COMMON $EN$E about Construction of Buildings

Several municipalities in our area plan to expand or build new libraries. One is about to spend over a half million dollars for plans, just for plans, for an addition. Other libraries are begging for financial help. Why don't they all use the same plans? Do they each need a unique edifice? Will all the glass and empty space make the library more efficient? Howard Roark could build a library for a half million dollars. Roark was the hero of Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead. He did not design with a blank check. He did design with what we now call a clean sheet of recycled paper. He didn't limit himself to old ideas. Because something had never been done before was not and is not a good reason not to attempt it.

How many square feet of library do they want, and for what? I expect mostly for stacks and computer stations and seating. They probably have all the auditorium they need. Note the word "need." How many libraries have auditoriums which are rarely, if ever, filled? They try, sometimes heroically; the public's lack of interest is to blame.

Eight, possibly ten, foot high ceilings should be adequate with twenty, thirty, even forty or fifty foot long rooms. Can they get by with nine or seven foot wide rooms? Prefabricated rooms, some fully insulated ("it is so well insulated you could heat it with a light bulb"), are available for far less money than you might imagine. How little money? Imagine one to less than ten dollars per square foot, minus transportation, wiring and interior finish. One dollar a square foot?

Impossible!

That's not the correct attitude.

How? Where?

That IS the correct attitude.

They are fireproof and almost everything else-proof. They are available now, not in six months or a year or longer. One style is in stock less than twenty miles away. The other style can be as near as the nearest railroad track. Because of their strength did I mention they are almost solid steel? they can use a construction method which avoids the endless expen$e and wa$te of energy heating them in the winter and cooling them in the summer. Eliminated! With skylights, healthful natural lighting can minimize costly, unhealthful, artificial lighting in the daytime.

As I write this, the temperature is about 65 degrees perfect! Within months it will be below freezing. Possibly ten or twenty degrees below freezing. In a few more months, we will be suffering in the heat of summer 85, 90, possibly 100 degrees. A few feet away, it's 55 degrees year-round. Body heat and waste heat from electrical devices bring it up to the comfort zone. It's called earth-sheltered construction. "Underground" construction. The savings could be used for a botanical "library" on top. They were, and still are, called conservatories. Modern plastic glazing offers efficiency at low cost. Instead of wasting effort on exotic, decorative plants, volunteers could experiment with food production techniques, using rock dust, Sonic Bloom® and other developments.

By now I expect I have eliminated any negative image you may have of . . . shipping containers and insulated boxcars. If not, think about all their advantages. And continue to think until it sinks in. Knowing it can be and has been done is part of the battle. Earth-sheltered construction is being used more and more. Insulated boxcars were used for housing in a pilot project by the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association of Memphis TN. Combining containers or boxcars with earth-sheltering would be a stretch which would set new records in efficiency. A warning: Remember what Roark did to his project Cortland when meddlers changed it. He blew it up.

Why build yet another forgettable, wasteful edifice? We have more than enough of them. Instead, you can have recognition AND the most efficient library in the county, the state, possibly the country.

Single Room Occupancy

What could we do with a five or six high, double stack of shipping containers on a typical urban twenty-five by one hundred foot lot? How severe an earthquake could they withstand?

How many people could live comfortably, at what energy cost, at what level of self-sufficiency? How economically could the communities be created, furnished, and maintained? Community: a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

Let's start with a clean sheet of paper and "stretch". The only restriction shall be that there shall be NO restrictions. Ignore ancient building codes and create your own flexible one for the present and future, based on ergonomics. An actual unit could be constructed as a model, featuring the most efficient commercially available and prototype components. The manufacturers of the components would donate them for the publicity. If only one Cortland were planned, the suppliers would have to compete and possibly contribute toward construction costs. They would have to tolerate any negative criticisms of their products.

The middle ten feet or so of each container would be kitchen or bathroom. Each of the four ends would be a living/bedroom, ala studio apartment. The stairs would be outside, like a fire escape. The basement would be for storage, laundry, shop, whatever. The first floor could be garage and public rooms. Above the top floor could be a greenhouse.

Insulation could be on the outside. Plumbing and electrical wiring would be in troughs and accessible. What about "furnishings"? How does one hang pictures or bookshelves on steel walls? Tubular "nuts" with an internal and external thread would be spotwelded to the walls and ceiling. Paneling or whatever the resident desires could be attached to them. Carpeting could be washing-machine size pieces Velcro®-ed to the floor.

We must be realistic so there would be a sign in front:

You can't live here because building codes and the government probably  prohibit it.

The writer read The Fountainhead shortly after his academic fiasco. He is very aware of the price and value of space, He "gets by" and lives, if you can call it that, somewhere out there. He is available for consultation about almost everything.

© 1997 Ed Hughes