"People first paid honour to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it. Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her."
GK Chesterton
"People first paid honour to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it. Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her."
GK Chesterton
Before we consider our current state, it is helpful to begin with a brief overview of where our current building practices come from.* Going back to the end of the Second World War, returning GIs generated a spike in housing demand throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. In response, we developed quick and cheap stick-frame houses in prefab communities to address this unique surge in demand. Enjoying the convenience of the methods used to address the post-war housing shortage, wide-spread adoption ensues until the shortsighted solution becomes the long-term approach.† Committing to these temporary solutions beyond their feasible lifespan requires a continual influx of capital and additional short-term solutions. At present, we find ourselves layering on fresh band-aids without bothering to take off the old ones. Affluence blinds prudence. The gradual nature of the climate problems that our society faces continue to reinforce this cycle of convenience and sunk-cost fallacy, until the problems outpace our resources and expose the underlying issues all at once. Unless we act now, we won’t rise to the occasion, but instead fall back on our inadequate methodologies. Our present crisis is already here, just not yet.
*Note, that I am looking at this issue through the lens of residential construction, but all facets of our built environment face similar outlooks. Focusing on the residential side proves useful for two reasons - one, it seems to have been the first form of building to drastically change, and two, it also is what most people relate to and are familiar with.
†This is not to say that the short-term solution was inappropriate for that particular context, that is a different discussion entirely. Also, the post-war housing demand is really the outworking of several contributing factors that were set aside because of the war effort. Population loss from the First World War/1918 Flu, Great Depression, and Second World War population relocation coupled with population loss all fueled the housing demand.
Continuing to rely on capitalistic market forces to signal a need for change, we waste the present “calm before the storm”, a time we should be using to properly prepare.
Small, sporadic innovations are used exclusively by the affluent. Siloed approach to problem solving clouds our understanding of true costs and benefits.
Market forces finally begin reacting to Climate Change, but now the immediacy of the problem results in lack of access, particularly for low income and middle class people.
Rich and upper middle class people adapt tolerably well. Poor and lower-middle class people get stuck in a vicious cycle of clinging to short-term solutions just to survive.
Increasing strains on society destabilize households, largely among the poor. This instability permeates throughout all other sectors of society. Seeking solutions once the problems are fully realized will likely result in panicked, ill-informed decisions. Our built environment then becomes a necessary burden to bear, not capable of being a source of stabilization and security.
What is the societal cost of allowing our marketing slogans to run wildly away from the truth. Perhaps it’s akin to the economy, gross inflation proves possible for a time, but eventually results in a depression. Miracles of science indeed!
