Jurriaan van Stigt column
In 1970, Maarten Toonder, a Dutch comic strip creator, wrote a visionary story about Mr Bommel, De Slijtmijt (The Weary Mite). The back cover of the 2011 reissue says that Toonder "anticipates contemporary themes such as sustainability and overproduction. For the bosses in this Bumblebee story, overproduction does not exist! Products have to be worn out so that production can continue to grow. At the end of the story, these same 'upper bosses' sell their shares in cement and steel and opt for wood. Given the recent news about the Dutch pension fund ABP, the book can almost be called visionary.
For us architects too, the question is always: should we continue to design with cement, steel and brick, materials with such overwhelming CO2 emissions? Quite apart from the reality of contracts and regulations, should we still want to? Of course, we cannot suddenly make everything out of wood. As much as possible, absolutely, and in the Netherlands perhaps primarily the construction skeleton. But in the meantime, there is still a lot of profit to be made in other building components. The brick industry, for example, would like to change. Let us help them. After all, brick is a very hard-wearing façade material, and the clay comes in naturally, a renewable resource.
As designers, we can opt for thinner bricks, for example. A 65mm brick quickly saves 35% CO2, but it can also lead to less steel in the façade. Ceramic brick strips, with a metal suspension system, easily achieves a 70% CO2 reduction and is also dismountable. The biggest step would be made if the government made a clear choice for hydrogen, and let it pass through the existing gas grid. The manufacturer Strating already announced this week in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant that they are eager to get started.
In the words of Bommel: we have to step on the gas, if you know what I mean.