Denmark, Europe tipping its rainy summer-hat.<div>Respect to youse friends.</div><div>Lars Keller<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 19 August 2010 01:03, Bohdan Dorniak <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bohdan@bdcoarchitects.com.au">bohdan@bdcoarchitects.com.au</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span><font size="2" face="Arial">Congratulations David and Martin from all of us here in
Australia</font></span></div>
<div> </div>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial">Regards,<br>Bohdan Dorniak</font></p>
<p align="left"><span><font size="2" face="Arial">Treasurer
AUSBALE</font></span></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><b>Bohdan Dorniak & Co Pty
Ltd</b><br><i>Architects & Town Planners</i></font><br><font size="2" face="Arial">47 Prospect Road<br>PROSPECT SA 5082<br>P: (08) 8344 8170, F: (08)
8344 6480<br></font></p>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div><br>
<div dir="ltr" lang="en-us" align="left">
<hr>
<font size="2" face="Tahoma"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:GSBN-bounces@greenbuilder.com" target="_blank">GSBN-bounces@greenbuilder.com</a>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:GSBN-bounces@greenbuilder.com" target="_blank">GSBN-bounces@greenbuilder.com</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John
Swearingen<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 19 August 2010 5:18 AM<br><b>To:</b>
(private, with public archives) Global Straw Building Network<br><b>Subject:</b>
Re: [GSBN] Big News!!<br></font><br></div><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<div></div>Awesomely Great News!!!! Thanks to everyone for all your
spirited work!
<div><br></div>
<div>John<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 10:13 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:strawnet@aol.com" target="_blank">strawnet@aol.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="border-left:#ccc 1px solid;margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial">
<div><font size="+0"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Hello
al</font>l,</span></font></font><br><br>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I want share some great
news. Earlier today, here in Chicago, Martin Hammer's "comment"/proposal to
include the strawbale code he’s been working on over the past few years in
California into the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC) was
approved by a committee vote of 8 to 6! The IgCC is the new US code for
commercial (and high-rise residential) buildings that will become part of the
family of 2012 International Codes (I-codes). It will go through a full code
development cycIe with the rest of the 2012 I-codes next year and there is
work that will need to be done still to make sure it doesn’t get rejected in
that process, but getting it into the second public draft of the code now is a
very big step forward. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I served on the drafting
committee for this code from last summer through the spring of this year. For
more information about the IgCC and to download the whole IgCC first public
draft and the comments – including Martin’s proposals for strawbale and
earthen building and the EcoNest comment in support of straw clay go
here:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/IGCC/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/IGCC/Pages/default.aspx</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.iccsafe.org/CS/IGCC/Pages/Comments0810.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.iccsafe.org/CS/IGCC/Pages/Comments0810.aspx</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">You’ll find these listed as
comments 5-134, 5-135 and 5-136.<br><br></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I was the only proponent
speaking in favor of it here, and there were others who spoke in opposition.
The initial motion was to disapprove but it failed 5 votes to 9 after
considerable and very mixed discussion – which surprised me because of the
nature of some of the comments – that it was still not ready and needed some
technical fixes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">The failure of the motion
to disapprove required a new motion and Chris Mathis, an old building science
friend from North Carolina, offered a motion for approval. That was followed
by more discussion, with more concerns expressed that it wasn't ready. Then,
just before the second vote, Chris pressed the committee to push the envelope.
He said they should approve it and get it in, and rather than just having the
few people who are very knowledgeable about it work on improving the things
that still need to be done, “Let thousands of people look at it and help
improve it through the next round of the code development process!” He said it
was time to start pushing these things through. Then they voted - and it
passed 8 to 6! I was amazed and delighted! So it is going into the second
public draft! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">There were two other
similar proposals (they’re called “comments”) that were heard right before the
strawbale comment. The first, from Paula Baker Laport and Robert Laport
proposed including the straw clay guidelines from New Mexico. Next was the
other submitted by Martin, that one in support of earthen construction based
on the new ASTM standard for earthen wall systems that I had initiated almost
10 years ago and Bruce King has spearheaded over the past few years. I spoke
in support of both, but they were disapproved, though both received
encouraging suggestions to bring them forward again after addressing
non-mandatory/permissive language and other issues. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Because they were heard one
after the other, and I was the only proponent for them, I got to speak first
for each one and so I had a total of 6 minutes (2 minutes each) to frame them
all in terms of the big issues I’ve been speaking to for all these years,
including the coming challenges of ever-more limited and expensive energy, the
low-impact, low-tech, climate beneficial, local/regional benefits, the
industrial/proprietary bias and difficulty in funding research, testing and
development for public domain, non-proprietary materials and systems. I
started off by talking about the fact that I had been in buildings in Europe
built with materials like straw clay and earth that are twice as old as this
country! And to say that these are durable and safe ways of building when done
properly. And when talking about the ASTM earthen standard, I said that if
they looked at it they might think that it was too low tech to be reasonable
compared to the standards that they’re used to for concrete and other
industrial materials. But, I said, It was intentionally low tech. That I was
involved in initiating that standard almost ten years ago and it was both to
enable the use of those materials here and to reverse the outlawing of earthen
building in developing countries through the adoption of modern industrial
codes. That it was designed to enable people to build safe, durable, healthy,
and affordable buildings anywhere in the world—including the in United States.
I mentioned that the committee that developed that standard included the
leading experts on earthen building and engineering from around the world and
was based on reviewing and incorporating the best from international codes and
standards for earthen building. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">After the first two went
down, I was quite convinced because of the comments that the sb proposal would
share the same fate and, thankfully, I was wrong!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">So hats off to Martin,
Bruce, Matts, and many others who have worked so long and hard to develop
these codes and to Chris Mathis for his leadership and visionary action on the
committee. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Onward!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">David
Eisenberg</span></div></div></font><span style="font-size:12pt"></span><font color="black" size="2" face="arial"></font></font><br>_______________________________________________<br>GSBN
mailing list<br><a href="mailto:GSBN@greenbuilder.com" target="_blank">GSBN@greenbuilder.com</a><br><a href="http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN" target="_blank">http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:x-small"><font color="#666666">John Swearingen<br>Skillful Means
Design & Construction<br>2550 9th Street Suite 209A<br>Berkeley,
CA 94710<br>510.849.1800 phone<br>510.849.1900 fax<br><br>Web
Site: <a href="http://www.skillful-means.com" target="_blank">http://www.skillful-means.com</a><br>Blog:
<a href="https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com" target="_blank">https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com</a></font></span></font><br></div></div></div></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>skype<br>jomorandin<br>lars.friland<br><br><a href="mailto:jomorandin@gmail.com">jomorandin@gmail.com</a><br><a href="mailto:larskeller@gmail.com">larskeller@gmail.com</a><br>
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<br>Jo Morandin, Jamilla, Asger & Lars Keller<br>Friland 12 B<br>8410 Rønde<br>Danmark<br>--<br>
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