<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Dear RWT—<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks for your creative suggestions and on-point observations. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The perfect soil in question is under Santa Barbara’s downtown grid, zoned for multi-unit residential, and though we paid less for it than anyone else, still cost $118/ ft2 (not per ft2 of house, per ft2 of dirt). So—not likely to turn to farms anytime soon. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">BUT—we plan to turn to agroforestry. We estimate that we can produce 1500-2000 lbs/ yr of fruit on the lot…from dense perennial edible landscaping surrounding the five cob cottages. (It currently produces 500 lbs of citrus from two rock star trees; the fully planted landscape will have around forty trees of 20 or so varieties for staggered, all-year food production. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The foundation waterproofing has a secondary function of pumping bulk oxygen into the soil profile all the way down to about 9’, enabling the trees on the site to <i class="">grow without irrigation apart from stormwater augmented groundwater. </i>The arborist on the project is the crazy genius who just finished the new apple campus; he and I figured this out together. I think it is entirely possible this site will have greater production capacity with the cottages on it than without, because of the way the foundations provide the oxygen needed for them to easily get water. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Peace,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Art</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><i class="">I’ll post the next revision of the proposal, which describes how all this works together. Meanwhile here’s a screenshot of one page from an earlier draft:</i></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><img apple-inline="yes" id="FEAF06E7-CDC7-47BC-A26C-803678FC4490" src="cid:A0F48106-A2B4-4CD5-9302-6AB1C1783903" class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On May 3, 2018, at 9:28 PM, RWT <<a href="mailto:archilogic@yahoo.ca" class="">archilogic@yahoo.ca</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class=""><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;" class=""><div class=""></div>
<div class=""><span style="color: rgb(38, 40, 42);" class="">On Friday, April 27, 2018, 4:29:32 p.m.</span><br class=""></div><div id="ydp92b9580yahoo_quoted_6072575254" class="ydp92b9580yahoo_quoted"><div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:#26282a;" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""> Art Ludwig-Oasis Design <<a href="mailto:oasis@oasisdesign.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="">oasis@oasisdesign.net</a>> wrote:</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""><snip></div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">> We?re looking to build without over excavating and compacting</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">> The quality of the soil is astonishing; it is perfect for growing things and </div><div dir="ltr" class="">> we don?t want to mess it up. </div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">I'm neither a soil engineer nor in California and I suspect that my mind is probably more constipated than it is open but my (knee) jerk reaction to this query was to say</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""> "Don't (build on that site)", </div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""> ... as the best way to not mess up the astonishing soil -- (speaking as one who built his home on the exposed Canadian Shield bedrock portion of the site and brought in hundreds of tri-axle loads of clay fill and organic matter to build up a soil overburden in which to plant large caliper rescued trees, shrubbery, flower & vegetable garden etc. , which perhaps goes a long way to explaining my lust for good dirt). </div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">But "not building" would likely not be an option in this case since someone probably paid a $bazillion$ for the property with an eye to building a home on it.</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">The second (elbow ?) reaction was to say</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""> "What about doing an earth sheltered or underground design ?" </div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""> ... which would seem to make a lot of sense in Khalifohnia where the landscape has been known to burst into flames and/or shake & jump around so much that above-grade buildings can fly apart and/or collapse. </div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">And I suspect that taking advantage of the infinite thermal mass of the earth wouldn't hurt to keep space cooling requirements to a minimum.</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">I also wondered if the CA Building Code would allow for the structure to be built like a chicken coop , where the chickens' shelter sits on skis like a Qamutiq (aka "dogsled" en anglais) and can be dragged to a new spot every now and then, leaving a patch of newly-fertilised soil behind.</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">But enough of this MooseHugger sticking his ignorant-about-building-in-California nose where it doesn't belong.</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class="">Thengya. Thengyallverramuch.</div><div dir="ltr" class="">Stronzo di Nord.</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""></div></div>
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