Building
The Little Pig That Built With Straw
The University of Nottingham, UK, has created this video to showcase one of their new buildings, completed this year. It’s one of the largest strawbale buildings in Europe.
The University of Nottingham, UK, has created this video to showcase one of their new buildings, completed this year. It’s one of the largest strawbale buildings in Europe.
Where I come from, the straw bales are used to make paper.
It’s nice as a project but we shouldn’t go overboard with sustainability and CO2 footprint.
I LOVE this concept although I cannot love the building. The footprint is obviously very low, but the psychological impact it has on its surroundings is not sustainable, as it lacks natural ornament.
– The Sensory Necessity for Ornament: https://math.utsa.edu/ftp/salingar.old/sensoryornament.html
I was impressed to see strawbale used in this pre-fab way with timber boxes to make such a large structure, and considering the building is a university lab it looks very appropriate. Well done University of Nottingham!
Well, personally I look at Alexander’s Eishin Campus, Tokyo, as a more appropriate expression of a university lab: https://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20111024/the-%E2%80%9Cwholeness-generating%E2%80%9D-technology-of-christopher-alexander
That we are trained to accept these kind of alienating structures for official institutions since we attend the kindergarten, doesn’t make them more appropriate. It’s definitely a part of governmental desire to oppress and dehumanize their citizens, conscious or not.
Now I found an article by Nikos Salingaros that describes exactly what is wrong with this building (except for its lack of ornament):
– Why Monotonous Repetition is Unsatisfying: https://meandering-through-mathematics.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-monotonous-repetition-is.html
Look especially at figure 2: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OspT6kgOP84/Tll_c6CDqxI/AAAAAAAAAMI/jdwtCvzqrAE/s400/fig2.png