they could internally meet the needs of a healthy industrial society.  Meeting material and social needs regionally would reduce our inclination to engage in the more predatory forms of extraction and inequity, and would bring back around to home the one-way flows that unfettered global trade allows.  By the way, I'm all for global peace, global cultural interaction, and even global trade - once regional needs are being met.  So for example, we in the Chesapeake region should only qualify to be able to purchase equipment from Japan, or bananas from Honduras if we could demonstrate that we had substantially tackled homelessness, Central America demonstrates that everyone there has access to food, and Japan demonstrates that it is restoring its jungles.  I remember meeting a Sikh religious leader, Sri Baba Ji, at my friend Andy's home in Takoma Park.  He surprised everyone in the room by saying that having houses is nice - but far from essential! 

 

-- Jim Schulman, AIA, BMRA

cell: 202/544-0069

RegionalArchitect@gmail.com

Sustainable Community Initiatives, Founder

Community Forklift, LLC, Founder

On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 10:00 AM, William Updike <updikew@yahoo.com> wrote:

I have many jumbled and unclear thoughts about this conversation, so I'm not sure that what I say will be particularly insightful or helpful.  One challenge as I see it is that even with the some thoughtful and intentional living, none of us are living anywhere close to what could be subscribed as true sustainability--both personally and because we live in a nation (and pay taxes to support it) that thrives on the extraction of natural capital.  I find it difficult to see a way out of that quandary.  We can build Living Buildings, which is certainly better than building brown things, but it is still construction and consumption.  I think Hutchins said it best at one of the Living Future conferences--when everyone was going around the room talking about what sustainable building would look like, Bill raised his hand and said NOT building would be sustainable building.  The architects and developers in the room lost a few heart beats that they'll never get back!   Even a Living Building has a huge lifecycle cost that would take years if not decades to "pay" for (even as we continue to un-sustainably consume while living in the Living Building).  This is why I will only ever call things green building and will never use the term sustainable building. 

We don't need much complexity or technology to build a simple Living Building--the workers huts that Hutchins has been building in Nepal with the eco-foundation would certainly qualify--they have simple beauty, are made from waste and natural (and thus inherently non-toxic) materials.  I appreciate the theory that people think we don't have to go back to a more simple lifestyle to live sustainably, but I'm not sure I agree.  Those that live in the Nepali huts are certainly closer than I will ever get.   Even folks living simply in this country, collecting all their own energy (and storing it in toxic batteries!) and water, and growing their own food, having no car, not using any animal products, never traveling by anything other than their feet (bikes need oil and grease and steel after all) are still not living sustainably (see note above regarding taxes).  There probably aren't a lot of those folks around regardless.   I wouldn't point back to Charles Mann's 1491--I would send people to Daniel Quinn's Ishmael instead.   After all, many of the native civilizations failed due to overconsumption and not being able to adapt to the climate changes of the time.

The problem as I see it is not a spiritual one (though a deeper thinking about our place in the world certainly helps us live more "green" if not truly sustainable.   We are a messy mix of frontal lobe and animal brain--lofty and selfish.   We are co-creators (to borrow Sandy's term) but also destroyers.   Even the best of us are flawed and are responsible for the loss of species.   Because of this, I'm afraid that at this historical moment there is no getting around that there are just too damn many of us on the planet.  Until we are all elevated to that higher spiritual place of balancing our beauty and our brutishness, we need to stop breeding.   I can't see any way around that.   That said, it may just be a lack of imagination on my part.   I struggle with not being a glass half empty kind of guy. 

So, random and perhaps unhelpful thoughts.   Fascinating conversation though!  It's because of folks like you all on this list that I can get up in the morning, dust myself off, and keep trying to figure out a path to living lighter on our little blue planet.

Best,
Bill Updike

thank you for the thoughtful responses!!!   let me try this angle  ~

the image i use re: appropriate technology, which, some of you have heard -  in our society, we tend to live in buildings as powerboats, unconsciously flipping switches, focused on a fixed point, independent of place.  whereas, we can live as when sailing -  paying attention to the world around us, the breezes, currents, clouds, know our vessel and work with it to respond to the always changing world.  the vessels we live in can put us in more intimate relationships.

i would not say that complexity has anything to do with these two ways of being.  i would say it comes down to consciousness, and the level we seek engaging with the world around us (and our companions).  which is what Sandy says about 1.8 cents into his notes below.

