The Myths of Modern Building and Principles of Building Biology
With Paula Baker -Laporte
Wednesday June 16, 2010, 7 pm
at O.U.R.ECOVILLAGE, Shawnigan Lake
Admission by donation: call 250-743-3067
Up until the 20th century, and stretching back for thousands of years, mankind has built shelter, with varying degrees of comfort and sophistication, in harmony with nature, with the materials at hand…sustainably.
Our current, petrochemical based building industry is neither sustainable or health enhancing and everyone realizes that we must find more ecological ways to build.
Without ever pausing to look back at what we once did so well, industry has jumped on the green bandwagon with a plethora of questionable systems and products to make our homes better and certifications to score them. This is business as usual, slightly improved and most likely not improved enough to make a significant difference in an impending collision with ecological disaster. It has been said that we cannot solve a problem from within the paradigm in which it was created but the basic parameters of what we build, and what we build it of remains essentially unchallenged in the world of green conventional building.
In contrast, Building Biology (Bau-Biologie) is a science that originated in Germany in the 1960′s that studies the relationship between the built environments , human health and planetary ecology. Paula’s presentation, summarizes the unique principles of building biology and from that perspective challenges some of the basic premises or myths of green building in North America.
Paula Baker-Laporte FAIA
is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a certified Building Biologist. Her life’s work is focused on teaching, writing and the design of environmentally sound and health enhancing architecture,.
She heads up the design department of the EcoNest Company which she founded with husband, timber-framer Robert Laporte. She is the primary author of “Prescriptions or a Healthy House” now in its third edition and co-author with Robert of “EcoNest-creating sustainable sanctuaries of clay, straw and timber.”
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