Building Real Wealth

At a glance

Project by: Tom Bender, Architect
Location: Neahkahnie Mtn, Oregon, United States

Preview image

Building Real Wealth (Tom Bender, Architect)

© Gary Braasch

Project images

	VALUES ARE DIFFERENT IN A SACRED WORLD Austerity is not doing without. It is getting rid of things in the way of what we REALLY want. Affluence doesn’t separate what is wise from what is merely possible. © Tom Bender View project image
	GARDENS OF THE SPIRIT Our souls need homes as much as our bodies. Homes for spirits don’t need walls or roofs. © Tom Bender View project image
	We can feel the power where primal forces of nature come together in intense and memorable relationships. This same power can be brought into the places of our everyday lives. © Gary Braasch View project image
	PASSION Ecstasy is a natural state, when open to the wonder of creation. All acts of pleasure and joy touch truth, gratitude, and love. Life-force energy rides emotion, bringing us into oneness with the source of life. © Tom Bender View project image
	FORM Form is a left-over from the creative dance of energy and intention. Pay attention to that dance, not the confetti on the floor when it is done. It's not important what a thing "looks like". What brought it into being? What changed in the process? What portent does its making hold for the future? © Gary Braasch View project image
	SACRED WORK Deep skill remains invisible until we grasp the profundity of the tasks attempted. Its product is understated beauty. © Tom Bender View project image
	SACRED ART bridges finite and infinite - connecting us to the realms of spirit. It reveals the source of Creation. The soul immanent within all that exists. © Tom Bender View project image
	Tourism takes from a place. Pilgrimage brings a gift - of valuing, honoring, and loving. It leaves behind our reverence. This enriches the energy of a place - and what it can give us. © Tom Bender View project image
	Sustainable economics encompasses more than just numbers. It is merely a tool to help choose paths to achieving our values. © Gary Braasch View project image

Architect's statement

"Building Real Wealth" by Tom Bender received one of nine top awards worldwide in the 1993 Sustainable Community Solutions competition sponsored by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

"Building Real Wealth" focused on examples of built projects and new ideas for transforming our communities to affordable and sustainable operation – in terms of energy, materials and waste, transportation, education and other institutions, and the value changes necessary to make it all work. Text is available at www.tombender.org.

The true challenge of sustainability to architects and community builders is more than a technical one. It is showing that there is power and greatness in sustainability and that life in such communities can move our hearts, give richness and meaning to our lives and create better places to live.

Wholistic design needs to:

Build for eternity
Touch the true heart of all we make
Avoid waste
Design for context, wild cards, and change
Create buildings with souls
Know the true costs of what we do
Build on sustainable values
Honor the traditional wisdom of all cultures
Avoid needs
Meet global needs with wasted institutional resources

Wealthy societies inevitably generate inefficient institutions. Restructuring them can release vast resources for other needs, and expand the effectiveness and availability of their services. Physically, this permits better facilities for various institutions, "better fitting" design, and surroundings that reflect back to us better values and a true sense of aptness.

Real wealth is not needing transportation, health care or other institutional services.

A wealthy world is one with:

A healthy and growing diversity of lifeforms, communities and capabilities.

A wealthy community is one with:

A meaningful sense of its place in the universe.
A healthy and growing diversity of capabilities, individuals and lifeforms.
A satisfying spiritual, emotional and material heritage, life, and prospect.

A wealthy individual is one with:

The love and respect of others and the ability to give.
Equitable opportunity for the physical, emotional and spiritual health which the natural world can sustain.
Opportunity to develop and employ innate capabilities and to be of real value to the community.