"Heywood Mogroot" wrote...
> "Hibijibi" <km34@columbia.edu> wrote...
> > Reading all these stories on here about you guys building homes in
Nipponia,
> > I've started to develop a similar interest.  I'm not sure I would
consider
> > building a pre-fab home in Americana, but from my newfound rabbit-hutch
> > perspective a pre-fab home imported from the US or Canada is starting to
> > look like a dream home.  There would be central heating/cooling (baby!)
and
> > properly insulated (I hope) walls
>
> I'm waiting for aerogel insulation ... this stuff would make Wakkanai
> livable.

I love all that space-age stuff and sort of roll my eyes whenever I hear
these marketing phrases along the line of "natural materials for healthy
life" (my wife gets sucked in by all that stuff).  Nevertheless, on the
other side of the home insulation spectrum there appears to a fair amount of
legitimate support and interest for using treated sheep wool (!) as
insulation.  I wonder about that.  God help anyone with an allergy to wool.

> Overall the Japanese home construction methodology is more livable
> than comparable western-style, but some sort of fusion sure would be
> nice.

Yes, there are a couple nice things -- genkan, bath + toilet separation, and
a traditional japanese style house can be beautiful to look at.  But sorry
to say, I pretty much despise Japanese homes.  The underlying philosophies
involved with ownership, land use, post+beam construction, decentralized
heating/cooling, ventilation, insulation, plumbing, etc., etc. are all just
dead-end avenues.

best!
hibijibi
--
and i still wanna basement