Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Open Source Policies and More

[Nicole Lorsong (nickittynic]

Have you ever seen the kid's show "Bob the Builder"? 
 
In a recent season, Bob won a contest to be the developer/builder of a 
community called Sunflower Valley. He uses a lot of eco-friedly building ideas 
(including straw bale houses and houses built into the hills) in his proposal, 
where as the other developer in the contest plans to make the rural area into a 
very urban city with malls, billboards, and tall buildings. 
 
Anyway, what made me think of this from your post is that to better fit the 
needs of incoming residents, Bob invents a house that "snaps" together using 
different pieces. This way, the people got to have the windows, doors, rooms, 
etc, that they wanted while not having to build the whole thing custom. Then 
they helped each other to "click" them all together!
 
In real life, what about something like Eco Mod Structures? 
http://www.eco-mod-structure.com/ I plan on trying to visit the the model this 
summer, and when I emailed the company they said they would be very interested 
in doing a cohousing project.

--- On Mon, 5/3/10, seaseal <seaseal [at] got.net> wrote:


From: seaseal <seaseal [at] got.net>
Subject: [C-L]_ Open Source Policies and More
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Date: Monday, May 3, 2010, 10:45 PM



I have long thought that a great local business would be to make  
modular pieces that could be bolted together in multiple ways to form  
houses in a community. That way, people could get their 17 pieces of  
"house" and put them together for a configuration to their liking. I'm  
a believer in this as I live in a home made from modular pieces, made  
in a factory and shipped in a container, ready to be put together. The  
assembly goes most quickly with professionals, but it goes even with  
unskilled volunteers.

This is another way to get a bunch of houses built--the old-fashioned  
and time-honored Barn Raising effort.

The modular parts factories could be replicated on the same premise.  
Bill McKibben wrote about the Brazilian town Curitiba, where the poor,  
living in substandard conditions in a flood plain, were moved to a  
location along a transit line and given homes they could design within  
the perimeters of the project. Maria Vaz made a video about Curitiba  
called "A Convenient Truth."

Open Source Housing.

Cecile
seaseal [at] got.net

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to
   sail my ship."
   -- Louisa May Alcott

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