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  • From: Laura Vargas <laura@somosazucar.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: Open Building Institute Approaches Launch Date
  • Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2017 13:20:51 -0500

http://openbuildinginstitute.org/

Felíz dia y bendiciones a todos y todas!


[image: how it works]

Introducing the Open Building Institute: a Q&A with Marcin Jakubowski

by Cat Johnson

The Open Building Institute is an open source effort to make affordable
housing widely available while fostering collaborative and ecological
practices. The project is focused on low cost and rapidly-built structures
that are modular, ecological, and energy efficient. At the heart of OBI is
a library of building modules, including walls, windows, doors, roof,
utility and functional modules and more that can be combined to create a
variety of structures, including studios, homes, multi-family houses,
greenhouses, barns, workshops, schools, and offices.

I spoke with founding partner Marcin Jakubowski about the importance of
open source design to address pressing global issues, why modular building
is an exciting alternative to traditional building methods, and how an
empowered community of people that draw from, and contribute to, the
library can help provide low-cost housing solutions anywhere.

* Cat Johnson: How did the Open Building Institute (OBI) come about? What
need does it fill that is not available elsewhere?*

Marcin Jakubowski: Catarina Mota and I got married in 2013 and she moved
from Brooklyn, New York to the middle of nowhere, Missouri. She realized
that the house we had was simply too small. We called some contractors, but
found out that what we wanted didn’t exist yet. Catarina needed a
comfortable house that didn’t cost a million dollars, that could be built
quickly from local materials, and that could be expanded as we grow.

There was only one option: we had to build it ourselves. So we did just
that. We examined the best practices then took our open source high power
brick press and, through much trial and error, developed a formula for
rapid builds. With rapid builds, a big group of people builds a large
number of modules in parallel and then assembles them rapidly into a
building. We realized that, using these techniques, we could build an 800
square foot structure from scratch in just five days. So we decided to take
it to the next level.

For a few years now we’ve been developing an open source toolkit that can
make building a house easier, faster, and cheaper. We started a library of
modules that can be put together like building blocks. We’re developing
instructionals, including software and many other tools to enable anyone to
design and build using this open source system. Moreover, we’re creating a
training program for our system so, if you want, you can hire an OBI
builder anywhere in the world.

We have decided to build a solar-powered, replicable Materials Production
Facility so you can use local materials wherever you are. Focusing on
integrated, regenerative design, we are pursuing Living Building Challenge
certification, which is the highest standard for regenerative construction.
We are also developing a social model of production, where
apprentices-in-training build the houses during immersion training
workshops. Our combination of rapid build time, low cost, regenerative
features, user-generated design, and feasibility of both social production
or commercial build models are not found in any other house offering. Our
value proposition revolves around democratizing construction.


* The Institute offers a library of building modules, including walls,
windows, doors, roof, and utilities, that can be combined to create homes,
barns, greenhouses, studios and more. Why does open, low-cost, modular
building make sense? *
Modular, open source housing makes sense because you can design and modify
it yourself for your specific needs—or you can use existing designs. Open
design means that you have full access to use, distribute, modify, or sell
the product, free of charge. Low cost makes sense for access, such as when
modular housing can be built in an incremental fashion. Our standard model
costs under $25k for materials for a 700 square foot, expandable Starter
Home. But you can build a structure of any size, larger or smaller.

Rather than getting in debt with the average $360,000 dollar new house, you
can start with a smaller home for 1/10 of the cost and then expand it as
needed. You have the ability to choose standard or innovative features, as
your budget allows. Because we are developing design guides and we provide
the module libraries, you can become your own house designer. The point of
modular design is that you have access to design assets that have already
been worked out or engineered in detail by others so you are able to create
house designs that are not only fanciful, but also buildable in real life.
If you contribute your designs or improvements back to the common pool
under a share-alike license, which is a requirement of using the OBI
library, then access to quality designs increases with time. The whole
ecosystem grows in value and service to humanity.

