Been catching up with the BBC news site. There were quite a few interesting stories.

Japanese Self-Sufficient Houses

First up, was a push in Japan for self-sufficient housing. There were some interesting comments.
Houses made of aluminium are attracting a lot of interest. Aluminium frames last a long time – almost 100% of the metal can be recycled and even if it is, it does not lose its strength.

They are lightweight; they don’t need harmful preservatives to stop deterioration… the list goes on.
Hmm, not sure about this one. Aluminium is a recyclable material, but at HUGE energy cost, so I don’t think this is a viable building material.

This section though, I completely agreed with. In many ways, the UK housing industry seems to be the same as the Japanese.
The difficulty, he says, is that the construction industry is not interested in long-term vision, just short-term profits.

That’s why the best work to challenge the norms of housing design is going on in the universities.

His comments are echoed by the architect James Lambiasi.

“The Japanese pre-occupation with amenities has obscured a lot of really innovative thinking,” he says.

“Much more money is spent on paying a famous actor to do a commercial to advertise a property than will ever be paid to an architect to design something truly innovative.”

The ITER Project

I’m in two minds over the ITER project.
The first thing is, scientists are still saying it will be available in less than 50 years. They’ve been saying that for 50 years now! The other issue is, do I think we can ever set up the infrastructure in time. I don’t think we can.
But there is a more fundamental issue. IF this ever works, and it works in time, we run the risk that mankind will carry on as we are now, in a world of endless, non-sustainable consumption. There are some interesting comments, over at the BBC Have Your Say section on this.

Finally, if we as a species and our masters in government try desperately to carry on, business as normal right till the very end…. will we end up with this…...
Who would have thought the beginning to an Australian film had the POTENTIAL to be so prophetic! I certainly hope it isn’t though. Depressing, but powerful stuff.