NEW PERSPECTIVES TOWARDS SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY OF EARTH- CONSTRUCTED BUILDINGS

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 77 - 84, 01.09.2019

Gerhard Bosman Davıd Pıttaway

Öz

Efforts in the preservation of earth built heritage and the promotion of contemporary earth construction by members of the UNESCO-Chair in Architectures de Terre cultures Constructives et Développement durable, have overcome many challenges associated with the appropriateness of earth as a building material the last two decades. However, negative perceptions remain one of the biggest challenges to date. The Earth Unit has established itself within a South African tertiary institution to address all aspects of earth architecture through teaching, training, and research. A technical and design based approach is driven by many institutions in the promotion of earth construction as a discipline. Although this is one of the best ways to deal with misconceptions and reservations, a direct approach from a social scientific and philosophical stance is equally essential to understand and address negative attitudes associated with raw earth as a building material in contemporary built environments. The latter approach can help to develop a planning strategy for new projects in settlements and cities. This article will identify “Orphic” ideas, attitudes and phenomena, synonymous with “ecologically-sensitive” approaches. Orphic attitudes will be opposed to “Promethean” attitudes that spread via the historical domination of Christianity, science, technology, capitalism, whose attitudinal underpinnings have provided an ideological impetus for ecologically problematic actions. The dominance of the Promethean has resulted in steadily growing ecological crises. Furthermore, upward social mobility and migration patterns, which arguably have arisen from the global spread of Promethean systems, influence the values of city dwellers. These values affect their attitudes and behaviour towards the natural landscape and the built environment. The key impacts of these considerations help to reveal the bigger picture often blurred while strategizing promotion efforts in favour of private and public contemporary earth-constructed buildings

