On my visit to European countries, have seen solid houses dating back from 1875 or so that are still strong. Can some one advice the materials, construction techniques used and some of the architects who can be contacted for advise. I want to construct similar type of house in India that will last centuries.
Thanks for your time
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Replies
prim
Much of the construction in Western Europe is masonry or concrete.
Done right-it should last.
Construction here in the States-much is wood frame.
Done right, no problem reaching over the century mark.
Downside-much of it isn't and won't last-wasn't meant to -some would say.
It's a shame to use up the natural resources in such a haphazard way.
Not to mention old-growth timber. And careful attention to flashing/drainage details.
Many "stave churches" were built in Norway and northern Europe beginning about 1150. These were all-wood structures, since the churches of that era were generally too poor to afford fancy stone structures. A surprising number have survived to the present day.
But beginning sometime in the 1900s folks began to "improve" the structures by applying "modern" waterproofing technologies -- sealing cracks with tar and pitch. As a result many deteriorated rapidly. The original structures (built by people who understood wood buildings) were designed to drain rainwater out of the joints, but the later "maintainers" used practices that held water in the joints, resulting in rot.
One issue . . .
While scoping out alternatives for our new house in Japan, late in 1993, I did quite a bit of reading, and even penned a short essay about it for one of my institute's journals. It's well known that the traditional folk-Japanese home-building ethic is geared toward "build for the summer." That means that it's okay to leave drafty, unsealed joints, since that will improve ventilation in summer--also, many traditional J homes have a veranda on one or more outside margins (see photo1) that can be closed with sliding panels or shutters in event of seasonal typhoons, but when open (together with rice-paper sliding doors [shoji] allow light and breezes to pass through the interior rooms.
Of course, the negative side of this kind of structure is felt in the winter, when the temperature inside the house is basically the same as that outside. A Canadian friend of mine living on the side of a low mountain on the north side of the town tells me a glass of water left on the LR table will be ice in the morning if left overnight in the dead of winter. So after the ordinary daylight time has been expended doing off-season agricultural chores, the house occupants basically wear thick, cotton-padded coats while sitting 'round a *kotatsu* with charcoal fire providing leg warmth. On reflection, that's not so different from what we experienced in married-students' graduate housing in NJ ca 1977-81. Built during the WWII period for OTC barracks, those long, low housing units were without insulation; I don't know how many times we had to call the maintenance department on a winter's morn, a layer of ice on our shower floor and the pipes frozen solid.
Photo link (not my photo): http://www.kimuko.net/blog/Windows-Live-Writer/bb5afb716d01_F7D2/DSC03709.jpg
(behind the humans sitting on the veranda (engawa) you can see the white, rice-paper doors that allow natural daytime illumination to reach the inner side of the house, but together with the thicker fusuma (sliding room dividers), can be removed to provide complete ventilation from one side of the house to the other..
old buildings.
Following the Great Fire of London in 1666 all buildings in London were++built of stone or bricks. Brick became the building of choise in Europe, not easily damaged by fire, lasts for years.
The Romans, Greeks and Persions built with brick and stone over 2000 years ago. Many of these buildings still exist.
There is no problem in insulating a brick or stone building as long as you understand how heat moves, heat always moves to cold. You insulate a building on the room warm side in a cold area, on the outside in a hot area.
Euro Const.
Just got back from Switzerland. Saw what looked like laminated lumber +/- 4" thick for walls. I don't mean like mico lams, but laminated +/- 1x8" lumber. It may have had an insulating core of some type. Didn't get close enough to see much detail.
One of the things that caught my eye was that every job site had a small boom crane. Even for small single family structures.