re: another aspect of this conversation -  we're a part of nature, w/ a twist -  we alone have the capacity to negate our nature............ and more complex technologies are temptations, taking us further adrift........when we've become lost.  we are born deeply united, and, then slowly become separated (reflect on your life; raise a child).  our work as adults is to heal our separation(s). i think of healing as becoming reconnected with those parts of ourselves we've lost.  our life's journey is finding home, which only has meaning as we begin the journey after the above mentioned separation occurs.  the paradox -  home can only be found spiritually, yet, it is in this dimension/reality/existence that we're offered doors back home........... through the natural world and our loved ones.

what does that have to do with our conversation?   i offer that the root of our world crisis is spiritual, as reflected in diminished consciousness.  we need to re-awaken to our child's eyes and heart, where everything is alive and full of possibility, and play in the moss and grass (implicitly humble, as Alan suggested).  the pot drips what's in it..........then we'll build and create places that nurture and heal all...............regardless of complexity.

phew............ sorry if i got carried away!   but, i now see the light! -   the point is consciousness, not complexity.

~  b

More Posts re: Post-LBC Presentation

Many thoughtful responses have bounced around in our listserve........ here are a couple  (pls read from the bottom, up)   ~


This is a wonderful dialogue.  My two cents:

There is an ecological mindset that almost all of us have grown up in... that human activity is f..king everything up, and that in order to change that we have to stop that human activity.  I believed this for many years, feeling that we needed to regress in order to heal.  I no longer think that way, but rather believe that way out is through.   This is part of what I was trying to express in my talk the other night, but perhaps it was too diffuse.   

My friend Gerould Wilhelm, an amazing system ecologist, opened my eyes many years ago to what he calls the "Eden principle:"  the idea that if we humans withdraw from nature, nature will take care of itself.  The reason that line of thinking is hopelessly flawed is that we humans are, and have been, an integral part of the natural world for a couple million years.   When you look at the native ecology of pre-Columbian America, it was incredibly vibrant and fecund and anything but devoid of human activity (I recommend Charles Mann's 1491 for any of you that haven't read it).   In every climate zone, native peoples actively participated in and co-evolved with their place.  Our particular place was dominated by oak/hickory/hemlock forests that were highly managed with annual burns and the regular harvesting of nuts, berries, grains, large and small fauna and downed trees.   The result was a vital open woodland that early european settlers had never seen the likes of... you could drive a wagon through it for days on end.  Human activity is not inherently harmful or antithetical to the health of natural systems.   

Technology is any human artifact used for a purpose.  Bricks are technology and so is a fork, so were the fires used by the people who inhabited this land before us.  One of the concepts in my talk was the idea that the development of technology is an extension of the evolutionary process (not analogous to evolution, but a real expression of it).  With the jump to life as co-creator facilitated by the human brain, language and opposable digits, evolution marches on through the development of technologies.   Technology is not separate from nature; it is nature.  One of the unfortunate consequences of our species evolution in this regard has been our progressive isolation from the rest of nature and the subsequent emergence of the cultural memes that lead us to believe we can dominate and exploit it and each other.  I believe there is a way through this if we don't self destruct first (and if we do self destruct, I am confident that the evolutionary process, including the rise of consciousness and technology will continue here or elsewhere in the universe).  The way is integrally linked with our technology.   Without technology I would not be able to express these words to you now, there would be no books, no internet, no farming, no advance in knowledge and no buildings (even a wigwam).  The advance of knowledge and consciousness rides on the back of technology.  It is the emergence of higher consciousness occurring around the globe in all peoples facilitated by technology that shines a light on the path through.   If we approach our work, our power as co-creators, the development and use of our technology with humility and reverence, understanding that we are inseparably connected to everything, we can actualize the full potential of our creativity so that it regenerates and enhances rather than degrades life.  For us who dwell in the world of building technologies, I believe this means we think deeply about what is appropriate technology for the work at hand whether that's harvesting the straw and clay from surrounding fields give our building form, employing building science to design advanced building envelopes, integrating thoughtful feedback loops for occupants or intentionally creating places of delight or harmony with our environment.  

The cost conversation is always a difficult one and requires education.  I offer a few attachments to this email to start that discussion.  One is a few slides from another presentation I often give where I use the metaphor of a microscope with different lenses to widen the field of view around the cost discussion to shift out of the "first cost" mindset.   Another is a document called the Packard Matrix, which was developed for the Packard Foundation in 2002 years before the Living Building Challenge when Living Buildings were an aspirational idea, but which does a good job of looking at whole life cost.  The third is a few slides from the marketing presentation of another one of my current projects, a net zero energy cohousing community called Three Groves Ecovillage (www.threegrovesecovillage.com), where we lay out the cost benefit of spending more up front for homeowners.