Anahtar Kelimeler

earth construction, behaviour, Promethean, Orphic, ACIDWord count: 5855

Kaynakça

• Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Alexander, P., Cerutti, C. Motseke, K. Phadi, M. & Wale, K. (Eds). (2013). Class in Soweto. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
• Alexandru, M. (2012). Stories of upward social mobility and migration in one Romanian commune: on the emergence of “rurban” spaces in migrant-sending communities. Eastern Journal of European Studies, 3(2), pp. 150-162.
• Badiou, A. & Žižek, S. (2009). Philosophy in the Present. UK: Polity Press.
• Bosman, G. (2015). The acceptability of earth constructed houses in central areas of South Africa. Unpublished thesis (Ph.D.): Bloemfontein: the University of the Free State, Department of Architecture.
• Buttel, F.H. (1987). New directions in environmental sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 13(1), pp. 465-488.
• Carocci, S. (2011). Social mobility and the Middle Ages. Continuity and Change, 26(3), pp. 367-404.
• Crankshaw, O. (2005). Class, race and residence in black Johannesburg, 1923-1970. Journal of Historical Sociology, 18(4), pp. 353-393.
• Ecophilosophy in a world of crisis: critical realism and the Nordic contributions. Eds Bhaskar, K., Hoyer, G., and Naess, P. UK: Routledge.
• Guillaud, H. (Ed.). (2010). TERRAEducation 2010: proceedings of the seminar-workshop: summary of works. Grenoble, France: CRATerre-ENSAG.
• Hadjri, K., Osmani, M., Baiche, B. & Chifunda, C. (2007). Attitudes towards earth building for Zambian housing provision. Engineering Sustainability, 160(ES3), pp. 141-149.
• Hamdi, N. (1985). Low-income housing: changing approaches. The Architectural Review, CLXXVIII (1062), pp. 42-47.
• Hartmann, T. (1998). The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. UK: Hodder and Stoughton.
• Heidegger, M. (1977). The Question concerning Technology and Other Essays. Trans. by Lovitt, W. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Hinds, J. & Sparks, P. (2008). Engaging with the natural environment: the role of affective connection and identity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28(2), pp. 109-120.
• Hoyer, K.G., & Naess, P. (2012). From ecophilosophy to degrowth. In: Bhaskar, K., Hoyer, G., & Naess, P (Eds.). Ecophilosophy in a world of crisis: critical realism and the Nordic contributions. UK: Routledge.
• Iannelli, C. & Paterson, L. (2006). Social mobility in Scotland since the middle of the twentieth century. The Sociological Review, 54(3), pp. 520-545.
• Kovel. J. (2002). The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? (First and second editions). London and New York: Zed Books.
• Krige, D. (2015). ‘Growing up’ and ‘moving up’: metaphors that legitimise upward social mobility in Soweto. Development South Africa, 32(1), pp. 104-117.
• Melber, H. (2013). Africa and the middle class(es). Africa Spectrum, 48(3), pp. 11-120.
• Mitra, A. (2008). Social capital, livelihood and upward mobility. Habitat International, 32(2), pp. 261-269.
• Ngowi, A.B. (1997a). Virtues of construction training in traditional societies. Building and Environment, 32(3), pp. 289-294.
• Ngowi, A.B. (1997b). A hybrid approach to house construction: a case study of Botswana. Building Research and Information, 25(3), pp. 142-147.
• Ngowi, A.B. (1997c). Improving the traditional earth construction: a case study of Botswana. Construction and Building Materials, 11(1), pp. 1-7.
• Ngowi, A.B. (2001). Creating competitive advantage by using environment-friendly building processes. Building and Environment, 36(1), pp. 291-298.
• Nijman, J. (2006). Mumbai’s mysterious middle class. International Journal of Urban Regional Research, 30(4), pp. 758-775.
• Oliver, P. 2003. Dwellings: the vernacular house worldwide. London: Phaidon.
• Parsons, T. [1949] (1954). Essays in sociological theory. Revised edition. New York, Collier-Macmillian Limited/ London: The Free Press.
• Pittaway, D. (2017). Broadening the context of the ecological crisis: featuring the Orphic and the Promethean. Unpublished thesis (Ph.D.): Bloemfontein: University of the Free State
• Rapoport, A. (1977). Human aspects of urban form: towards a man-environment approach to urban form and design. Toronto: Pergamon Press.
• Rotariu, T. & Mezei, E. (1999). Recent aspects of the internal migration in Romania. Sociologie Româneascã, 3, pp. 5-37.
• Sandu, D. (2010). Social worlds of Romanian migration abroad. Bucharest: Polaron.
• Schlemmer, L. (2005). Lost in transformation? South Africa’s emerging African middle class. Johannesburg: CDE Focus 8, August, pp. 1-15.
• Schütz, A. & Luckmann, T. (1989). The structures of the life-world. Volume 2. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
• Schütz, A., Van Breda, H.L. & Natanson, M.A. (Eds). (1982). Collected Papers I: the problem of social reality. Dordrecht, Ne: Springer Netherlands.
• Seekings, J. (2009). The rise and fall of the Weberian analysis of class in South Africa between 1948 and the early 1970s. Journal of Southern African Studies, 35(4), pp. 865-881.
• Setreng, S.K. (2012). Gaia versus Servoglobe. In: Bhaskar, K., Hoyer, G., & Naess, P (Eds.). Ecophilosophy in a world of crisis: critical realism and the Nordic contributions. UK: Routledge.
• Southall, R. (2004). Political change and the black middle class in democratic South Africa. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 38(3), pp. 521-542.
• Steÿn, J.J. & Viviers, J. (2000). Integrated development planning process in South Africa: a case study in the Northern Free State. In: People’s empowerment in the planning: working paper book, 36th International Planning Congress of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), The Hague, The Netherlands, pp. 271-276.
• Turner, B. (Ed.). (1988). Building community: a third world casebook. London: Building Community Books.
• Wessels, Z.G. & Bosman, G. (2014). The city vernacular in South Africa. In: Correia, M., Carlos, G. & Rocha, S. (Eds.). Vernacular heritage and earthen architecture: contributions for sustainable development. London: CRC Press, pp. 227-232.
• White, L. (1967). The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis. Science. 155(376).