Zen Living
Green Building
“Bau-Biologie”
Nicole: “Bau-Biologie”, Green Building, Breathing Homes, what does this all mean? It is about creating a more environmentally friendly living space. This is George Swanson, a Building Biologist, and he is here to tell us exactly what that means. Hi George!
George: Thank You Nicole.
Nicole: Will you please go into “Bau-Biologie”. Please elaborate on what that exactly means.
George: Okay, “Bau-Biologie” roughly means building biology. It started at about 65-70 years ago in villages in Germany where they are measuring the health effects of the construction on small villages and found a direct correlation between the building materials and the health of the people in the village.
Nicole: What specifically did they find?
George: Well, they found one village where they actually relocated the entire village because the people had four times of cancer rate because of water courses under their building.
Nicole: Okay, so you are a building biologist. What exactly is your job description?
George: Primarily at this point, we are consulting but also fully doing design bill for buildings, for people with chemical sensitivities, so folks who do not have the option, who really do have to get out of their buildings.
Nicole: Right, their homes are toxic to them so you help them find ways in order to use green materials to keep them healthy.
George: Exactly.
Nicole: Great! Now, this is your home?
George: Uh-huh.
Nicole: So George, you have developed a very unconventional way for treating waste water. Can you elaborate a little bit about that?
George: Okay. What we are looking at here is a gravel marsh black water treatment system where all the black water of the house comes into these two tanks we see right below us here.
Nicole: Okay.
George: And there are four manifolds that come out from the bottom of those tanks that spread the black water 20 inches down in the gravel pit and the roots from this plant actually purify the black water as it runs through.
Nicole: Now how is this better for us living wise than the conventional techniques?
George: Well, we do not have to ever empty our tanks for one thing. So the tanks self-clean themselves and the water that discharges from the end of this gravel bed is fully safe for watering our plants.
Nicole: So it is all using everything that comes out of your home and recycling it back into your garden or—
George: Right. The water becomes safe. It is actually full potable water coming out the other end.
Nicole: So you can drink it?
George: Well, no. It is too nutrient rich.
Nicole: Okay.
George: Now you can sand filter it and drink it. We recently did a system like that. But we want to use it in its full nutrient rich state.
Green Building:
Breathing home system
Clay treated wood-chip blocks
Breathing gill.
Cistern
Radiator vents
Nicole: Thank you so much for having me in your home. Now we spoke before about a breathing home. Is this qualified as a breathing home?
George: Yes, this particular construction was 12-inch clay treated wood-chip block. That is treated with a natural clay plaster to create the breathing effect.
Nicole: And what is this little rock bed right here?
George: Well this is what we call a breathing gill. We try to make this a signature on most of the homes we do. It is actually open to the earth and it actually affects the electromagnetics of the home. We have the natural earth smells.
Nicole: Okay, so there is no foundation here.
George: No foundation here. Now this was part of our original cooling system where this was all plumbed and this little cove that you see here was sprinkled with cold water that comes from the bottom of the cisterns outside.
Nicole: So if I were to dig up all these rocks, I would find dirt on the bottom?
George: Mostly dirt, right.
Nicole: And you never have any trouble with bugs or anything, no water comes out too when it rains?
George: No, none of those problems. But also, look at these two Volkswagen car radiators that are mounted on the wall.
Nicole: So let us go take that
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