[Discuss] Open Source Ecological Housing

Catarina Mota catarina at openmaterials.org
Tue Aug 16 14:51:49 UTC 2016


Great tips, thank you Nancy!

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 5:50 PM, Nancy Ouyang <nouyang at mit.edu> wrote:

> Catarina - (quite the digression now, but
> the community you're looking for is "liveaboards". small overlap with
> "maker" community (3d printer on one: http://www.upcraft.it/archives/1259)
>
> this community is quite active & responsive:
> https://beta.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BostonLiveaboards/info
>
> Did a quick search, I couldn't find online about MI -- you should call the
> boat permit / harbormasters in your area and ask to at least get the
> official line
> http://www.seattle-houseboat.com/faqs
> http://www.houseboatmagazine.com/2010/11/the-laws-of-living-aboard
>
> i do not know about houseboats, but know a few things about liveaboard on
> small sailboats. i suggest you find a forum specific to your interest &
> search specifically on there -- google will not help you here, many boat
> folks are fall outside the "internet / SEO / social media age".)
>
>
>
> ~~~
> narwhaledu.org, educational robots
> <http://gfycat.com/ExcitableLeanAkitainu> [[<(._.)>]] my personal blog
> <http://www.orangenarwhals.com>, orangenarwhals
>
> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 5:32 PM, Catarina Mota <catarina at openmaterials.org
> > wrote:
>
>> That really is amazing! Living in the ocean is a long time dream, but I
>> guess I'll have to make do with Missouri's lakes :) Do you know if
>> permits/build codes are similar for house boats?
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 4:22 PM, Andrew Quitmeyer <andy at comingle.io>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Not to derail too much on floating buildings, but also this project is
>>> AMAZING: http://www.svseeker.com/wp/?v=7516fd43adaa
>>>
>>> Doug Jackson is building a huge 75 foot steel boat for living on and
>>> letting scientists do research on, and he documents the whole thing (and he
>>> builds it in Tulsa!)
>>>
>>>
>>> __
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Andrew Quitmeyer - PhD
>>> Founder / Designer / Documentarian
>>> www.comingle.io
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 4:43 PM, Catarina Mota <
>>> catarina at openmaterials.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Sure, and I don't pretend to be all that good at marketing copy, I've
>>>>> just been studying it lately because I realized I wasn't any good at all. I
>>>>> think I am pretty good at recognizing when a builder is having a hard time
>>>>> switching to marketing because I have a lot of subjective experience with
>>>>> that.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I agree with what you said. My instinct was also to put the buildings
>>>> and campaign scope (what it's funding) at the top, but kickstarter told us
>>>> to move it down... Anyway, I'm just a nerd and don't know the first thing
>>>> about marketing :D
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> That get-in-then-build-out approach is something I'm extremely
>>>>> interested in. It's counter intuitive to most people. Typically, the
>>>>> options are to buy what everyone else is buying or do it totally on your
>>>>> own. If you pick the former, then you need to get financing, and banks only
>>>>> finance large mortgages. If you do it yourself, you're probably limited to
>>>>> a microhouse. I think there's a strong case to be made for the intermediate
>>>>> approach where, because of modular and open source standards, you can spend
>>>>> what would have been your down payment building a small house, and then
>>>>> spend what would have been your yearly mortgage payments expanding it. Or
>>>>> not. That isn't an option with traditional building techniques and
>>>>> communities, but it very well might be with the new stuff. You could tie it
>>>>> in to current events. There's probably something in the pitch that
>>>>> millenials and retirees need a house that's as cheap as a car.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yes, that is it exactly! This project was born out of our need for a
>>>> "get-in-then-build-out" house - which no one else seemed to be able to
>>>> provide. So, we were just "scratching our own itch" (as Raymond puts it)
>>>> and then realized this make make sense for others as well.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I wonder if you can deconstruct modular houses with the same
>>>>> transaction costs as constructing them. How much can you recover? Do you
>>>>> get the original components back if you start pulling out nails and screws?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We're always changing things around here and did quite a bit of
>>>> deconstruction. The take from that is that you can use pretty much all the
>>>> lumber - even entire modules, without taking them apart - and about 75% of
>>>> the fasteners. But taking things apart and then putting them back together
>>>> is a lot of work. And you can't salvage the foundation, or the compressed
>>>> earth block walls, or any buried pipes (well, you could, but it would suck
>>>> to dig them up). So it's doable - if you need to - but not something I'd
>>>> like to do every year :)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A couple interesting links about this:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-supply-crisis-is-
>>>>>> looming-2016-3
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://www.ted.com/talks/alejandro_aravena_my_
>>>>>> architectural_philosophy_bring_the_community_into_the_
>>>>>> process?language=en
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 2:51 PM, Emilio Velis <
>>>>>> contacto at emiliovelis.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> So I have this project I'm interested in making happen here in El
>>>>>>> Salvador and am getting a lot of people involved to fund it and make it