Sandy

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 11:01 PM, Alan Abrams <alan@abramsdesignbuild.com> wrote:

the technological approach is seductive and even addictive, and the deeper you probe, the deeper you must go.  methodologies have great value, but they soon turn into parochialism.  In a sense, what I am describing--this analytic exercise, this regularization, codification--and its relationship to society, economics, and government--is a natural and organic process.  but it's easy to forget that it is not an end to itself--it is only another stage of evolution.  

where I think I'm going with this is parallel to Bill's dad, that simplicity and durability--and paradoxically--adaptability--are the essential attributes.  That the journey into complex methodologies and  rigorous systems and checklists are informative--are noble endeavors in themselves--but ultimately they lead us off course.

none of this negates what Sandy concluded--that is to be aware of the impact of your decisions.  We are not going to save the world with bricks and studs, whether we hit LEED platinum or passive house, or even LBC--because making every brick scarred the earth, and harvesting every stud raped a forest.  Is it enough to say a prayer, like the shochet before he cuts the throat of a lamb?  All our technology, all our wisdom and experience, all our methods and checklists and point systems cannot completely negate the destructive act of creating a home.

if any of this is true, then perhaps the first step in building is humility.

AA

A Conversation Ignited by a Presentation on a Living Building Challenge Project - Part 1

Our collaborative, and a few other friends, meets monthly to discuss a burning question re: the work we all do...............and drink beer (and have dinner), which we call beer talks.  The conversation is always lively and far-reaching, given the diverse group, including architects, builders, landscape architects, renewable energy consultants, gardeners, developers,  DC DOE Green Building program manager, etc.

At this past beer talk, a presentation was made, giving the background story for the Alice Ferguson Foundation's Potomac Watershed Study Center, where they are taking on the Living Building Challenge.  The presentation laid out the underlying consciousness of the project, and, opened a door into considering how we, as professionals, hold such an awareness.  Pls view the project here -

          http://fergusonfoundation.org/living-building-on-the-potomac/

What follows is my first post-beer talk reflection.  I will soon post subsequent responses.......... only one per post, to keep each posting brief.

hi friends..............a Paul Hawken quote, to get this rolling -

we will have the ability in a very short time to create buildings that are literally as complex as a plant or a flower, that are biophilic in the true sense of the word.

when i was at the Living Building Challenge conference a few years ago, i was already stunned at just how complex the LBC projects were (including residential)............. and, perhaps, we're moving towards more complexity, as Paul states?

i think i took to heart one of my dad's great ironies.............he was a fighter pilot, yet, he always advocated seeking the fewest working parts (re: lifespan, maintenance, operation).  b2 suggests i'm a luddite, which, given what i've been called over the years, isn't so bad...........

i dunno............ is complexity our destiny?  will we all have brains like Keith's?!

we can't create simple homes, organic,  flowing from and with the life-force of place, establishing resonant relationships, heated with a wood stove (wood from the land), cooled by meadow breezes (w/ a bit of discomfort, which keeps us human) cha cha?

i realize cities and large programs dictate something else - a fine place for LBC - but, as i'm a lowly residential architect, do we want to move towards complex (aka, expensive - i forgot to say the other night, extra cost is the primary reason my clients won't do LBC) homes?  or simplicity?   or.........?????   

i realize this is a big can of worms, and, seeking brevity, can't explore nuance........... i tried to say enough to open the floor for your responses!

~  b

(Brief) Collaborator Profile - SALVAGING CREATIVITY

Pat Sells, at Salvaging Creativity, modesty aside, could have named his business, Brilliant Salvagers.  This railing at my home is just another day in the shop for Pat and his team.  His work is so good that we now design for places where his work can be showcased.  Also, we prefer to use steel at exterior locations - such as screened porches - as wood rots quickly in our climate.

Here is their Facebook page  ~

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Salvaging-Creativity/154124401291070

Building and Living With The Natural World, part 3

Our buildings can be made of real materials - soil, wood, stone, water. Think of building materials as the food we eat:  The more our food lived a healthy life - with no pesticides, hormones, etc.; wasn't processed with chemicals or in-organic additives, etc.; was grown under the sky and fed intrinsically nurturing food - the more it feeds and nurtures us.  Being surrounded by real materials, simply rendered, surrounds us with a vibration or resonance our bodies and minds have always known.

Building forms can be sensual and alive, as our body, not rigid and hard and lifeless (think drywall).  Surfaces can have vitality, hold an intention atuned to the what we want to experience in each room: Be soft, or vibrant, or rough, or glassy/reflective, or…….. 

