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Open Source Housing

Posted by timothy on from the blueprints-are-software dept.

No_Weak_Heart writes "The latest issue of Metropolis magazine has an interesting look at the house of the future. The primary focus of the article is on MIT's House_n project and its offshoot - the Open Source Building Alliance. The article discusses potential benefits of adopting a modular, component-based, everyone's-invited approach to building. Houses built via interactive design stategies and mass-cutomization vs. single-purpose structures driven by one ideology."

5 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. I dunno about this one by pardasaniman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are hundreds of millions of people who can't even buy houses.

    We are very lucky to even be living where we are.

    Research should be going into cheaper builiding materials, and house effeciency.

  2. Sounds cool and all... by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but if you go to work in a modular cubicle do you really want to go home to a modular house? say what you will about functionality, but there's a certain amount of art to architecture that unless they make giant legos (which is a bad ass idea in itself) cannot really be translated into modular components very well.

    That said, it sounds good to me...I'd love a house that I could network without cutting drywall. But regardless, I think a giant house made of lego would be awesome.

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  3. Tables that talk? by phorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many times are they going to try to make our appliances interactive before they realize that it's just not something most people want. I want my kitchen table to be - just a kitchen table. If I need a personal reminder to take my "medication" (no jokes please, allergy pills only), then really an organizer wall-fixture would be much more appealing.

    Granted, a living room table with an LCD or something would be cool, but please... the last thing I need while I'm trying to enjoy dinner is to have a bunch of flashing messages and (likely the next bright idea) advertisements floating under my coffee cup.

    Oh, and strike the talking chairs too, most people wouldn't care to hear "cripes man, go hit the thigh-master, yer crushing me!" when sitting down.

  4. Open Funding, maybe... by Computer! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to this, the only way to contribute is to either take classes at MIT or a related school, or give money. As a footnote, there's an "everyone else" category, but it doesn't look all that interactive.

    I was getting all set to rant about how Open Source doesn't apply to housebuilding, until I realized that Open Source doesn't apply to this article, either.

    --
    If you fall off a building, go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will be like hey, free dummy
  5. Local building codes and restraint of trade by Charles+Dodgeson · · Score: 5, Insightful
    In the US every locality has a series of local building codes. These are often (deliberately) incompatable with other locality's codes. The purpose is to protect the local building industry from statewide or even national competition.

    Until that nut is cracked, the rest of this stuff is just a pipe dream.

    --
    Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky