Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Fun and games until the big bad wolf huffs and puffs

Portland Peak Oil presents: Ecovillage development expert Brandy Gallagher-MacPherson
Ecovillage development expert Brandy Gallagher-MacPherson will be presenting her talk, "Coming Out of the Closet.... How Ecovillages Might be Considered Mainstream (where community meets regulatory reform!)"

First, by creating a brand new re-zoning project which allowed for a 'Sustainable Land Management Design" (a park, an organic farm, an education facility, and an eco-residential housing cluster), secondly by working with building inspectors and engineers on 'natural building' (cob, strawbale, light clay, etc) compliance with building codes, then alternative Waste Water Treatment through the Health Act...

Have none of these eco-freaks read the story of the three little pigs? I consider my house open to people who need help but if you build your house out of straw and it falls down then you are on your own.

I also notice there is no mention of showers...

Only in Portland could an event like this happen.

6 comments:

Jim in KFalls said...

Not necessarily just in Portland. This too could happen in New Orleans.

If you build your house of Clay and Straw...your house could melt away during the next hurricane.

What I would like to know is what is un-natural about building houses out of Wood and Concrete? All of the elements in the construction came from nature in one form or another. Straw too has to me processed into a usable form, clay doesn't come naturally to all those in Portland, therefore it must come from somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Showers? Showers! We don't need no stinkin' showers!

Anonymous said...

I had a neat fort when I was a kid too. But then I grew up.

Kate said...

Ms. Brandy is a hyphen-a-tor. 'Nuff said.

~Kate

Scott said...

If it looks like a commune.
And smells like a commune.
Then it must be a Ecovillage.
:)

Anonymous said...

I lived in a cob village in England (Dunsford outside of Exeter)for a while. The Straw and mud houses were 400 years old, very tight and economical to maintain. A friend of mine grew up on a Wyoming farm in a straw Bale House. they were common there because of their high insulation factors keep them nice and warm in the tough winters.

Now compare those to the brand-new fixer-uppers they are cranking out in Portland's suburbs...