In the way that our breath is perhaps our most vital aspect of living, our buildings can breathe, drawing in the world around us.   A building can pull in the breezes, gather daylight into most parts of the building. One room can open into a garden while another expands out to a distant view.  At another level, just as we breathe in and out, one space can be expansive, while another space can be inward-focused.  Buildings can provide place for inner, reflective solitude, and outward-reaching gatherings.

Our buildings can be as a wave, which is the meeting of the deep energy of the ocean with the firm soil of the earth.  A wave puts us in one of the most ancient dynamics of the earth.  Our buildings can also put us in-between realms - a building can be just inside the edge of a forest overlooking a meadow, or a bay window in a bedroom looking onto a city street  - opening up reflective chords.

There are many ways our buildings can be interwoven into the natural world. The first and essential step is to awaken our awareness to this possibility.  A simple exploration of this opening:  Go into the woods, find a small, intimate space, and sit.  Be still.  Listen.  As when dropping a pebble into a still pond, soon your mind will be clear of ripples.  You'll be deep in the pond (the place), and the world around you will begin to embrace you.  Animals will resume their goingson, birds will land on branches nearby; you'll slowly become a part of the place.  Then you can begin to consider how the spaces you create and live in can be an extension of the centered place this consciousness was born in.

Generous cities: biomimicry and urban design

Biomimicry pioneer Janine Benyus argues that generosity and not competition is the building block of nature.: http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/generous-cities-biomimicry-and-urban-design.html

That's an idea that could transform most of society!!

www.HeliconWorks.com

article in Natural Awakenings - WE ARE NOT THIS BODY

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A25e26/NaturalAwakeningsDCM/resources/5.htm


That's the link........on page 27........this article i wrote explores our heart-space, where we connect with loved ones and places.


www.HeliconWorks.com

Greener Than Green

Here is the center of our backyard -  our retention pond and bog, rendering storm water management as a beautiful garden!  Planted with natives and edibles, that feed (migrating) birds.

That's Beth's work, my wife and part of our collaborative -  we consider all our home projects similarly.

Her website -  www.GreenerThanGreen.net



www.HeliconWorks.com

Helicon Works is on Houzz!

Now we're on Houzz (our link is below)!  Such a racket, all these things you need to do to ride high th SEO wave!  So be it..............to my architect friends, I'm soon to also be on Porch (which launches pronto)............any other places you recommend?


http://www.houzz.com/pro/billhutchins/helicon-works





www.HeliconWorks.com

Living and Building With The Natural World, part 2

-- Here's part 2 of the writing i began posting last week ~

Unfortunately, some people who occupy buildings have no awareness of where the materials of the building comes from, or where the energy to nourish the building comes from, or how to block out the summer sun while letting in the winter sun, or how to cool the building by working with the wind.  

We live in buildings as if we are riding in a powerboat -  unconsciously flipping on switches to bring us light or energy, moving through space with no consideration of our relationship to the natural world.   We can live as if we are sailing:  A building can be a vessel that puts us in more intimate relationship with the world around us and inspires us to engage with natural energies, flows and rhythms.

What other ways can the built environment be a part of the natural world? Most simply, it can put us in relationship with the natural world - and provide place for intimate relationship with our loved ones and all parts of our self.  We can consider each natural element -  water, soil, fire, air/wind, sun, wood, stone - and ask how we can consciously interact with each as 

we design and live in our buildings.

-- The third and final part will further explore ways to build and live with the natural world!



www.HeliconWorks.com

Building and Living as Part of the Natural World, Part 1

I'm going to begin posting articles i've written, each in a series of parts with images.  Here is the latest writing i've been working on, the first part......... comments welcome!

Building and Living as Part of the Natural World, Part 1

A few years ago, my wife, Beth, and I rafted through the Grand Canyon for eighteen days.  We were out of doors twenty four hours a day, in and out of the water, in the canyons formed over billions of years, sleeping under the stars.  When we left, we were bused to the back of a hotel and told to walk through a hallway up to the lobby to meet another bus.  As soon as i entered the hallway, I was completely disoriented, bouncing off walls, head dizzy.  

While in the canyons, my body and mind had drifted back into some ancient rhythm, or way of being in the world.  Every fiber within me was alive, alert, invigorated, breathing, and attuned to the sky and water and canyons. Returning to Cartesian space - abstract and geometric - jarred me out of my new primal existence.

This disconnect is unnecessary.  Architecture can be otherwise -  the spaces we live in can be attuned to the natural world.  As we painfully know, buildings in the US are, for the most part, life-less and soul-deadening. There is no resonance with anything from the world we come from.

