Technology and industrialization have played a large role in the past century, carrying humanity to its current state. We have houses as big and creative as we want, with more power and air conditioning units than we could ever need, with fast cars in the driveway…you get the idea. But, every once in a while, amidst this grid of technological infrastructure, some choose to take things back a notch, and explore the concepts of construction through more natural and sustainable methods.

One example of these is a very unique village resort in the Himalayas built by dry-stacking wood and stone without the use of cement. Now, by the sounds of it, this place can’t possibly that magical without the basic constructive element of cement…prepare to be amazed: http://www.ecofriend.com/himalayan-resort-made-dry-stacking-stone-wood-cement.html Not only is the village resort functional, but aesthetically gorgeous, architecturally marvelous, and a truly appealing vacation spot.

The notion of construction through post-dated methods seems so foreign to us, but why? Humans inhabited the earth and built many astounding things without the modern technological advances we’ve made, meaning these methods were discarded through progressiveness; however it’s not to say that these methods shouldn’t be re-visited, as they are clearly applicable to modern construction when looking at the village mentioned above.

Just because something new comes along to replace the old doesn’t mean the old needs to be so rapidly discarded. We should be re-visiting previous methods more often for menial and advanced tasks, because these methods clearly worked before, definitely could do so again. If we can build playgrounds out of recycled potato peels and veggie oil, there shouldn’t be any reason for us to explore more eco-friendly construction methods as humanity advances.

photo courtesy of http://www.ecofriend.com/himalayan-resort-made-dry-stacking-stone-wood-cement.html

 

 

 

 

 

Today, Canada’s housing market took a strange turn that isn’t sitting quite right with some, and appeases others. The changes that took place were that the CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation), who oversee and insure the vast majority of Canadian mortgages, has lowered the maximum amortization period from 30 years, to 25 years.

Now, this is being done to “ensure Canadians aren’t taking on more debt than they can afford“; however little to the CMHC’s concerns, this change will be seriously detrimental to new home buyers, and especially young ones. This decreased cap on amortization periods will do nothing but increase mortgage payments for new buyers, and become a large market deterrent, especially when you consider that 40 per cent of new mortgages last year were amortized over 30 years. Despite the government’s attempt to bring things back to the way they were in 2006 (a 25 year maximum amortization was in place before the Conservative government took over in 2006 and extended these periods to 40 years, and have since been shrinking back) it doesn’t seem that this may be the right approach to stabilize Canada’s barely recovering housing market. The Canadian real estate is only very recently beginning to recover, but this doesn’t mean that it’s stable, or recovered, so introducing more buying deterrents seems to be an unwise move…

What are your thoughts on this situation? Is this a good or bad decision to be made? Will the housing market continue to recover despite this deterring situation? Join the conversation with us on Twitter.

photo courtesy of twicepix