>>>>>>> happen. Very much worth it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'll stay on the loop and keep you posted soon! Thanks for sharing!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 29 June 2016 at 13:42, Matt Maier <blueback09 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Here are thoughts as they occur to me:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I feel like you should lead with this stuff. http://
>>>>>>>> openbuildinginstitute.org/buildings/
>>>>>>>> It's easy to get excited about the technical details you had to get
>>>>>>>> working to make the project functional, but customers aren't going to care
>>>>>>>> until they want to live there. So tell them stories about how nice it is to
>>>>>>>> live there.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'm interested in the infrastructure necessary to get a serious
>>>>>>>> open source hardware project working, but not many other people are. There
>>>>>>>> are a lot more people interested in cheap, efficient microhouses, and a
>>>>>>>> whole lot more people interested in green tech, and even more interested in
>>>>>>>> small living spaces.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Don't use a screenshot of the kickstarter video with "play" on it
>>>>>>>> as a link to kickstarter. If it looks like a button to start a video it
>>>>>>>> should start an embedded video.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the kickstarter campaign
>>>>>>>> is funding. You already build the house, and you don't seem to be trying to
>>>>>>>> build a bunch more houses, like for a community in Africa or something. I
>>>>>>>> feel like maybe "you're funding a source of all the knowledge and skills
>>>>>>>> you need to design and build a house yourself" is the primary value
>>>>>>>> proposition, but it's kind of buried. Oh, okay, there it is. The list of
>>>>>>>> what the campaign is funding is a quick set of bullet points at the end of
>>>>>>>> the video. It's also buried in the about/roadmap and contribute/support us
>>>>>>>> on kickstarter sections of the website. I'm pretty sure I saw it somewhere
>>>>>>>> on the kickstarter page too. It seems like it should be a lot easier to
>>>>>>>> find out exactly what is being funded.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Do you think the open source documentation will be detailed enough
>>>>>>>> for someone to build everything without paying to learn how? The
>>>>>>>> implication from the description is that people are expected to offset the
>>>>>>>> cost of the build by charging people for the knowledge they acquire during
>>>>>>>> the build. I'd be interested in following how general contractors and
>>>>>>>> builders incorporate this as an option in their business.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Also, in general, it feels like you could summarize and cut the
>>>>>>>> text down by at least 50%. The diagrams take up a lot of space but don't
>>>>>>>> necessarily illuminate much. The "we offer/you can" diagram takes a couple
>>>>>>>> minutes to understand (the fonts aren't helping).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The video's already shot, but as I parse out what's being funded it
>>>>>>>> struck me that you might not want to characterize your location as "in the
>>>>>>>> middle of nowhere" when a big part of the plan is to build a facility
>>>>>>>> people are supposed to travel to and use. Maybe something like "the perfect
>>>>>>>> place to live efficiently" or "the opposite of NYC" would be better
>>>>>>>> marketing. Along similar lines, it seems unnecessarily misleading to
>>>>>>>> compare the cost of your microhouse to an average $360K house. It took
>>>>>>>> about 30 seconds of googling to find that the costs you're estimating are
>>>>>>>> right in line with microhouses https://padtinyhouses.com/how-much-
>>>>>>>> does-a-tiny-house-cost/ and I doubt you're poaching anyone who was
>>>>>>>> planning to build a brand new 2000 square foot McMansion to switch to
>>>>>>>> building a microhouse. Even if you do get some of them, they'll compare
>>>>>>>> yours to other microhouses. Oh man, and you buried something towards the
>>>>>>>> end to the effect that you're crowdfunding part of the costs and
>>>>>>>> bootstrapping the rest; that should be near the top!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 8:53 PM, Catarina Mota <
>>>>>>>> catarinamfmota at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Dear fellow open sourcerers,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> We just launched a new project that has been many years in the
>>>>>>>>> making. It's called the Open Building Institute and it's an open source
>>>>>>>>> initiative to make affordable eco-housing accessible to everyone.
>>>>>>>>> The project is based on collaborative rapid-builds, a modular system, and
>>>>>>>>> open source machines.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Check it out: http://openbuildinginstitute.org
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Any feedback and collaborations will be greatly appreciated.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>>>> Catarina
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> discuss mailing list
>>>>>>>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>>>>>>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> discuss mailing list
>>>>>>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>>>>>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> discuss mailing list
>>>>>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>>>>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> discuss mailing list
>>>>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>>>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> discuss mailing list
>>>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> discuss mailing list
>>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> discuss mailing list
>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> discuss mailing list
>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> discuss mailing list
> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oshwa.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20160816/17505fa6/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the discuss mailing list