More acutely, most buildings are full of toxic materials, often hermetically sealed with no relationship to the natural world.  Buildings are typically designed as discrete objects, with no regard for how the sun tracks across the sky, the wind courses through the windows, the flow of the land, the rhythms of the seasons.  

That's the intro.......i'll offer ways of creating vital space and form next week!



www.HeliconWorks.com

Ecological Building in Nepal!

HW is going to Nepal for the 7th time in 3 years! We continue to work with KRMEF - www.KRMEF.org - bringing ecological building practices.  On this trip we will be building an orphanage, as we did a couple of years ago............. with the children!!

If you would like to join us, we've had volunteers from 28 countries and have an internship program.  Contact Bill@KRMEF.org for info.

A REQUEST FOR VENUES TO GET THE WORD OUT 

I am an ecologically responsive architect, who focuses on the spiritual and psychological aspects of creating our home.  I see our life's journey as a process of finding home, an impulse which, paradoxically, can only be found spiritually. Yet, it is through living in this world that we form our deeper union with our source, and our physical house mirrors our inner home.  I have developed ways to be with clients in their process of giving physical form to their home, and cultivating an inner discipline to consciously engage in this dialogue through our daily living.  I can give PowerPoint presentations and workshops on either aspect of my work.   I would enjoy discussing with you how I may bring this work to your community. 

NATURAL BUILDING IN NEPAL

I'll be at KRMEF again April 2 - 22, building the last two floors of the Ankuran (re:  www.KRMEF.org for more info).  We've developed a natural building method using waste glass bottles and paper, with bamboo frame and thatch roof. If you're traveling in southeast asia then, drop by Kathmandu and join or efforts!  We work hard, have fun, are a part of the village -  we form many lasting relationships!   We'd love to have you join our community!

Exploring and Giving Form to Our Inner Home

                             Notes for The Workshop on May 26th         

Ecology -   the Greek eco means home.  Logos is the mysterious process of coming into being of a idea or impulse or ray of light.  Ecology can thus be considered as the mysterious process of making home.

This workshop delves into the idea that seeking home is our life's journey and explores

 "home" as an internal image, within the context of that journey. Home is our place of deep refuge, wholeness, being known. It is where we feel safe to be fully loved and love openly - our quiet, still center.  Ironically, home exists in spiritual realms, yet here we are, living in a crazed world, amidst our humanity - our fullness, of light and darkness. 

This workshop is experiential -  I open some of the infinite doors into exploring your inner self, your soul,  with the intention of drawing out life giving impulses which you can then embody through your daily living.  Each door is a creative-meditative drawing or sculpting exercise, where I offer a poetic image which you'll internalize, listen for a response, and then explore by playing with clay or pastels on newsprint, letting the exploration awaken essential parts of yourself you have forgotten or never realized.  As you create, more images appear -  each exercise opens a deep well of life giving water.

After the group completes each expression, you are invited to share with the group how the unfolding occurred.  Other particpants offer their insights into what you've offered, which also expands their understanding of our common humanity.  We then discuss how these revealed impulses can be lived into.

Consider the impulse of, say, wanting expansiveness, perhaps expressed when drawing by large, sweeping arcs of color, unfolding like bird's wings.  How that energy is given form is unique to our experiences and inclinations, but they may include: Considering new, bold options regarding significant life decisions; or making a window seat with a distant view, for our gazing;  or traveling to the southwest deserts (or moving there): or sailing (experience such an expansive space as the ocean, with the wind, and see what it has to offer), or letting your hair grow, or learn swing dancing!  

As there are infintite facets to the crystal that is our soul, this workshop can go on for a day, or two or three.  Regardless of duration, participants will have opened to ways to explore home and can continue this work throughout their life's journey.

Workshop fee -  $150.  Includes breakfast & lunch.  9am - 6pm.  At my home.

What makes Helicon Works unique is that i invite people to create their own vision of “home” by first going deep inside themselves spiritually, emotionally, and aesthetically.  I do this work with clients, and I teach a couple of workshops which delves into this possibility.   In one workshop, I lead participants through exploring home as an internal image, considering our life's journey as a process of finding home in the world, a journey that is all about inner work.  The other workshop explores home in this sense as well, with the intention of embodying our fuller self through the making of our physical home.  I believe that our inner home and physical home mirror one another.  I offer these workshops at my home, where i have attempted to illustrate this work.

