Slashdot Mirror
How To Build an Open Source House?
An anonymous reader writes "I'm starting a project that I hope that the engineers, makers and general DIYers in the Slashdot crowd can help out with. The full story's on the website, but the short version is as follows: my aim is to make a cheap, recycled, sustainable building, to document the process fully and to release anything that would help others to do the same. I intend to use an old train carriage as the shell, but the ideas should extend to shipping containers, aeroplane fuselages or anything similar. I know I'm not the first to do this, but I can't see anyone else who's provided a detailed step-by-step account of the build, complete with plans and the rest. Before I start, though, I'm trying to draw on as much collective experience as possible, and to head off mistakes before they happen. My question to Slashdot is simple: what do you think I need to know before I begin?"
It's my understanding that if you GPL it, Richard Stallman can come and stay there for free.
IANAL, IAAT.
A bread pan and some water is all you need; fill, freeze, stack, repeat until you have a house. To recycle, add heat. Freezing water hasn't been patented by Amazon yet, so do it while it is still an open technology.
There's a Sourceforge project for this already. The developers have done a wonderful job on the home theater and kitchen, but nobody's worked on the plumbing and foundation yet.
That's because every building, no matter how modular or factory-built, is very customized due to local building codes, site-specific issues, and the personal tastes of the owner or builder.
What you're doing sounds cool (London Tube train car into a home) but it's such a niche idea that of course you're not going to find step-by-step how-to guides. It's admirable that you want to share every step of the process online, but truly "open-source" doesn't really make a difference in this situation. Oh, and btw, there are legal issues with releasing your construction documents for others' use. Architects and contractors are licensed because they are taking on liability for the specifications and buildings they produce.
Just build a house that meets every building code in the world!
*snickers*
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Well, based on my experience with open source projects,... I imagine you'll generate a lot of interest, the blueprints will look great but in the end, you'll end up with a shody foundation and maybe some framework done but your workforce will abandon you before you put up the drywall...
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Please. RMS has no problems staying for free under an MIT license, either.
Where he lives "Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms" is a convenience store.
1.
Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
and GNU your wife
just have everyone come and throw building materials in a pile. Eventually someone will get fed up with the pile and organize it into a slipshod approximation of a house.
Except we already know we have no friends before we start.
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