Wax On, Wax Off

 Some of us are old enough to remember that infamous line from the “Karate Kid.”  This was the task of wiping on polish in a circular motion with one hand, and wiping it off with the other, training for a karate hand block.   Of course, it was also good muscle conditioning – and - the car got polished to a high sheen.

I thought about this as I was waving around some weights this morning in the gym.   My car sits in the driveway in desperate need of a polish, and there I was performing the same action to no practical outcome.  I go to a spin cycle class and then drive to the grocery store.  I walk to school for exercise, and then take the elevator 3 floors.   Need I go on? 

The absurdity continues on a more detailed level.   For example, take the electric beater for eggs. Karate kid replacement:  a wire whisk.  I’ve found that if you put the eggs in a cup that is just the right diameter as the whisk, you can just swirl it by putting your hands together around the handle and rubbing your hands back and forth.   The eggs whip up in no time,  this is a great exercise for abs and upper arms – AND – you are mastering the skills needed to start a fire using the friction method , should the need arise ( See Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Survival).  It seems that using an egg beater is a waste of “electrical” power over the option of “muscle” power.

It happens in a bigger system loop as well.   We use a leaf blower to get the fall leaves off our yards and  onto the street, sometimes even with the extra effort of bagging them,  so that the city trucks can pick them up, transport them to a central location, unbag them, and set up a compost.  In the spring, you drive to a store – or the city dump, buy compost and bring it right back to your yard.   Oh – and you’ve been to the gym in the meantime to work off that extra helping of turkey dressing.   How about the good ole-fashioned and quiet rake and compost pile (I’m tellin’ ya – worms work great). Presto voila – you are more fit –and you have your own home-made garden soil.  Saves on gas, pollution, equipment, noise...

And the newest toy for kids this season?   Play toys on iPads.   Yup that is right.  About one in three Americans kids are considered overweight or obese.  So now they can play HotWheels on their iPads.  I remember playing HotWheels with my brother when I was a kid.  We had a track which threaded through furniture over two rooms.   We would scoot the cars along, climb up and down over chairs.  And now -  well  the kids can start working on an early case of carpal tunnel.  Mind you - I admire the technology  - just not the unintended consequences.

So that is enough pontificating for one day.   Now – about that car…. Wipe on, Wipe off.

Taking Stock

While winter has socked in part of the country, we’re still enjoying an extended fall.  I’m feeling the same instinct as the squirrels, to scavenge and stock up for winter.   When the bounty of the summer greenery has faded, the world is stripped down to its essentials.   This is a good energy vibe to soak in to take stock of our own way of life, to reconnect with the world around us.   

Because I’m not really at the bottom of the Maslow’s hierarchy, most of my scavenging has more to do with making my life richer and more enjoyable.  On my run this morning, I noticed some pine boughs that had been trimmed from the last storm and looked like perfect material to make a few holiday wreaths.    There was also a patch of wild grasses and berries that could be added for decoration.  By building the wreath from these gathered materials, it brings the longer lasting pleasure of evoking the smells and briskness of my early morning runs each time I see the wreath.

On the next level of practicality is the instinct to garden and prepare for next spring.   The alleyway is full of goodies:   pine needles to use for mulch around the blueberries, to help acidify the soil.   Bags of leaves are wonderful. Just add composting worms into the center of the pile where it will stay warm, and by spring these will be bags of wonderful compost.  The soild from old potted plants can be shaken out to add to a garden bed.    And I’ve marked the spots along the path where wild asparagus grows, looking forward to the young shoots in the spring.

The squirrels already got most of the nuts, but I was still able to harvest some black walnuts.   And the rosehips are at their best after a frost, when they become sweeter.   The same is true for the few grapes left on my neighbors vines.  They are the tastiest and sweetest raisins, processed by the very best – mother nature.

I could go on, but it really is a matter of looking and seeing.   All of these things can be purchased in the store, but the point is not really about the material goods.  This is my way of connecting to place, to gain some small measure of self-sufficiency, to note the passing of time.   It helps me understand that I am just part of the greater system of the world, not in the center, but as one of the elements.    And for me personally, to look to my own essential self, to make sure I am really ‘harvesting’ my core strength and "seeing" the real opportunities.

Giving thanks for the opportunity to create our own future

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in America.  In theory, this was a holiday to give thanks for the fall harvest, for the rain, for the abundance in life.  These days, it is more about a food feast, football, and  “Black Friday” shopping, which now starts on Thursday.  Really?

I would like to give thanks for the opportunity I have had to go back to school and devote my time to study.  True, this has been made possible due to student loans, and a scrapping together of research funds, but I recognize that it is a privilege to even be able to return to school as an adult.  I am fortunate to live in a part of the world where this is possible.

So today, as I get closer to the final defense of my dissertation, I want to share some of my findings.    My reason for going back to school was to identify the conditions and constraints to increased depth and breadth of sustainability in the built environment.   Just meeting the commercial terms of time/ cost/ and quality is not enough anymore, nor is the “do no further harm” approach to sustainability.  That window of opportunity is closed, and now we need to design “regenerative” buildings, which contribute in a positive way to the eco-system, the social system, and the economy.

What I found is that the biggest obstacles are not codes, nor lack of innovation, nor cost.  It is the ability to envision the future in order to make it a reality.  That may seem like a very bold or very simplistic statement.  It is both, and comes after 3 years of school and more than a decade of experience of trying to “fix” the problem via codes, materials, distribution of innovation, and so forth.  But the ability to see the future is, in fact, very challenging.

