Ministries
Building cities in Asia
Recently while traveling in a city in Thailand I was struck by the fairly slap-dash, ramshackle way that the city was erected: buildings a few stories high, with a handful of skyscraper wannabes flung in a haphazard fashion over the landscape. The buildings are mostly ugly, if functional, concrete blocks with dirty black mold on the sides. Wires are everywhere—dozens of wires from telephone poles, electrical poles, hooks on the sides of the building. I don’t know, but I’m guessing its done this way because there is no systematic regulation of building codes, neighborhoods, and such. No SimCity zoning here! The cheapest way and most common way is the way that is used.
Buckminster Fuller was a famous inventor and designer of futuristic buildings (google for “geodesic domes”). If these buildings are so much better, so much more efficient, then why do we not have cities that are designed better? Why do we have such ugly buildings? Is it lack of knowledge, or that these futuristic methods are too expensive and presently impractical? One way that we could be a blessing to the world is by creating easier housing kits—a plan method that anyone could follow, and which would lead naturally and organically to beautiful, safe neighborhoods.
The biggest factors would probably be usefulness, availability of resources, training, expense, and simplicity. Better buildings have to be cheaper and easier than current ones. If a housing design could be developed that addresses these issues in a scalable and sustainable way, and made widely available—open source housing—it would or could be a huge blessing to the world, particularly the slums and shantytowns that are subject to all sorts of poor health conditions and safety issues.
See this entry as a media rich PDF featuring maps and photos.
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