|
INVESTING IN CONCRETE Invest in good things with a fixed return. Money with no exchange value is merely paper and you can’t live in it unless you recycle it into a cardboard box. Hamsters eat paper, but human beings don’t! As the USA has shown us, houses are expensive for ‘the average man or woman’. Invest now in concrete blocks and you will have housing for life. This applies to both residential and working premises. Your return is 0%, but you do have 100% security and reliability. In times of economic crisis, concrete gains in value as compared to other products due to its sustainability. It works without any deadline. It can be exchanged immediately or the product is returned. You are still the legal owner in the eyes of the notary. It is a better investment than gold. It retains its value. It can be loaded in less than half an hour. The system has been in existence for less than ten years, but already it has proved its value. It is so bulky and voluminous that everyone has seen it, including the authorities and law enforcement agencies. The Queen of the Netherlands could have been protected perfectly against the last attack upon her on 30 April 2009. If a few concrete blocks had been positioned at crucial points, there would not have been any problem. No one need be put off by the cost, because this is exactly the same. In fact, it could even have been cheaper. Yet we are foolish if we do not look for new ways of doing things, merely following tradition slavishly. For the application of stackable concrete blocks in general, there is no need to abandon the idea from an aesthetic point of view, as the blocks can be painted beautifully. If we look at the monumental work left behind by Salvator Dali, for example, then we have a simple illustration. Famous, reputable artists are now finding things much harder because today it is possible simply to copy everything. Simply adding a little variation means there is no copyright to be paid. Art on its own is a poor investment. This is because of the vulnerability and (sometimes) futility and constantly changing tastes of people in general. It is precisely this flexible variation which nevertheless has something to do with sustainability. If my building work does not need to be dismantled, it could raise more profits in this way than what it ever cost. The idea that increasing the scale and better production methods and cheaper extraction of raw materials will help to lower the price is also an illusion. The price is related to the energy that it costs to produce the concrete blocks. It will be related to innovation and production in The Netherlands along a difficult road. A word about scaling and enlargement for greater production and better quality: Things which are presently hand-made in a concrete factory can be compared with work in a car factory. Greater mechanisation and multinationalisation will help to lower the price. This is a general rule. As regards cheaper raw materials such as sand, gravel, and cement, scaling and enlargement have their limits. Enlargement with greater production volumes is still a long, long way off. In other words, this can be compared with the maximum legal width of a road (2.5m) in The Netherlands. This is a traditional limit which is not likely to be exceeded in the near future, even though The Netherlands is a country with scores of waterways and large ports where ships have hardly any limits in size. Ships have much better options than cars for transporting large volumes over long distances. Innovation or clever inventions with new construction applications will be commonplace. In cities it is the ordinary people who are troubled by all sorts of problems: financial problems, complexity problems, spatial problems, renewal problems, legal problems, ownership problems, bureaucratic problems, perceived safety problems, presentation problems, criminality problems, noise problems, air pollution, bad smells etc. The conclusion is that scaling up is almost entirely absent. The construction industry is continuing along its traditional paths. The price therefore remains the same. Oddly enough, it is a fact that hydraulic cranes have now been used widely in The Netherlands for over 40 years, yet they have not made housing any cheaper in relation to monthly pay. Furthermore, this mechanisation has ensured a ratio of one machine for twenty-five manual labourers. For landowners, the potential for the use of concrete blocks remains unlimited. Bureaucratic laws cannot catch these entrepreneurs. It is permissible and even desirable to stabilise foundations to prevent collapse and decay. However, road links for heavy traffic are needed. This would seem to be just as useful as telephone, gas, water, and electricity connections. I am a competent architect and I know what people really need. I am also qualified in the following areas: road engineering, physics (including experience in steel structures), electrical engineering, electronics, and related technology. My full (international) telephone number is: 0031-117-451648
|
ik wil lid worden!