I recently held the second workshop, and on Saturday, May 26th, i'll hold the other workshop, which i call "Ecology. The Mysterious Process of Making Home."   We'll do creative expression work to reveal life-giving impulses wecarry in our heart, and then engage in dialogue regarding ways to make those images a part of our daily living.   

I asked some friends recently for their favorite buildings in DC. Many are predictable, some are unique. Here's the list ~

· Lincoln Memorial

· Jefferson Memorial.

· The Islamic Center (2551 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington D.C.)

· Finnish Embassy

· National Church (Episcopalian) --- and don’t miss the nearby garden, the crypt and attic spaces)

· Russian Orthodox Cathedral (close to National Cathedral)

· Outdoor space of the Hirshorn Gallery

· Atrium of the Portrait Gallery

· The Library of Congress (main building, all its interior and specially the interior dome/reading room – you need to be a member to gain access)

· The National Gallery of Art West Wing by John Russell Pope (esp. the dome and the courtyards)

· Union Station

· Franciscan Monastery,

· Botanic Garden,

· Arboretum,

· Kennedy Center Rooftop Deck,

· Roosevelt Island

· Jack's Boathouse

· Fletcher's Boathouse

· Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

· St. Matthew's emphasizes the drama of noisy street transition to silence, Romanesque (I think) church design with all the gold trimmings:
http://www.stmatthewscathedral.org/

· Hotel Tabard Inn - the best experience of smallness, human-scale flow, quiet, cozy, and awesome martini and life, nearby the cathedral:
http://www.tabardinn.com/ (also across the street is the Iron Gate restaurant with portico seating)

· The building of the Organization of American States (OAS) in DC

· U-Line Arena. It’s just a parking lot inside now so access isn’t restricted. It’s amazing and while not exactly quiet, it has very unusual lighting and relatively good sound isolation from the CIP concrete structure.

· For more interesting, forgotten buildings Check: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/07/23/GA2010072302501.html

· Fort Washington. We don’t have many massive buildings here in Washington, but it has massive masonry and earth walls and the quality of silence within those massive walls is very different than other quiet places. There are some interesting lighting conditions there as well.

· The Third Church of Christ Scientist, a sanctuary of the Christian Science movement (http://www.thirdchurchdc.org/washingtondc/910 16th Street, NW, 20006)

· Holy Trinity Chapel on N Street between 35th and 36th in Georgetown (original 1740s chapel) is an interesting space tied to a quiet garden.

· Metropolitan Community Church (Suzane Reatig, architect, 1993) http://mccdc.com/ --- 474 Ridge Street NW, Washington DC 20001

· The New Tenley Town Library

· Dumbarton Oaks Gardens in Georgetown (specially, the oval pool and pleached linden trees)

· The Dahlgren Quadrangle and Chapel of the Sacred (Georgetown University)

· The Olmstead grotto on the Capital grounds.

· The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Temple by John Russell Pope at 16th and S streets NW DC (numerology and proportion are important in addition to light and silence; count each set of steps as you approach the front door)

· The Folger Shakespeare Library by Paul Cret (Luis Kahn's teacher); visit the Great Hall, Elizabethan Theater, and the Paster Reading Room.

· Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery (the one which is actually just north of the US Soldiers Home, i.e. close to cua); sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens; bench by McKim Mead; commissioned by Henry Adams for his wife Mirian Hooper Adams. It used to be surrounded by high bushes and hard to get past them and into this quiet contemplative space; they chopped the bushes down maybe 3 or 4 years ago, but maybe they've grown back. The hidden quality of this space made it quite powerful along with the mysterious figure seated in front of you.

· The Community Mausoleum at Fort Lincoln Cemetery behind the little church. Cemetery at east corner of Eastern Avenue and Bladensgurg Road just over the DC line in MD.

· First Congregational United Church of Christ by Williams and Tsien at 10th & G streets in NW DC.

· Lavinia Fici Pasquina's House (that light off the copper is quite magical!)

· Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Ave across from the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

· The Corcoran Gallery of Art

· MacMillan Reservoir vaults.

If you made it this far, please add your favorites!!

New projects on our site!

Take a look at our site to check out two Vermont projects we've just included in "Our Work" and let us know what you think.

Kay & Brian's is completely off-the-grid and home to a family of four in rural Vermont (4th project on the first row).
















Beth's refuge, passed down through generations, has undergone a complete renovation (4th project on the third row).















We hope you enjoy looking at these!

Giving as a Way of Living

(this post is long, and isn't really a blog.......... it's a way to put an article on line..........)

Please consider this - life is centrally about relationship. We need to have our own clear, still center, which then primarily takes form via relationship with our companions, the earth and the spaces in which we dwell. That is, we are little else apart from our union with others, and our relationships are connected more deeply as each partner feeds, gives to, the other.

