History of Green Building and Building Science?
Last year I built a “pretty good house” and got it ZERH certified. This year (since I am an academic!) I need to prepare a presentation explaining what I learned from the exercise. The presentation will be aimed at a general audience, and my main goal will be to encourage people here in southern Virginia to build well.
It seems to me that, over the last 20 – 30 years, there has been a dramatic improvement in the state of the art of residential construction. For example, back in 1998, on my first house, we just built a 2 X 6 exterior wall and blew in cellulose; there was no discussion of thermal bridging or air infiltration. Today “wall design” is a thing.
Can anyone direct me to a historical overview of the changes in construction technology (advent of passivhous standard, etc.) over the last 30 years?
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Search this site for "lo-cal house" for starters. (Sorry, I'm not adept at href).
And for a real blast from the past check this video http://youtu.be/Qp68vWoX5WE . Konzo and Jones were mentors of mine back in the day. They speak in the second half of the video.
So much of the quality information on superinsulation came out of Canada back in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/forgotten-pioneers-of-energy-efficiency
One should ask, why is energy so expensive. After all it is free and plentiful throughout the universe. With all the technological advancements over the years, energy should be cheaper and more easily attained than in years past. We all need energy to survive, just like air, water, food and shelter. We should focus on providing these basic necessities for all first in order to become a thriving species without all the wasted energy being put into all the negative aspects of life.