TEDxKyiv - Andrew Bobrovitsky - Eco-house
Modern construction is environmentally damaging and unaffordable, leading the speaker to propose "New World" using natural, locally sourced materials like earth, clay, and straw. The speaker argues that alternative building methods must replace the current reliance on polluting polystyrene and concrete to ensure viable, affordable housing for future generations.
## Theses & Positions
- Modern construction materials (polystyrene, concrete) are environmentally damaging and promote unhealthy living conditions, evidenced by the fact that 30% of global buildings are affected by pollutants.
- Modern construction systems are not viable when faced with social and environmental catastrophes, such as a prolonged water shutdown in Kyiv.
- The solution is adopting natural, local building materials (clay, earth, straw, reeds) found within a 2-kilometer radius of the build site.
- The "New World" vision for architecture, construction, and housing must provide comfortable, environmentally friendly, affordable housing using natural materials while ensuring moderate resource consumption.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Eco-building:** Utilizing natural materials such as clay, earth, wood, straw, and reeds for construction.
- **Styrene:** Poisonous gas released by polystyrene blocks throughout their life-cycle, negatively affecting the liver and other internal organs.
- **Foregone Conclusion:** The necessity of finding local, natural materials, drawing parallels to *"A good warrior... finds his weapons on the battlefield."*
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Traditional Construction (Modern):** Uses materials like polystyrene blocks (foam Lego stacked with concrete) and concrete, which generates 1,500 million cubic meters of CO₂ emissions per year for its production.
- **Natural Building Techniques:**
- **Wattle and daub:** Clay is filled into formwork and daubed to erect walls, without plastering.
- **Wattle and ground:** Construction uses conventional ground if it contains 10–12% clay.
- **Adobe:** Clay, straw, and sand are mixed (by legs or machines) to form a mass that hardens, resulting in a warm, comfortable house.
- **Straw Blocks:** Blocks are laid like bricks or fill a wooden frame, allowing houses to require almost no heating.
- **Cordwood/Half-timbered house:** Billets of logs are laid out, and adobe is filled between them, a technique popular in Austria.
- **Polypropylene bags:** Quickly erected, inexpensive houses that can withstand earthquakes up to 6 points and flooding.
- **Systemic Improvement:** The need to move beyond mere theory into practical workshops to teach skills like making bread without yeast or home childbirth.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Past Observation:** Speaker's initial disdain for modern construction due to its high expense and poor health outcomes.
- **Historical Examples:** Mentions buildings built 180 years ago in Nebraska (Nebraska library) and half-timbered streets in Austria with houses standing 30–50 houses deep, some used for 700–850 years.
- **Modern Intervention:** Workshop activities began 3 years prior, now occurring almost every month in various Ukrainian cities.
- **Future Stages of "New World":**
1. Lectures and workshops.
2. Practical exercises (e.g., putting up tents, kneading clay).
3. Conferences.
4. Experimentarium (the final, permanent exhibition stage).
## Named Entities
- **Brovarsky region:** Location of an example house near Kyiv.
- **Kyiv:** Primary city mentioned regarding utility failure and workshops.
- **Nebraska:** Location of a notable library built 180 years ago.
- **Austria:** Region with historically notable half-timbered streets.
## Numbers & Data
- **30%**: Percentage of global buildings affected by pollutants, according to the World Health Organization.
- **760 thousand hryvnia ($100k)**: Price of the exemplary house in the Brovarsky region.
- **120 square meters**: Size of the exemplary house.
- **3,500 UAH ($440)**: Average salary in Kyiv.
- **18 years**: Time required to afford the exemplary house by saving without spending.
- **1.5 billion cubic meters per year**: Global concrete production volume.
- **36%**: Percentage of industrial waste produced by the construction and dismantling process, according to The Economist.
- **28%**: Percentage of industrial waste generated by mining and quarrying.
- **6 points**: Earthquake resistance rating for polypropylene bag houses.
- **10-12%**: Required clay percentage in the ground for "wattle and ground" construction.
## Examples & Cases
- **Brovarsky House:** 120 sqm house costing 760k UAH, affordable over 18 years on a $440/month salary. Built using polystyrene blocks.
- **Polystyrene Risk:** The polystyrene used releases poisonous gas (styrene), which is an embryogenic poison.
- **Concrete Emissions:** Producing one cubic meter of concrete results in thousands of tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
- **Utility Failure Example:** In Kyiv, a 2-day water cutoff leads to an exodus by the third day due to sewage backup, lack of electricity, and other failures, demonstrating system unviability.
- **Adobe house:** A modern example built near Kyiv, 80 square meters, designed on solar principles, using clay, straw, and sand mixture.
- **Nebraska Library:** A library built 180 years ago, still operational, demonstrating durability.
- **Half-timbered streets:** Streets in Austria with entire blocks of houses (30- to 50-house streets) built from ordinary wood frames filled with clay.
- **Apollo-inspired housing:** Polypropylene bag houses deemed so capable that NASA agents supposedly checked them out and recommended building them on the Moon.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Polystyrene blocks:** Foam material used in modern construction, which releases styrene gas.
- **Polypropylene bags:** Housing units known for quick erection, low cost, and ability to withstand up to 6 points of seismic activity.
- **Wattle and daub technique:** Manual construction method using clay applied to forms.
- **Adobe materials:** Mixture of clay, straw, and sand used to create walls.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- Modern construction is criticized for its expense, its failure to support healthy living, and its systemic unviability.
- The reliance on modern materials like concrete and polystyrene directly contradicts sustainable living and environmental health.
## Methodology
- The proposed movement is structured in four progressive phases: 1) Lectures and workshops; 2) Practical exercises; 3) Conferences; and 4) Experimentarium (a permanent exhibition complex).
- Eco-building aims to find materials locally, within a 2-kilometer radius of the construction site.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The adoption of natural, low-tech materials—such as earth, clay, and straw—is necessary to create a "New World" of architecture and housing.
- The goal is to provide comfortable, affordable housing using methods that moderate resource consumption and protect the planet for future generations.
## Implications & Consequences
- Continued reliance on modern building practices leads to significant global waste, with construction/dismantling accounting for 36% of industrial waste.
- The core consequence of current methods is the creation of an uninhabitable environment for a third of all housing units.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"The atmosphere in our homes does not meet hygienic requirements, that apply to air quality at factory premises."*
- *"It is very simple: 18 years."*
- *"Polystyrene produces during its whole life-cycle - popularly it's called foam plastic - releases poisonous gas into the atmosphere: called styrene."*
- *"This whole, this whole process, this whole project has found an interesting, modest title: 'New World'."*
- *"A good warrior, it is said, finds his weapons on the battlefield."*
- *"For the average Ukrainian."*
- *"From a modern house of adobe was built a year ago near Kyiv, 80 square meters. Designed on the principles of solar architecture: most of the windows are directed to the south."*
- *"Intriguing thing: [Soviet] cartoon 'Nu pogodi!'... these blocks have appeared about 200 years ago"*
- *"It's said that NASA agents slept in such houses, checked out the facilities, and came to the conclusion, that it needs to be built on the Moon."*
- *"What do such technologies give us? They give us the opportunity to get rid of garbage, which man produces."*