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Buckminster Fuller used to say that house construction was a field which had hardly evolved over the last thousand years. In fact, in many ways, construction techniques have regressed.

To understand this, we must look at various aspects of the modern shelter, including the materials used, the efficiency of the structure, the shape of the building itself, energy efficiency, and harmony with the environment. For example, does the shape and position of the house take into account the dominant winds and / or the position of the sun throughout different seasons? More often than not, the answer is no.

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Virtual friend Bethany Buffington, who wears philosophy on her brow and has poetry in her heart, judiciously commented on part I of this post (as it appears on Myspace), suggesting that the proper way to create a house is as an outer expression of one’s inner beauty. One who cultivates inner beauty and chooses to let it shine by expressing it in the material realm in whatever form (house, object, performance, etc.) is certainly an artist. And I wholeheartedly agree that a proper dwelling should be a work of art. And this invites a proper digression into the concept of beauty

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