we live in the house we all build

An brief article on the ongoing desertification of Cyprus.

Cypriot towns are out of control; 8 out of 10 buildings approximately do not have any thermal insulation. A lot of heat is extracted mechanically from the interiors of overexposed buildings and together with the humidity is thrown out. The towns fill up with this hot and humid air. The cars multiply and the roads can't (and won't ever) catch up unless we shift to mass transport and reduce today's load. The toxic fumes coupled with the humidity will bring more asthma, bronchic ailments and cancer. This is how life in the City develops.

 Our single largest aquifer has been overexploited. The water table has been sinking to new depths every year. Accordingly, the soil surface is becoming a crust. Any occasional rain goes down very quickly or evaporates as the absence of a near water table allows the soil to bake in the hot summer sun. Young trees cannot grow without moisture, some of the old ones lose the water from their root system and die. The Mesaoria plains, fabled as the most productive area the island had to showcase only 30 years ago is completely barren. Many areas throughout the island have already been affected. This is how life in the Country develops.

The 1,5 billion m3 water deficit that we have built up has lowered the water table. We believe that the only strategy to stop desertification is to allow the water table to rise. Based on patchy information (for the lack of reporting by the competent authorities) our break even consumption is 170 million m3 of water per annum. We consume 200 million m3. To reverse the cycle we must draw and use less water than the break even. For argument's sake, an annual consumption of 140 million m3 of water, though a very painful 40% decrease over what we consume today, will still cover the deficit only after 50 years have gone by (1.5 billion/30 million)..

The decrease in consumption can come from many sources-all shamefully gaping holes in our water management system. 

Boreholes do not have a water meter installed. Users are free to draw however much they please, often selling the water.

Agriculture, consuming nearly 70% of our water supply, generates a 3,6% contribution to GDP and 5,5% employment, mostly imported labor specially for the purpose.It shouldn't be so.

Our water supply system is not modern, or high specification. It is generally circulated that we may be losing at least 20% of our water due to faulty pipes. For lack of data I cannot comment further. 

Desalination can work, but the power source should be renewables, as we may peg the cost of producing water to the cost of electricity and oil, which is generally assumed that it is finite in quantity. 

We must calculate the size of population that can be supported via renewable sources. Though members of the EU and subject to open skies agreements, we do have a maximum size beyond which the environment will become very hostile.  Due to our EU accession the population of the island is expected to rise by 67% over the next 30 years. 

between 24 and 25.5 degrees

Cyprus was once dominated by zero-energy houses-the adobe houses-and healthier individuals. Then came progress. The adobe (πλινθαρι) houses, a building type particular to subtropical / semiarid regions such as the island of Cyprus. over time  became widely discredited by our society, which in the cheap energy era opted for "modern" buildings that required massive energy inputs to be habitable.

The adobe building that houses our Architectural Practice is nearly 200 years old. Its latest substantial renovation was in 2008 and before that around 1900 when it was raised to a dramatic 2 stories. The original structure of the house dates back to the 1830's. In contrast, a new concrete structure today may last for 50 to 60 years on average. The foundations of our house are made of stone, and act as a sizable heat sink, cooling the house from its inner core. Above the humidity line, stone is replaced by adobe, which has excellent anti-seismic and thermal insulation properties. So effective, that measured results from a meteorological station placed in this building showed a temperature swing of 1.5 degrees celsius (from 24 to 25.5 degrees) inside the building, whilst outside the temperature gyrated from 40 to 18 degrees.

The adobe house makes maximum use of the land it occupies, and is a good neighbor,  touching walls with next-door structures and insulating each other. It is always properly oriented to take advantage of breeze, which brings in the fresh air and rejects the stale air in tall, volumy rooms. Internal doors and windows on the top floor create passages of wind that ensure good air flow all around, and create a natural drawing of the air on ground floor level to the top floor. Air-and not sun-flows into the building from the wooden window adjustable detailings that transmit no light and heat inside. Air flows out of similar openings on the top floor, and create pleasant shady and breezy areas such as the kiosk (εξωστης) which projects a discreet eye on a small scale street that shades the sides of buildings during the extra sunshine hours that Cyprus does not need. 

The advent of cheap energy and industrialization and the modern fast way of our lives,have taken away from us amongst others the zero energy house. Victims of a seemingly vast catch-22, we are now condemned to working every day of our lives to feed-at a substantial loss of our time and money-our poorly designed house to keep its inner temperature between 24 and 25.4 degrees. This of course  can only last for as long as we have the means to generate income. A well-designed house that needs a fraction of the cost to operate allows our elderly to live with dignity and not to rely on a government handout to survive the cold.