Popular content
All time:
African kasbah an ideal Swangkee micro-fortress
Sun, 2009-10-04 22:47 — david
For some years now, I have been a great admirer of Ray Swangkee and his website ThePeacock.com, where he promotes fortress living as a reasonable alternative to society's most massive problems.
Although fortress living appealed to me from the start, I have found it incredibly difficult to communicate its numerous advantages and aesthetic appeal to others. While it is one thing to point out that peak oil and global economic collapse will strain existing infrastructure, institutions, and planned-obsolescence practices beyond their tipping point, it is quite another to clearly articulate a positive and workable alternative.
Ray once fasted while asking the universe for reasonable solutions to such massive problems. That opened up a channel, and over the course of a few decades, resulted in original material spanning several thousands of pages, collected into 200+ books, all free for download on his website. My assessment is that he received his answer in spades, but, aside from “nutty” readers such as yours truly, expecting the average person to wade through all that stretches the imagination.
So while I strongly desire such secure, sustainable, intentional, and communal “condo” living for own family and like-minded friends, I have generally been unable to connect the vision with others, because the material is just too abstract, and examples are too lacking in the western world. Which is why I was ecstatic when I plugged in Diznee'z “Yung Blak Stalyun” for movie night with the family, and saw their glorious recreation of an Afrikan Kasbah, which seems to be exactly what I had in mind, for starters.
(Phonetic English used above to confuse copyright robots)
Hollywood Craftsmen's Rendition of a Glorious Secure Multi-Tenant “Condominium”
This picture above shows it all. Secure, practical living in a substantial, fairly permanent structure. A walled garden protects orchards and kitchen gardens, and helps to manage running livestock through the gardens as part of the overall garden management.
Courtyard, Complete with Secure Water Supply
This courtyard is a little cozy for my taste, but probably makes perfect sense in the African desert, where living in shadows is the reasonable alternative to baking in the sun. For a multi-tenant adaptation, I would want a courtyard center of at least a few acres, containing the water supply and Britzer-like gardens, and surrounded by a dozen or so households ranging from large to small, and from single-story to multi-story. That spacing would keep all the neighbors within audio range, so that everybody knows what is going on in all parts of the structure, for better and for worse, which is real security, and especially important when one or more neighbors are away on business.
Open-Air Living Space
This open-air living space has obvious appeal for a dry desert climate, and also reminds me of open-air spaces I've seen in the tropics of Bali and Peurto Rico recently (minus the rugs in those humid tropics, of course). However, for the present distress, nuclear fallout is one of the unfortunate things that I'd like my kids to be able to sleep through, without having to make a midnight dash for the basement. So, I would re-think some of those large openings, or, compartmentalize the living spaces into the 4 corners of the structure, where 2-foot-thick solid concrete walls are the rule, and all windows and doors can be sealed tight, covered with a lead plate shutter, and ventilated mechanically. It would be nice if such features were never needed, but I would not bet my family's lives against such a possibility, since I am not inclined towards gambling.
Usable roof with beautiful views, wonderfully absent of any planned-obsolescence building materials
Personally I would like 6 to 10 feet of topsoil on my roof, not only for insulating against that fall-out, but for other practical reasons as well, such as absorbing the stress of decades of thermal cycling, and to have plants absorb that sunlight and convert it, instead of the structure absorbing all that heat. The topsoil would also serve as a nice crush zone, to insulate the house from the effects of a small meteor, lightning bolt, falling airplane part, or tree trunk turned into a missile by a tropical hurricane.
The roof seems like a pleasant place for gardening, and would offer the gardener beautiful views and a breeze. And like the folks in this picture, the residents would probably just prefer to lunch in the garden, weather permitting.
Picture a few native helping hands in the background, doing the gardening and the serving. These members of the extended household would appreciate being paid for doing such moderate and pleasant work as their ancestors did, just as they would appreciate the master's ability to import the foreign money, in order to make it all possible and keep it all going. Their work in the garden would certainly attract one to work alongside them from time to time, for the sheer pleasure of it, but hopefully not to the point of reverting to a stingy do-it-all-yourself independent-jackass “slave to the land suffering delusions of self-sufficiency”. In other words, inter-dependence trumps independence.
See Also:
Comments
Post new comment