WHY IT MAKES SENSE!
HISTORY
Natural building is not any new revolutionary concept. It exists for much longer than it has been called as such. Humans have been building for millennia, from caves and wooden huts to complex structures capable of hosting thousands of people. The journey of building, with natural but also artificial materials, is one of the biggest achievements of our kind.
First building techniques are to be found in the Neolithic period, or the “New Stone Age”, and at that time buildings were shelter to the base of safety and warmth. And those needs have remained until nowadays. The evolution is found in the materials and the techniques that have been used. The needs also evolved as our society developed.
Afterwards followed centuries of evolution all around the world, starting with the birth of first settled civilisations such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greek…
Further on arrived the first big innovations in construction and architecture with the creation of concrete by the Romans. Followed by architectural plans and complex structures in the Middle age and Renaissance period. The biggest step of the last centuries has been the first Industrial Revolution with the growing need to innovate, build faster and bigger structures.
The use of materials such as concrete or metal exploded whether it is through building or the production of the materials themselves.
That is when the construction sector shifted from using natural materials and materials were more and more processed. As our society developed, building codes appeared and craftsmanship slowly started to decrease to the benefit of faster and cheaper means.
In the 60’s the concept of “Natural Building” emerged as an answer to the toxicity of conventional constructions.
GLOBAL CRISIS
That brings us to now, 2023, where biodiversity and climate are at high risks of never going back to a stable state.
Our world has created and is facing numerous crises on many levels and conventional building is one of the causes of it: “Buildings contribute to approximately a third of U.S. emissions and 40% of global emissions, so we cannot meet consensus climate targets without transforming the buildings sector” United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, AR6 Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change: Summary for Policymakers
As much as climate change being the main trigger to the need for building more naturally and sustainably, many other global issues can find solutions within Natural building:
- Destruction of natural habitats: the extraction of raw materials requires much less processing and can be extracted sustainably, thus direct impact on the environment is less harmful.
- Health of builders and homeowners: as Natural building finds its sense using non toxic materials the risks taken by workers whilst manipulating materials is reduced (in comparison with conventional building where many resources are found to be carcinogenic) as much as homeowners while living inside such houses
- Housing crisis: acute shortage of housing, particularly social and genuinely affordable housing, has led to spiraling rents and house prices across the country. Many young people and families on low to middle incomes struggle to afford to rent or buy a decent home. The concept of Natural building has been developed in the way that it also includes means and solutions for affordable houses in the sense of energy consumption and hosting capacity.
- Accessible knowledge/ Traditional knowledge:
- Inclusive process: Natural building movement also addresses ethical and gender questions as this field has been for long seen as a “man field”, many workshops and training are open or organized by women, children friendly and so forth. Of course building is still a skill that requires knowledge and precision for safety reasons!!