Abstract
Populous urban regions can spawn creative knowledge in practice when re-using existing materials for sustainable development (Murphy and Pincetl, 2013:49–50; Naveh, 2007:1437–1438; Vatalis et al., 2013:754–755; Wu, 2010:2; Zaman and Lehmann, 2011:186). In this paper, I describe the use of reclaimed building materials (wood, stone, and paint) through three practical household plans, and how the negotiation of these materials, combined with one’s ancestral knowledge systems (Moreno Sandoval 2012:23), and the household growing of food may lead to spatial wellness. As a result, building with reclaimed materials gives birth to new construction knowledge. When these new ways of building exchange between community members, human well-being, as considered by Meadows (1998:6671), surfaces both physically and spiritually. In today’s accelerated world (Steffen et al., 2011), when household risks, disease, and illness threaten our livelihoods, household building sustainability (HBS) and locally grown food combine to strengthen the household clinic. When met aggressively, modifying and negotiating materials and space with the hands represent one method of decolonizing the body and mind, while simultaneously combating the concerns regarding our natural environment, which is in line with the goals of sustainable development identified in the United Nations’ 1987 report “Our Common Future”.
Keywords: Household building sustainability (HBS); Spatial wellness; The household clinic; Reclaimed building materials; Hand-bone morphology; Ancestral computing