Cob RE: cob codes

[M J Epko]

At 02:57 PM 9/15/98 -0500, Paul Valerio wrote:
>Ecoarcht at aol.com wrote:
>> I expect if we ever do get some kind of code for cob that it will mean
we must
>> buy the earth, straw and sand mix from some corporation or other.  ~~howard
>
>Exactly.  I seem to recall reading in the Cob Cottage Company's reader (
or maybe
>it was elsewhere ) that it was this very notion that brought an end to cob
>construction.  Corporations wishing to gain control of the building materials
>markets promoted the development of codes that required the use certain
materials
>which they naturally sold.  Cob became against the law.

	I've been trying to catch up on all the interesting threads (particularly
this cob-code thread) before I leave again for two weeks, returning just in
time to start crunching on production for the next issue of The Last Straw
- and start the cycle of "jeez there's a lot of messages on these lists to
catch up on" again.

	I composed this before actually finishing the thread, so some of it is a
repeat. It bears repeating though. It was great to see David Eisenberg's
work brought up - too few know what he's doing, and how much he's doing it.
Three cheers for Howard and Bob for the mention (and for the articles on
kudzu and pinning that they're working on... grin... trust me...)

	Some folks may realize that the three major code organizations in the US
are closing shop. They won't be issuing any more updates, and are putting
their support behind the International Building Code which is slated for
full rollout in 2000. (It's being developed in and for the US, but they
call it "international"... how typical. If the rest of the world had to
conform to our building standards and tastes, the earth's resources, both
renewable and non, would be depleted pronto. And furthermore, in the
creation of this "international" code, they won't recognize
materials-testing from other countries. What a crock!)

	Anyway, this "international" code, like the codes that exist already, is
free to be adopted, rejected, or amended by municipalities, but it's
expected that everywhere will switch over.

	David Eisenberg of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology has
been working tirelessly and doggedly, making striking inroads with the
code-powerful-and-elite, to get performance-based criteria included in the
code - meaning that the way a building behaves, the full embodied energy of
the constituent building components, what happens at the end of the useful
life of the structure, etc, have to be examined.

	David's called himself a "recovering contractor" trying to atone for his
sins of the past, such as building a giant all-concrete "summer" home with
something like seven AC systems for wealthy clients who live there about
six weeks out of the year. His impressive resume includes having been the
troubleshooter and glazing specialist for the Biosphere project.

	The doorway he walked through into natural building was strawbale (he's a
co-author of the Straw Bale House Book), but his field of vision isn't that
narrow. He's working for all non-proprietary methods in this code work. One
remarkable possibility that he's initiated is proposing that one of the
materials-testing labs that the current code organizations operate be
dedicated to the testing of non-proprietary materials. The suggestion was
met with interest, but hasn't happened.

	His schedule is full and daunting; over the next month or so, to further
this code work and the cause of natural building, he's involved with the
Bioneers Conference in San Francisco; the Green Building Challenge in
Vancouver, BC; the EEBA Conference in Washington DC; and attending the
NCSBCS/NIST/HUD Joint Technical Meeting at Dana Point in Orange County,
California. Changing the building codes takes a great deal of money and
time - particularly the type of changes David's working to see implemented,
which amounts to a paradigm shift.

	I'm going to reprint one of his emails here from another list
(Greenbuilding) that may be interesting and/or useful, with his contact
info following.

*

Allow me to introduce myself, for those who may not already know me.  I'm
David Eisenberg, Co-Director of the Development Center for Appropriate
Technology (DCAT) in Tucson, Arizona.  I've been involved in many things
over the past few years like straw bale construction and efforts to gain
acceptance in building codes for it and many other "alternative" building
materials and systems.  It is the latter that has taken more and more of my
time and attention, and that of DCAT's as well.  And it has led to a much
larger field of work that I will describe below.

I am writing to ask three questions and explore a possibility with what I
consider to be one of the more enlightened and dedicated groups of people
on the internet as far as sustainable building and development are
concerned. I hope this doesn't offend anyone or interrupt the always
interesting and useful flow of information and ideas on this list.  But I'm
compelled to ask these questions: 

1. Do those of you who make your living doing work related to the field of
green building, sustainable design, engineering, construction, development
and production of green building materials, sustainable development,
consulting, etc. believe that building codes and regulations are an
impediment to the best and most sustainable practices?  In other words do
you run into codes or regulatory barriers which keep you from doing the
right thing?