Giving can be considered as a path to making whole and enlivening our journey.

Another angle to explore giving: I offer that to be rich is not to want. We in the "west" have everything and keep wanting: are we over and over trying to fill our spiritual emptiness with stuff? Is the richest person he who has nothing, and wants nothing?

Much of the world and Nepal specifically - it ranks first to fourth poorest country, depending on indicators - is a "need" based society. Survival and sustenance, day to day and hand to hand, is a widespread concern. In Nepal - perhaps due to greeting all you encounter with "namaste," said with hands at heart in prayer form and a deep gaze into one another's eyes - there is pervasive quiet joy, if you will, or at least a gentle humble peace.

Before discarding their lovely demeanor due to fatalist Hinduism - and i understand life is mixed everywhere; i'm not romanticizing their condition - just hold the possibility and ask, "what can I learn from them?"

I'm learning to sit still on my small patch of earth, pay attention to the life swirling around me, do what is in front of me and offer a hand to my companions, hopefully with some of that quiet joy. Again, this is what I've extrapolated from being in Nepal - I'm not saying this is how most Nepali's live.

The heart of what i'm offering - giving as a way of living. To "give back" is to say we've only taken and are now making amends. Considering our stressful and competitive society, it's hard to avoid putting our work above all else and then one day wake up and realize we've left the other part of the dynamic out of the equation - we've worked hard and grabbed and and claimed and taken and forgotten we can also achieve our life's intentions through giving (perhaps even truer to who we are at heart). I'm seeing (finally) that in each action, I can look for how I can give to a companion - be in relationship - rather than grab and pull into my self, which only feeds my isolation.

What does a life of giving look like? I certainly don't know - I am learning this late in life - but here are other ways i'm pursuing. First, a small clarification - most friends consider me generous, but i know there are many ways I can invert my ways of interacting.

I consider time to be our greatest commodity, far beyond stufff and money. As such, i'm learning to give my self through showing up and offering any small hand I can (which usually means getting up from this computer). I'm not suggesting our valuable work or service isn't essential; everything is about balance. Left to my own unconscious motivations, my work becomes precious and I attach my self-worth both to the hard work and outcomes. As I awaken day by day, I learn to focus on how my work is primarily a way of giving or serving.

Another aspect of giving time: A vibrant Irish story teller once told me that there is no more important work for him than turn and engage with the person sitting next to him on the bus. It's so easy for me to be self-absorbed, day-dreaming out the window or in my book when there is a person with real stories sitting next to me. I'm as conditioned as anyone in our society to operate as a discrete entity floating through public spaces, with our headphones and smart phones and phones - by giving myself to any random person, I may open a door into a lifetime friendship, or at least feed (and/or receive) a morsel of human warmth and acknowledgment. Being seen and regarded is a basic human desire.

The most interesting nuance of giving i'm learning - ironically, asking for help is actually giving back. By making myself vulnerable and asking a friend to see who or where i am and to help me find my way, i'm giving them a part of myself, that expands themselves - I'm making their life bigger and richer. I'm giving them a real relationship, not afraid to enter uncomfortable places, and want them to join me there.

OK, that's enough background, onto the subject at hand - ways of helping Nepalis develop a program to create buildings which gives new life to waste and build community in the making. All I've written above begins to explore the deeper purpose of giving; all you're about to read illustrates how giving is life-giving. What follows is spoken through "we," as I'm one of many volunteers who help at the foundation i work with in Nepal, the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation (KRMEF).

We are fortunate to have found an extraordinary budding Nepali NGO whose founder and director, Krishna Gurung, is working towards helping an existing village - Kharare, just south of Kathmandu - develop and live into a wide spectrum of sustainable practices. He is working with his fellow villagers, introducing ideas which find wide-spread approval by the village. Krishna's vision is both to create a model village for the Kathmandu Valley as well as take the show on the road through workshops and consultations.

KRMEF always has western volunteers there, between two and 16, who live and eat with him and his family while particpating in the work. The programs include bio-dynamic gardening, bio-fuels, health clinic, jewelry and crafts, day care, building and operating an "Ankuran" (orphanage), augmenting the local schools with Waldorf-inspired lessons, land/water systems, and natural building. All of these programs are developing organically and slowly, taking firm root, with no major funding. Krishna does attract numerous small individual donors, many of whom have spent time there and are a part of the community. What follows are ways we expand our lives as we give:

We give our time. We make the trip all the way there. halfway around the world. Just showing up there from so far away tells the Nepalis that we care about who they are their lives. Knowing we matter to others is another basic human desire.

