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Comment by latexr | Hacker News Reader

> Is that dirty?

That’s not what you should be worrying about.

> I have trees growing from the cracks of the building, and I think that's beautiful.

It probably is beautiful. It may also be inconvenient or outright dangerous. As the trees continue to grow and expand the cracks, the building’s structure becomes ever more compromised. Maybe the cracks will expand and more rain will come in, causing mold and making your home less effective at keeping its temperature. Or maybe they’ll expand in a way that a whole wall will fall off.

Seeing plants sprouting from the ground in cities is fun and aesthetically pleasing, I agree. But it is not always safe to let them keep growing.

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It's a 1 storey building. Even if the vine means it will only last 50 years instead of 100 years, the risks are low and the cost to replace is low.

If we were talking about public infra where thousands will die if a structure fails prematurely, then sure, let's be careful about vines. But if a private land owner wishes to grow vines (or allow vines to grow) on their private building, I think it's fine.

> It's a 1 storey building.

I’m not talking about the building in the article, or even Japan specifically, but addressing the general point of trees and other growths which cause literal cracks and compromise structural integrity.

> If we were talking about public infra where thousands will die if a structure fails prematurely

That is exactly what I’m talking about. Well, maybe not thousands, even a four story building with a compromised structure can lead to unnecessary deaths.

> I’m not talking about the building in the article, or even Japan specifically, but addressing the general point of trees and other growths which cause literal cracks and compromise structural integrity.

Structural integrity or uniformity (or some other qualitative)? Yes, occasionally there is an actual structural problem (MSME here) but far, far more often things are torn down or discarded when a slight repair would suffice (other than the preference).

> the building’s structure becomes ever more compromised

on what timescale though? and in an invisible way?

I believe buildings are seen as more temporary in japan than in the west; maybe point at which the damage is excessive would outlive the building?

> on what timescale though?

Short enough to kill you or your direct descendants. These things can look fine for years and then collapse in one day.

> and in an invisible way?

Makes no difference how visible it is if you don’t understand the risk and do nothing until something happens. And the longer you wait, the harder it will be to remedy.

> I believe buildings are seen as more temporary in japan than in the west

I’m not talking about Japan, I’m addressing the general point.

> "on what timescale though?"

Depends on how extensive the growth is and how structurally stable the thing is in the first place. But expect major problems on the decades-timescale.

> "and in an invisible way?"

Yes. This is the main problem with allowing unconstrained plant growth near/in/under structures - the degree of structural compromise is hard to assess (especially without spending a lot of $$$), and failure can be sudden. You're not gonna get as much warning as you'd want.

In the US it's a popular look to have vines growing against brick walls. They're beautiful but often hazardous for structural safety, especially if not proactively maintained and constantly monitored (which is $$$!)

[edit] I think overall the focus on the "pleasantly ramshackle" aesthetics of the shack misses the forest for the trees. There's a lot of daylight between "permit small businesses in possibly unsafe structures" and "western status quo norms for business licensure".

I think something Japan gets done really well is making it easy and inexpensive to run businesses, especially hobby businesses. There are a ton of policies that encourage this outcome, and we can and should adopt entire rafts of them without changing existing regs about the physical structural stability of said businesses ;)

This shouldn't really matter, but it matters to insurance. So landlords cut down trees.

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