Blog Is MY Co-pilot

January 28th, 2010 Posted in Green Building

Salute! Welcome to my first blog. This is the time of year when I am often drawn towards the cliffs and sands of California’s coast for inspiration. A favorite place to romp, when the crowds have dissipated for winter, is Carmel and the surrounding environs. Inspired by the village architecture, Suzi and I recently recreated a Carmel styled cottage here in Glen Ellen. With the help of MAD architecture we designed and built a  transitional version of a classic cottage found throughout hamlets and towns in this country and Europe. The photos aren’t yet on our website but should be soon. Keep checking. This being my first blog, I have many  ideas and thoughts I want to introduce and share. These writings will be a forum for passing thoughts on building, design, culture, and sundry personal insights. I am very pleased to be participating in some of the events this week of January 25th with the organization Citta Slow Sonoma Valley. I have long held an interest in various aspects of city planning. Actually, I graduated from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in Environmental Planning. My real interest was what was then called Utopian Planning. When I first heard about the slow city movement I wanted to get involved by creating a base here in Sonoma Valley.  My intentions were ahead of my efforts, though, so I’m glad someone else got it going. Check out the website to learn more. I would like to integrate the philosophies from the Slow Food and Slow City movements into a new organization called Slow Building, but I am not so sure it will be embraced by the world we inhabit where speed seems to be king. The basic premise behind the movement would be to recreate the craft guilds of the past and preserve the techniques of fine workmanship which are so quickly being lost. Imagine a collective of trained master carvers, masons, joiners and carpenters who could pass on these heritage traditions to the younger generation. What if this movement could help encourage people to give higher value to smaller but better built and longer lasting real buildings? Is this Green Building? Frankly, I loath that term and would have a hard time seriously defining myself or my company as “green builders”. Nor would I advertise “quality construction” like I have seen people do. Shouldn’t both of these attributes be assumed? When completing my Build It Green certificate the facilitator referred to this kind of work as “smart building”. That I like. That’s what we, in this industry, should all be striving for. Smart building. Let’s all think about that. Slowly.

By the way, I was talking to my pup the other day when she pointed out to me that “blog” sounds a lot like “dog”. A little further discussion and we decided that there will be, in this venue, something I’ll call Carmela’s Corner. Look for it soon. Also, next time, I’ll update everyone on some of the work we are doing.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a hip new music tip check out the most recent CD from these guys: THE KINGS OF CONVENIENCE

Till next time, ciao, Mark