We give back our status or power - as being a westerner, with all of our baggage, sets us apart from many Nepalis we work with, we ask for help and take on any task while working together. We don't claim to be experts, we only have ideas they haven't considered, to fold into their traditions to find effective ways of living (amidst increasingly westernized systems and methods in their society, such as building with concrete blocks, or eating processed foods in plastic bags and containers).

We give our wealth - not by handing out money, but by acknowledging their true wealth. Our wealth only isolates us as we think we don't need to regard anyone as we can get what we want at the expense of other's livlihood (I'm referring to corrupt aspects of capitalism). We spend little money when we're there, as we engage in their simpler village life.

We give back our preconceptions - we don't come there assuming we know what to do, we submit ourselves to their ways of living. We don't speak of them being backwards; rather, we appreciate their simpler ways in contrast to the rat race we run around in at home. We form relationship with them and the land and their traditions and work together to create the most effective way to build.

And so on. These ways of giving are, perhaps, the more long-lasting gift we offer while we create buildings together with Nepalis. The building process is all about forming and enriching community - it takes a village to build a village. Natural building is low in skill and in need of many helping hands, and it's fun! Workers smile and laugh and throw mud at each other and get their hands and feet muddy and their faces shine when they take a waste glass bottle and set in into mortar of clay and sand - who would think to build in such a way?!

I met Krishna when he was in the US on a fund-raising tour, in the fall of 2010. He had a vague idea of building with waste bottles from the embassies in Kathmandu, and I agreed that night to come there and help him and his village find a way to do that effectively. When we arrived in Nepal - Beth, my wife, joined this initial trip there - we found a team of Nepalis who gave their knowledge and energy. There is an experienced builder in Kharare - as all building methods follow the same basic principles, uniquely adapted to the materials at hand, he quickly saw ways to make this method work. There is also an older bamboo craftsman, who built the structural frame and roof. And there are many laborers who developed clever systems to produce many pounds of earthen plaster from clay, sand and chopped-up straw. First, the sand needs to be carried to a site, which comes from a nearby river. The clay comes from the immediate site. These are first mixed together dry, then water is added and and the mix is stomped on - danced in! - while slowly folding in the straw. This earthen plaster becomes mortar to hold the bottles in place. The bottle walls are only walls - the bamboo provides the structure, which is important as bamboo will give and sway when earthquakes occur.

Now, after going to Nepal four times in the past year and developing a project during each trip, we have a good system down. I spend two weeks at each location, where i work with the villagers and western volunteers as the first trip. We've built a model home for someone in need and an addition onto the community center in Kharare, and gone to other parts of the Kathmandu Valley to build an orphanage and then a women's educational center. In each case, it takes another two or three months to complete the projects, depending on size and energy of each crew.

Part of our long-term intention is to build homes for those in need with profits from other projects. We have developed a skilled building crew - the person in need whose home they build will also work on their home, joining the crew. The new home owner will then work on the next few homes at reduced pay, to partially pay back for their home (profits would also contribute). Slowly, as a few such homes are built, another building crew will be established; over time, a network of new homes and jobs will be created. Creating jobs is an enormous issue in Nepal, as is providing shelter.

There is endless need in Nepal, or said in a more useful way, there is tremendous possiblibity. We've established firm traction with this building method, which has generated tremendous excitement throughout the Kathmandu Valley. We could live there and help build 24/7. Each time we build we give skills and purpose to Nepalis, and ourselves. As we give to and feed one another, we form close relationships. This is all we can ask for.

More Natural Building in Nepal

I returned recently from my third trip to nepal this year,

this time building an orphanage for another Nepali NGO

across the Kathmandu Valley from Krishna's village

(see previous posts for projects with Krishna; taking this

work to other organizations is part of our vision).

Most exciting was the children helped build their home!

This is how far we got in two weeks, about as far as with the other two projects

i've gone there to help build. The man at the center is the

very smart Nepali builder who will complete this first of three buildings.

And then build the other buildings.

I also met w/ the next organization we'll build for - a women's

educational center in a village just down the road from Krishna.

Helping women create their lives is a huge issue in Nepal;

we're very excited to begin this project when we go back

at the end of September. This will involve three buildings,

forming an entry court. again, from waste glass bottles and paper,

natural plaster and bamboo structure with thatched roof.

I'll be there sept. 28 - oct. 14th............ so far, 4 friends

from the DC region will be joining me............ let me

know if you'd like to join us!

peace,

bill