2. Are you aware that the process is well underway to develop a single
national building code (actually a family of codes) for the U.S., called,
naturally enough, the International Building Code (IBC). These codes are
called "International" because they are intended to be used internationally
and will certainly have international impacts.  Yet they are being
developed without international participation or any context related to the
disastrous impacts that the widespread implementation of mainstream U.S.
building practices worldwide would cause. I recently attended the First
Draft Code Change Hearings for the IBC in Alexandria, Virginia.  Eleven
straight very long days of hearings on the whole spectrum of proposed
changes to this code, from occupancy, to egress, to wood, concrete, steel,
masonry, fire, and on and on.  This was the ultimate microscopic view of
the world through codes.  And in all those hundreds of hours of very
intelligent and careful detailed discussion, I never once heard mention of
resource issues, or environmental impacts.  No mention of economics beyond
the cries of specific industries claiming that changes would cause them
grievous financial harm or NAHB talking about the inability of builders to
make a profit or people to be able to afford a home. No mention of social
or cultural issues and little attention to issues of location other than
the way the codes address them now in terms of local climate, seismic or
soil conditions.

Represented at these hearings were all the industrial and commercial
interests, timber, iron and steel, concrete, gypsum, masonry,
manufacturers, insurance, building owners, and on and on.  Absent was the
green building community.  No AIA Committee on the Environment, no US Green
Building Council, no environmental organizations, resource conservation
organizations, sustainable development firms, green product manufacturers,
green consultants...well, you get the idea.  This process is ongoing, will
have enormous impacts on how buildings must be built, what won't be
allowed, and this community is not involved in the game.

This has become more and more of my focus over the past couple of years,
developing relationships with code officials, delving into the nature of
different kinds of codes and learning about the organizations and processes
by which codes are developed and changed.  And we are making some progress
through our presentations and writing and work with other organizations.
But it has been very difficult to get funding for this work and we have
done most of it on a tiny budget when there was one at all.  And we are in
need, right now, of support or it will be me alone again at DCAT doing this
work and self funding my travel, etc.  I hate to see the two other people
who have been working here on this along side of me, Joelee Joyce, my
Co-Director, and our newer partner in this work, Tony Novelli, out looking
for other work, because there isn't money to carry on this effort.  But
that is what we face right now.

So this brings me to my third question.  Do you think it's important for
someone to be going into the middle of the process that gives us the codes
and regulations that we all have to deal with everyday, to try to introduce
a much larger context for those codes?  If you do, and if you are
interested in helping with this effort, both by becoming involved and by
contributing to the financial support of the work, please contact us at
DCAT. We are a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, so donations are
tax-deductible and we have $20,000 left of a $30,000 matching grant from
the Turner Foundation that we can have when we raise $20,000 more dollars.
So your contributions can be doubled.

If you are interested, I can post a couple of things to this list. One is a
paper on sustainability and building codes that I wrote last year and the
other is a concept paper we developed as part of our effort to fund this
work.  In January we held the Planning Summit for Sustainable Building
Codes in Hesperia, California.  It was a successful gathering of about 65
people from very diverse backgrounds and it was a beginning.  Our efforts
to continue and to build on that beginning are jeopardized by the lack of
support for this work.  I look forward to hearing from you and if I am a
bit slow in responding to you it's because we are doing way too much with
way too little.  But I'm in this for the long haul.  Thanks for taking the
time to read this and for any support you may be able to offer.

David Eisenberg
Co-Director
Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT)
Mailing address: 
PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS:
P.O. Box 27513, Tucson, Arizona 85726-7513
Office address:
2105 E. 32nd St., Tucson, AZ 85713
Phone: 520-624-6628  Fax: 520-798-3701
E-mail:dcat at azstarnet.com
(direct/personal e-mail: strawnet at aol.com)
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/~dcat

*



   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Freewheeling autonomous speculation - Think!
      Personality #7 represents only itself.
    M J Epko - duckchow at mail2.greenbuilder.com
               Kingston, New Mexico
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       There is nothing lacking in you
       and you yourself are no different 
       from the Buddha. There is no other 
       way of achieving Buddhahood than 
       letting your mind free to be itself.
                                 - Tao Hsin