*Designs and build instructions are contributed by designers around the
world. What type of designs are found in the library and why is the
collaborative and distributed approach important?*

We have seeded a library, which has sufficient modules to design a house.
But our scope of usage in many contexts and locations is so broad that only
a collaborative and distributed approach can achieve it. Many designers,
many perspective and experiences are needed to pull it off. This could not
be done with a centralized approach.

The library, at this point, contains around 20 structure and utility
modules that we have built and tested over the last three years. The scope
of the library includes materials, build processes, structural and utility
modules, and entire house designs. *10 AM CST, Wednesday June 29, 2016*
marks the official launch of OBI, with the Kickstarter campaign. We will
start accepting contributions to the library from the general public upon
successful funding of the Kickstarter campaign. As people contribute and
the library grows – the more valuable the system becomes.

*The modules and procedures are open source—forever and with no exceptions,
so that everyone is free to use, modify and redistribute them. How do you
see the open source movement intersecting with the affordable, ecological
housing movement?*

Open source also means that you can learn more about building and get
actively involved, as opposed to leaving it to others and accepting their
choices without fully understanding them. This is important, since
involved, knowledgeable, proactive citizens are the only thing that can
change the world.

Open source means that the competitive waste is zero and innovation is
unleashed. We are pursuing the extreme limit of both ecology and cost, as
exemplified in our goal of attaining Living Building Challenge compliance
while remaining affordable. We believe that only if the design is open
source can it become affordable as otherwise you are paying for expensive
expertise.

* There’s a focus on empowering non-professional builders with modules that
can be easily and quickly built. Why is this important? Who do you see
utilizing the library and Institute?*

Empowering non-professionals to build increases access to housing
significantly as more people will have the ability to build and to do so at
lower cost. In the global context, this is especially relevant with the
tide of urbanization. According to world-renowned architect Alejandro
Aravena, “by 2030, out of the five billion people that will be living in
cities, two billion are going to be under the line of poverty. That means
that we will have to build a one million-person city per week with 10,000
dollars per family during the next 15 years.”

Arevena believes that this equation can be solved by incremental
housing…only if we “channel people’s own building capacity.” We envision
that DIY builders and startup entrepreneurs will be our early adopters and
we believe that some of our designs will be adopted by mainstream builders
once the open source cost-to-performance advantage becomes clear.


*Who contributed designs and are the designs tested or approved? *
The current designs have been produced by Catarina Mota, project founder,
and successful Kickstarter funding marks the opening of public
contributions. Our goal is to have both the modules, materials, and house
designs fully certified, with calculations and engineering approval as
needed.

We will provide test data for building materials that we release from third
party testing labs. We will provide support in navigating building codes,
and we will crowdsource location-based information on standards and
requirements for locations around the world. We will encourage voluntary
contributions of not only on module designs, but also on materials testing,
product certification, code compliance, and engineering calculations. We
will document testing protocols, and use open source design/calculation
software throughout, so that our products have an extra layer of
transparency.

* The mission for the Open Building Institute is to make affordable,
ecological housing accessible to everyone. What is the big picture vision
for it? If everything goes really well, what would you most like to see?*

The average American pays $1.2M over their lifetime just to secure their
home. And 1.6 billion people on earth live without adequate housing.
Housing is not a privilege, it’s a basic need. We envision a world where
everyone has access to housing—and without getting into debt. We envision a
future where regenerative housing helps to heal the environment by
providing surplus food, energy, and fuel to its its inhabitants. We
envision a world where housing contributes to, rather than detracts from,
the natural ecology of a place.



--
Laura V.
* I&D SomosAZUCAR.Org*

“No paradox, no progress.”
~ Niels Bohr

Happy Learning!



  • [permaculture] Fwd: Open Building Institute Approaches Launch Date, Laura Vargas, 03/08/2017

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