Wednesday, September 13, 2006
School
School is going well though I am not pleased with being away from my family four nights a week. I also end up missing all of Topher's practices. Am looking forward to a somewhat more normal life. Thought the other day that America primarily practices what I call 'Outpost Architecture' as if we are not planning to stay very long.
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6 comments:
Can you elaborate on that thought?
'Outpost Architecture' meaning buildings that are not placed with long term considerations in mind. All 'Sonics' for instance are basically temporary buildings that will fall apart very quickly. This is done very rationally because the business plans of these companies don't normally predict a long stay. Unfortunately for us (people who have to live among these buildings and in this culture) it is a wasteful practice not to mention a horrible aesthetic (which I could definetly bore you with the elaborations of. I don't think lay people give enough credit to the power of the built environment to frame how we feel about our world - I would say on the other hand that the nature of the built environment permeates every thought we have of our world. I assume you were talking about this and not my assertion that God must be a female.
How long is 'not long'? Im just curious because I see SO many cookie-cutter homes going up in neighborhoods around the metroplex. I often wonder how long they would last (1) compared to homes built in other areas of the world or (2)if a high wind were to blow through
Houses are a unique case - mainly because it largely depends on who is caring for them and the evolution of the individual neighborhoods. 30 years probably is an estimate of how long many of these buildings will last. Not that they will just collapse but they will have to be significantly modified. 'Embodied energy' is a term used to describe how much energy goes into a structure. Part of that energy deals with the notion of how long certain materials last, whether they can be recycled etc.
Can Sonic be recycled?
some of the materials can.
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