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> cathedrals are accretions of effort over time, no cathedral is ever finished The basic premise of "How Buildings Learn" by Stewart Brand, co-founder of The W

> cathedrals are accretions of effort over time, no cathedral is ever finished The basic premise of "How Buildings Learn" by Stewart Brand, co-founder of The WELL, is that the better buildings are those that can and may adapt to different purposes over their life span. Like they say, 'this home has good bones' if the house has good infrastructure and structure. This can also be obviously applied to software construction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn

sevensor 7y ago
Interesting notion! It puts me in mind of Levittown. All houses followed an original standard design (or three), but if you go there today, no two are alike. Originally derided as the paragon of uniformity, each house in Levittown has grown and changed to suit its owners.
- jackbravo 7y ago
  any link with more information about Levittown?
  - alexhutcheson 7y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown
  - sevensor 7y ago
    This is the Levittown I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_Pennsylvania This song distills the low regard in which it was held. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes My comment is based on visits to Levittown -- a friend of mine grew up there.
    - schoen 7y ago
      Though note that "Little Boxes" originally refers to Daly City, California (you can see them when riding BART to or from SFO).
      - sevensor 7y ago
        I did not know that. Thank you!
Gravityloss 7y ago
A friend of mine is a very meticulous person once they set their mind on something. So when they were buying a house, they read a lot of books, talked to a lot of people and looked a lot of houses. They had a fun aphorism (don't know how it translates): There are two kinds of houses: "if" houses and "despite" houses. An "if" house stay in shape if the roof doesn't leak. A "despite" house stays in shape despite the roof leaking every now and then. This is because of different design philosophies. More modern chipboard or glass wool usually get destroyed if they get wet. Old fashioned wood can simply be dried (if it doesn't get moldy / rot). Plastic insulation (or plastic based paints) creates moisture traps. Structures don't dry and usually they just rot. Everything works fine with chipboard, plastic and glass wool IF it never gets wet. This is usually about as far as people think. (Dealing with pointers or lots of global variables is safe if you never make any mistakes.) But the longer the life span of the house, the less likely that is to be true.

sevensor 7y ago

Interesting notion! It puts me in mind of Levittown. All houses followed an original standard design (or three), but if you go there today, no two are alike. Originally derided as the paragon of uniformity, each house in Levittown has grown and changed to suit its owners.

jackbravo 7y ago
any link with more information about Levittown?
- alexhutcheson 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown
- sevensor 7y ago
  This is the Levittown I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_Pennsylvania This song distills the low regard in which it was held. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes My comment is based on visits to Levittown -- a friend of mine grew up there.
  - schoen 7y ago
    Though note that "Little Boxes" originally refers to Daly City, California (you can see them when riding BART to or from SFO).
    - sevensor 7y ago
      I did not know that. Thank you!

Gravityloss 7y ago

A friend of mine is a very meticulous person once they set their mind on something. So when they were buying a house, they read a lot of books, talked to a lot of people and looked a lot of houses. They had a fun aphorism (don't know how it translates): There are two kinds of houses: "if" houses and "despite" houses. An "if" house stay in shape if the roof doesn't leak. A "despite" house stays in shape despite the roof leaking every now and then. This is because of different design philosophies. More modern chipboard or glass wool usually get destroyed if they get wet. Old fashioned wood can simply be dried (if it doesn't get moldy / rot). Plastic insulation (or plastic based paints) creates moisture traps. Structures don't dry and usually they just rot. Everything works fine with chipboard, plastic and glass wool IF it never gets wet. This is usually about as far as people think. (Dealing with pointers or lots of global variables is safe if you never make any mistakes.) But the longer the life span of the house, the less likely that is to be true.