Funny to read about how this guy invented a wonderful NEW way to build houses back in the 1960s, but the article describes the way that most Canadian houses (and Scandinavian ones) have been built for at least 10 years or so.
Not to mention that if you go to Russia or other parts of the former Soviet Union you can find lots of people with self-built houses made from bricks and various sorts of stone blocks covered with plaster, whose construction is very much life the average 30's pebble dash home in Britain. Minus the pebbles of course. Russians prefer smooth plaster and paint or decorative tiles.
Having participated in building the Canadian way, moving around long heavy timbers, I wonder if the European brick and block way is not superior for self-building. Much easier to lift one block into postion, than a long timber, or a prebuilt truss (crane required) or a prebuilt wall (half a dozen strong helpers required and they bear the risk of it falling on them if a mistake is made).
I have looked at this quite closely. It looks very similar at first sight, but the process is quite different from conventional Canadian timber framing, in that it has a radical focus on simplicity and self building.
On a practical level, this translates into things like much more modest foundations (poles instead of slab), a 60 cm grid system that is perpetuated throughout the house, plasterboard panels that get loosely fit instead of screwed on, an extremely simple but sturdy stair design, and more.
I worked for just over a year as a builders labourer in NZ.
One evening, as prep for the next days work I singlehandedly sorted out all the pre-built roof trusses, and lifted them up on top of the wall frames we'd stood up that day.
It wasn't very difficult, and certainly didn't require a crane.
Not to mention that if you go to Russia or other parts of the former Soviet Union you can find lots of people with self-built houses made from bricks and various sorts of stone blocks covered with plaster, whose construction is very much life the average 30's pebble dash home in Britain. Minus the pebbles of course. Russians prefer smooth plaster and paint or decorative tiles.
Having participated in building the Canadian way, moving around long heavy timbers, I wonder if the European brick and block way is not superior for self-building. Much easier to lift one block into postion, than a long timber, or a prebuilt truss (crane required) or a prebuilt wall (half a dozen strong helpers required and they bear the risk of it falling on them if a mistake is made).