I had the opportunity to work with a very progressive design team, which had full participation of the owner, contractor, designer, and engineer in a highly integrated process.  They were amazing in their ability to deliver on project specifications.  At first, I thought there was no more room for improvement, they were so exemplary.  But there was an Achilles heel, and that was the ability to collectively see and design a future state which transcended the limitations of current assumptions.   They were their own obstacle.

As part of my research, I developed a workshop for the team to help them break past the existing mental barriers of discipline-centric thinking,   explore the whole systems concepts of sustainable prosperity, and engage in design thinking to imagine a scenario of ecological balance between man and nature.  While the workshop design was quite innovative, what was most impressive was the potential brainpower which was generated in this constraint-free forum.   Even in the short half day seminar, this group came up with some very insightful ideas. 

The greatest opportunity in the construction industry is sitting right in front of us:  harnessing the knowledge and abilities of the professionals in the industry.  It may sound simple, but it is a radical departure from the status quo. It requires a change in the way we organize our design and construction process, it redistributes accountability and triggers a call for new skills.  It is a change from a design approach of breaking everything down into parts, and replacing it with a systems approach, looking at relationships and impacts internal and external to the building.  This would be a shift from a human-centric view of the world to one of shared responsibility for each other, and our planet.   I have seen a group of tough contractors “get it.”   Now it is our turn.   

Smart Building Materials – or Just Building Smart?

The dynamics of construction are changing in face of today’s global sustainability concerns.   Resources are understood to be finite, and ecological responsibility calls for a more responsible use of materials.  This means a smarter use of materials and a longer useful service life of the material in its finished form.  And while there is an increasing variety of smart building materials, it is probably more important to build smart with all materials.    If the past three years in school have taught me nothing else, I have learned that the most important step to ‘smart’ solutions is to dig into the problem, identify the causes and conditions which need to be addressed, and only then look at solution options.  

We’ll look at one of my favorite materials - concrete.  The baseline condition of construction is the building codes, or providing “life-safety.”   For concrete used in a structural capacity, the integrity of the tensile strength reinforcement is the key issue.   Typically, this reinforcement is steel bar (rebar).  The problem is one of durability.  When steel  gets wet , it corrodes.    What causes it to get wet is when  concrete cracks, the moisture can penetrate to the steel.  So there are a few possible solution paths:   reduce cracking,   find a tensile reinforcement which doesn’t have moisture problems, or protect the entire assembly from getting wet.   The solutions may overlap, but it helps to remember that the key problem is durability.

#1 - Reduce Cracking -  While concrete has a high compressive strength, it has a very limited tensile strength.  To overcome this limit, rebar is used in tension in the structure. Extra steel can help reduce cracking, but steel is expensive and is still vulnerable during the curing and drying process.  That problem can be addressed by a mix design with a low water content, and a slow even curing time, both of which are can be achieved with the use of alternative pozzolans, such as fly ash.  Another option to reducing cracking is by increasing the concrete ductility, for example with the use of crumb rubber in the concrete mix.  While this actually decreases the tensile strength, it also increases the energy absorption, and makes it more resistant to thermal changes.   

Self-healing concrete by bacteria

Another option is to address the cracking as it occurs.   “Self-healing” concrete is a “Smart” building material that, in theory, is more durable because it repairs itself.  This is especially useful in areas that might not be accessible for concrete repair.  Apparently, self-healing concrete is a big research field right now, but the success of the research will ultimately be measured in the economic feasibility for commercial production.  There seem to be two leading contenders. One is a concrete matrix embedded with sodium silicate capsules which rupture when the concrete cracks.  The sodium silicate reacts with the calcium hydroxide, already present in the concrete, forming a calcium-silica-hydrate gel, which heals the cracks and blocks the concrete’s pores.  The other self-healing concrete recipe comes from Delft Technical University, in the Netherlands, and is a limestone producing bacteria that is mixed into the concrete and is activated when corrosive rain works its way into the structure.

#2 - Non-corroding tensile strength.  The second approach is to avoid the corrosion problem by finding a replacement solution for gaining the tensile strength with a material that won’t corrode.  Carbon fibers can do the trick, either added in to the ready mix, or as a grid mesh used in pre-cast panels.   The acceptance of this option is a function of the cost equivalent of steel, and also the reluctance by code officials to accept fibers in lieu of rebar.   This may explain the trending of use in the pre-cast panels, which are “engineered”  and thus relieve code officials of the liability of responsibility.  Fiber-reinforced concrete can also be used for concrete repairs, which goes back to addressing Solution #1 – reduce cracking.  

ICF House still standing after Katrina tidal surge 

#3 - Protect the Assembly .  The third approach is to protect the assembly from getting wet.  After all, the compressive strength of concrete, as well as the tensile strength of rebar, is largely independent of concrete cracks.   For example, Insulating concrete forms (ICFs) can protect the concrete in a wall from surface moisture.  A capillary break is needed to provide protection from wicking moisture from the footing, and of course a roof protects the top of the ICF wall.  This is a “field-tested” method, as there are some classic examples of houses which got the full force of Katrina ‘s tidal wave, but didn’t suffer any long-term structural damage in the ICF walls.

 I am a great fan of good ‘smart’ technology.  And an even greater fan of building smart.