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"Distribuida por Etnoarquitectura.org" es la sección de Etnoarq
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Lessons on energy after a trip cross-country
11/24/2005
If there is a sensation to remember above any other, it would be the sensation of heat and cold. We left Philadelphia on an 85-degree harsh summer afternoon, but that very night when camping near Fallingwater we found ourselves struggling with the cold. Hot weather came again when driving through Indiana and Missouri. Crossing a very hot Kansas made us think that it would not cool down until we arrived on the West Coast. Surprisingly enough, the Rocky Mountains brought back the sensation of freezing cold in the middle of the summer. It began heating up again as we turned south, and when we thought it was already too much on the way to Las Vegas, we still had to cross the Mojave desert, which received us with 110 degrees. However, that night at the outer edge of the desert, it felt cold again. The following day it was considerably hot, but that afternoon, upon arriving in San Francisco, it felt as cold as late Fall, yet news said that outside the Bay area temperatures were around 100 degrees.
We also went through many micro-climates in adjusting the A/C systems in the motels we stayed at, during the nights in which we didn't camp. If we take these into account, there were indeed occasions in which going from one extreme temperature to the other didn't happen in the time span of a few hours, but in just a few minutes.
Of all animal species, we humans seem to be the one which has more problems regulating its body temperature, because we don't have fur or feathers. It is perhaps because of such struggle to provide ourselves artificial fur and feathers that we have developed an almost instinctive predisposition to build. Building, indeed, can be thought of as that act of creating a skin for ourselves; the thick, layered one we didn't come with. Our animal skin is then called roof and walls; it is called architecture.
Experiencing those artificial skins people historically created for themselves in the United States was also memorable. Chacoan Ancestral Pueblo people built their houses aside natural concavities at the eastern edge of a rocky plateau. Camping a couple nights near the ruins of one such house—built eight hundred years ago—it became clear to us why. By being oriented towards the east, the house received the morning sun, which is more benign in desertic areas. When the night came and hence the temperature decreased abruptly, the sheltering rock was still warm enough, after a whole day of sun exposition, and thus provided climatic comfort during the sleeping hours.
Driving further West we had the opportunity, upon entering the Mojave desert, of being under seven feet verandas of Colonial Style houses. Despite it being as hot as desert temperatures can be, we still felt a breeze under the verandas.
The most popular solutions we use today, in our struggle to regulate temperature, are mechanical air-conditioning and heating systems. These systems are very efficient, and I don't think they can be matched by any "green" or nature-powered solution like the two mentioned. In fact, climatic solutions—such as Ancestral Pueblo's orientation/location or Colonial Style's roof design—will never get to be as cold, nor will they cool off as quickly as air conditioning systems do. No matters how comfortable you try to make things using alternative technologies, there will always be a limit, and the alternative solutions may never provide as much comfort as mechanical systems do.
However, probably we don't need things to be that comfortable. Using an alternative cooling system will also lower temperatures. It will do so slowly, but in the end it will be fresh enough in most cases. Heated up in our A/C-less car, the water we drank when driving in very hot afternoons was normally tepid, but it still quenched our thirst. It was water, after all.
Despite not being great, nature-inspired solutions are still good; and especially, in a time in which energy prices are skyrocketing, they are free. While in a motel in Las Vegas on one of our last nights on the road, we watched on TV the story of a man who had adapted the motor of his car to ethanol, and had been driving it sparely to prove it was still possible to do it cheaply. It is to wonder how effective a solution that is. If there is a crisis and we are looking for ways to solve it so we can continue living the way we are, sooner or later we will have to face a crisis again when the substitute resource also runs out.
The problem is not what powers our lifestyle, but our lifestyle itself, which is over-consuming resources in a world that has less and less, and demands more and more. That is the message that should actually be read between the lines of any peak oil, or any other peak-resource warning. Simply stated, we can live with less. Our house will not be so comfortable if using a greener, less energy-consuming solution. But it will still be comfortable, as a glass of water, no matters if it is not freezing cold water, still quenches the thirst. We certainly have the instinctive capacity to control heat and cold by developing—or rediscovering—alternative building technologies. Society would not end because of an energy crisis, but most likely it would change, perhaps drastically. Adaptation, in consequence, is what the issue seems to be about. There are many comforts we might not be able to afford for a long time should we undergo a resource crisis, but we might still be able to fulfill the basic necessities behind those comforts. The problem is not wondering how to perpetuate the many comforts, but re-defining our standards of what comfort is.
Updates/further info on this article
Spanish version of this article. Ver versión en Español:
Go to version on Etnoarquitectura.com
Acerca de este artículo
A note on lessons learned, written when leaving Tehachapi, the last station of the trip at the outer edge of the Mojave Desert. Took a long time to clean it up and upload it, but here it is.
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Imagen
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Fecha de Toma e Información
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August 5, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII05-04734
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USA - Pennsylvania – Mill Run. Signature Architecture: The Fallingwater, seen from the bridge over the Bear Run.
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August 19, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII19-I-06037
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USA - New Mexico - Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Indigenous Building: Alcove home at Chaco. General view from the southeast.
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August 19, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII19-I-06019
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USA - New Mexico - Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Indigenous Building: Alcove home at Chaco. Northwest corner.
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August 19, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII19-II-06109
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USA - New Mexico - Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Indigenous Building: Kin Kletso.
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August 19, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII19-III-06136
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USA - New Mexico - Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Indigenous Building: Pueblo Bonito.
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August 19, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII19-III-06156
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USA - New Mexico - Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Indigenous Building: Top view of the kivas of Pueblo Bonito.
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August 15, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII15-III-05483
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USA – New Mexico – Taos. Vernacular Building: Colonial Style house in Taos. View from the northeast.
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August 15, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII15-III-05490
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USA – New Mexico – Taos. Vernacular Building: Colonial Style house in Taos. View from the southeast.
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August 15, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII15-I-05324
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USA – New Mexico – Taos Pueblo. Indigenous Building: Taos Pueblo. Hlaauma or North House.
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August 15, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII15-II-05408
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USA – New Mexico – Taos Pueblo. Indigenous Building: Taos Pueblo. Hlaauma or North House, detail.
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August 18, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII18-II-05805
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USA – New Mexico – Albuquerque. Vernacular Building: Hostel on historic Route 66.
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August 18, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII18-I-05787
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USA – New Mexico – Albuquerque. Vernacular Building: Hostel on historic Route 66, interior view.
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August 22, 2005
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Code No. D05X08-I-06551
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USA – Nevada – Minneola. Built Landscape: Abandoned dining structure in the Mojave desert.
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August 20, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII20-06292
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USA – New Mexico – Farmington. Built Landscape: Air-conditioned trailer.
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August 22, 2005
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Code No. D05VIII22-I-06444
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USA – Nevada – Las Vegas. Cities: Fremont Street, Las Vegas.
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