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Dear All,<BR>
<BR>
I wasn't there so I can't really comment but I do recognize some of it.<BR>
This is what you get when people make strawbale building into a believe instead of a science.<BR>
<BR>
Best regards,<BR>
Cas<BR> <BR>
<DIV>
> Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:23:30 +0200<BR>> From: asbn@baubiologie.at<BR>> To: Strawbale@amper....muni.cz<BR>> Subject: [Strawbale] ESBG 2011 and the future of strawbale building<BR>> <BR>> ESBG 2011 and the future of strawbale building<BR>> <BR>> Some personal remarks on the so-called european strawbale gathering 2011 in<BR>> the sleepy village Bouzov-Podoli (CZ)<BR>> <BR>> My first day in BP: imagine coming to a place where permaculture is the<BR>> thing. That´s fine by me, but in this case it literally means<BR>> eco-puritanism. The only room for presentations - a tiny teahouse (and this<BR>> also means no coffee anywhere) with a sunken roof because of the abundant<BR>> vegetation on it, that you have to enter with a deep bow and some deep<BR>> respect of mother nature. A big bump on the head reminded me: tree-trunks<BR>> are harder than my skull, maybe because I had not taken off my shoes before<BR>> entering. <BR>> <BR>> The purpose of the building (100 % ecological of course, made of trunks,<BR>> earth and maybe a little straw) became quite clear: it´s a stresstest on<BR>> what earthen walls really can do for indoor-climate. No ventilation, no<BR>> electricity, no windows to be opened, and now you may multiply like 30<BR>> people in a room for 20 with the 36 °C it had on this day, add a lot of<BR>> sweat and you come to the result, that it´s possible to build 100 %<BR>> ecological even with almost no money and without architects and building<BR>> physicians. At least if you don´t intent to use the building for longer than<BR>> the 2 minutes we humans survive without breathing.<BR>> <BR>> Apropos shoes: We wouldn´t have needed them at all because of the heat, but<BR>> outside the teahouse we had to decide whether to walk on crushed stone with<BR>> bare feet (and get rid of this softening overcivilised attitude of us petty<BR>> urbans) or slip back in our dampening footwear.<BR>> <BR>> Nature was the big theme on this 'ESBG', but even the wasps (which seemed to<BR>> gather here from all over Czech Republic) knew that and so they decided to<BR>> populate the vegetarian feeding places in crowds and followed the food and<BR>> drinks to the tables. This was the next lecture to learn to live in<BR>> accordance to mother nature. And if you count those nice little creatures as<BR>> visitors (why not?), this ESBG was the best visited ESBGs of all time.<BR>> <BR>> But who am I to complain: not arriving on the first day saved me from<BR>> working on the wells (yes, really!) to have the pleasure of pipewater. Cold<BR>> water was spare, except at the only real refreshing place around, a pond<BR>> about 3 km astray, which had obviously been overlooked by the eco-puritans<BR>> and so kept it´s natural beauty.<BR>> <BR>> Enough; I came here to meet and greet and share and exchange, so let´s come<BR>> to that. The programm was very relaxed, it's called „open space“ and<BR>> supposedly the latest hype for conferences. In fact open space means, that<BR>> nobody feels responsible, because nobody had to follow a schedule or could<BR>> even be sure about what he or she had to present or share. The majority was<BR>> wandering around the perimeter, not knowing where to go, what to say or<BR>> hear. Superfluous to mention the lack of any presentation technique like a<BR>> silly beamer (which really doesn't fit to such a low tech area); we crowded<BR>> together around some laptops, until their batteries went dead.<BR>> <BR>> But let´s have some practice. Only pure naturalists enjoy standing in the<BR>> baking, burning sun for more than 5 minutes, not to speak of building<BR>> strawbale constructions. But there are always those tougher than the rest.<BR>> Some were very willing to work with the handmade strawbales, but...<BR>> according to the law of Max (I come to that later) one has to begin with the<BR>> stemming of the lines before the wrapping may begin. A lecture, that the<BR>> truth of strawbale-building isn't just fun with bales, but a lot of<BR>> preparing work around. After 15 minutes everybody seemed to know the<BR>> technique of wrapping by watching the stemming and left the place.<BR>> <BR>> Dusk fell, it was still very warm, and after exchanging a lot of<BR>> anger-calming jokes about the ongoing events (in the center of which stood<BR>> „Mad Max“, the ever stressed out, goofylike leader with an annoying cowboy<BR>> attitude (and hat)), we found ourselves coming together, enjoying delicious<BR>> cold beer and soothing cigarettes (some more natural smokeables) and each<BR>> other, celebrating a birthday child with a „cake“ of clay with candles, and<BR>> entertaining us with tales of the strawbalers world and about the funny<BR>> situation. The local ESBG-team tries always to compensate Max' chaotic<BR>> manner and is really nice and friendly, serves some schnaps and (free) beer<BR>> to lift the spirit... but it all came to a sudden end with the spontaneous<BR>> arrival of the 'leader'. He prohibits smoking (we sit outside in the open<BR>> air on a place called 'bar', but according to Max' law we are on a<BR>> strawbuilding site and everybody knows: don't play with fire when on a<BR>> strawbuilding-site). Because the author of this silly review seems to ignore<BR>> the actual seriousness of the situation, Max threatens him to remove him<BR>> from the premises and fetches the lighted cigarette out of his hands. „What<BR>> about the candles?