FROM THE TAILGATE
Sage advice from the trenches
By Ron Jones
Welcome to Tomorrow
On more than one occasion I have tried to imagine a scenario in which a stunned builder, the very first builder to be approached by a prospective home buyer requesting indoor plumbing, responds by asking incredulously, “You want what? You want to put the outhouse in the house!”
A similar conversation about that “new-fangled” power source called electricity may have taken place once upon a time when another poor builder tried to imagine a magical, invisible force coursing through wires penetrating walls and ceilings. Even though we take these common elements for granted today, it had to be pretty unsettling for the first guy.
In reality, things haven’t changed all that much, except that they have accelerated beyond our wildest dreams. The whole arena of building science has opened up in recent decades at a rate that seems almost impossible to comprehend, but fortunately the technologies that make information available have kept pace, so at least we have a fighting chance of breaking even.
All that change may be aggravating in some ways. Sometimes you just can’t help wishing that things would slow down long enough for a person to catch his breath, but in the long run, advances in performance and new technologies make the world a better place for all of us. Indoor plumbing, electric lights and even air conditioning have provided just a glimpse of the tip of that iceberg we call progress.
Going forward, we need to expect more of the same. Ideas make their way into reality in today’s world faster than ever before, and they will only pick up more speed tomorrow. What we need to come to terms with as an industry, and as occupants of the built environment, is that Twenty-first Century shelter solutions cannot and will not be predicated on Twentieth Century technologies, systems and policies.
Nor will they be compatible with Nineteenth Century development models and energy sources, not to mention Eighteenth Century building materials and labor practices. Those who are too slow to adapt will find that they have been left behind, alone with their obsolete products and stubborn resistance to change.
But for those who can’t wait to see what awaits us around the next corner, there has never been a more exciting and satisfying time in which to practice building, and tomorrow can never come too soon. GB
11.2011
72
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