“ one dares to ask. You all can surely imagine, that the<BR>> cake with the candles followed the cigarette immediately into the dust of<BR>> the night.<BR>> <BR>> After that lecture in preventing fire on strawbuilding-sites we could have<BR>> proceeded smoking, lighting candles and joking but nobody was in any mood<BR>> for that anymore. What was told in the minutes before we went to sleep is<BR>> better not be cited.<BR>> <BR>> But what the hack, the next day would save the event: the big 'European<BR>> strawbale conference' which takes place – oh glory halleluja – in a<BR>> different location at the townhall in Bouzov (and this means comfortable<BR>> toilets, a beamer, windows to open and hopefully no wasps).<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> My second day in Bouzov-Podoli: In preparing the big event some creative new<BR>> things were established, e.g. the european networkers, who have brought<BR>> european strawbale building-efforts to the point, where it is today, had to<BR>> present their topics on posters. Themes of the presentations were edited and<BR>> dictated to prevent duplication and different views, as a result e.g. a<BR>> well-known plasterworker didn´t talk about his expertise, but shared some<BR>> refreshing notes about his life as a young entrepreneur... an entertaining<BR>> presentation in contrast to the usual specialized strawbale-lectures.<BR>> <BR>> The schedule was tight, to say the least. We were at the clock; a<BR>> countdown-device counted 20 minutes, starting again in the second it reached<BR>> zero. Questions were entirely postponed to after the last presentation at 5<BR>> pm and exept a lunchbreak and a short break on afternoon we had no pauses at<BR>> all for questioning or discussions (or smoking:-). A conference without the<BR>> usual exchange like comparing experiences, sharing knowledge, bringing up<BR>> strawbale building by working together. Obviously Max has a completely<BR>> different viewpoint on that – no topic was scheduled more than once, so in<BR>> the end it was one large heap of puzzle-pieces, only every stone belonged to<BR>> a different puzzle...<BR>> <BR>> Unfortunately even off the stage it was not possible to learn much, because<BR>> whatever was interesting and not per se understandable in the presented<BR>> system turned out to be a secret of the inventors. All in all a pleasent<BR>> conference-day with concise presentations and without arduous debates...<BR>> <BR>> I left immediately after the conference, some of the visitors from Poland<BR>> and Germany did that immediately after arriving (and clashing with Max), but<BR>> most of the others persevered, tolerated and outlasted the challenges and<BR>> inventions because of the big distances to their home-countries, waiting for<BR>> something like a turning point, which didn't come at all.<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> My conclusion: Certainly it was great to get to know and meet again so many<BR>> nice people, but if this so-called ESBG is in any way significant for the<BR>> future of the european strawbale building, then good night, european<BR>> strawbale building. Whats the purpose of an ESBG? For me, what it always was<BR>> – sharing knowledge and experiences between all european networkers and<BR>> straw bale builders, so that we can go home to our respective countries,<BR>> with renewed enthusiasm (which lasted long e.g. after the last Belgian<BR>> ESBG), the reinforced feeling of being part of a movement, fine-tuning next<BR>> years coordination, and some new ideas in the baggage to be spread at home<BR>> in workshops. In one word – bringing forward the case.<BR>> <BR>> This years ESBG paints a threat: a threat of an event advertising the<BR>> organiser, abused for the sake of the local/regional strawbale building<BR>> scene alone. That leaves the international networkers with the task that<BR>> should be done by the locals: teaching newbies. Don´t get me wrong, that´s<BR>> an honorable task, and an important one, only why should any international<BR>> expert pay for that? Experts pay for becoming even greater experts. If<BR>> there´s just a job to do in which they only give, they should GET at least<BR>> paid. Or otherwise simply no one will gather together anymore.<BR>> <BR>> This is just my opinion, but I think its time to act now and push the next<BR>> ESBG in a better direction....<BR>> <BR>> Mit lieben Grüßen / with kind regards<BR>> Herbert Gruber<BR>> -- <BR>> asbn - austrian strawbale network<BR>> Österreichisches Netzwerk für Strohballenbau<BR>> 3720 Ravelsbach, Baierdorf 6<BR>> Email: asbn@baubiologie...<BR>> http://www.baubiologie.at<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> ____________________________________________________<BR>> European strawbale building discussion list<BR>> <BR>> Send all messages to:<BR>> Strawbale@amper....muni.cz<BR>> <BR>> Archives, subscription options, etc:<BR>> http://amper.ped.muni.cz/mailman/listinfo/strawbale<BR>> ____________________________________________________<BR>> <BR>> <BR></DIV> </div></body>
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