SEH FAQ

Hello Open Source Ecology Team,

My name is Ian Aguilar, founder of Mycelium Technologies, a regenerative housing and materials company currently preparing our first pilot site in Southern California. I’ve been following OSE for years and really admire what you’re building — especially your approach to integrated design, modular construction, and open-source fabrication.

I’m strongly considering attending the December 2025 Future Builders Crash Course, because hands-on immersion in grading, building, utilities, foundations, modular systems, and material production would be invaluable for what I’m doing at Mycelium. In many ways, the experience you offer is exactly the kind of practical, grounded learning I’ve been looking for.

Before enrolling, I wanted to ask one important question to make sure I fully understand the program’s real-world applicability:

How closely do the construction methods and workflows you teach track with standard code-compliant building practices — particularly California building code requirements (CBC) for residential structures? I completely understand that OSE focuses on open-source techniques, local material production, and accessible building systems — and that my responsibility as a founder is to research California’s permitting environment independently. I’m simply trying to understand whether the skills and workflows I will learn (framing, foundations, electrical, plumbing, insulation, structural methods, etc.) are directly transferable to:

conventional building inspections

engineering requirements for hillside or high-fire areas

residential code compliance

general contractors’ workflow expectations

or whether they differ significantly from standard practice.

Again, I’m not asking the program to be California-specific — just hoping to get a sense of how much of what you teach can be applied directly toward designing and building structures that will ultimately go through a formal permitting process.

Everything else about the course aligns beautifully with my goals: I want to become more technically grounded as I lead my company into its first real build, and I believe learning by doing is the best way to gain that competency.

If there’s someone on your team who can briefly speak to this, I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you again for everything you’re doing, and for making this level of open-source education accessible.

Warmly, Ian Riccardo Aguilar

Answer:

Hi Ian, I haven't looked at CBC - but we follow IBC, UPC, and NEC so that we can pass inspection. Not sure if this is what you are asking, but our work is not hippy shit pardon my language.

• 100% relevant to standard building construction. *We have done no work on hillside or fireproof construction, so I can't comment.*We follow IBC, thus 100% IRC since IRC is a subset of IBC*General contractor's workflow expectations - our system allows for standard contractor procedure. Foundation is standard if you don't use our advanced foundation. Wall modules can be produced on site, unless you build them in the shop and move them into place. Modules can be rough-in only, allowing for standard inspection schedule. But to get a 5 day build time - with 24 skilled people working in parallel - you would require a 3rd party inspector who is on-site - as we would be done with the house by the time an inspector shows up otherwise.  Note we haven't done the 24 skilled person yet - we are just starting our apprenticeship. To get this efficiency - you need people skilled in all trades in one - so you can parallel everything instead of following the standard build model.*Different than standard practice: not if you build standard. Our system has various options for every part. So you can use a standard - or nonstandard option which has to be engineered. All the effcient cheap stuff requires engineering and skill - such as stabilized subgrade vs simple slab. Etc. 

Bottom line is that you gain radical build and cost efficiency when you skill up and engineer, and produce materials - for approaching near zero marginal cost. For all the techniques we do, we plan on engineering (open source referenc designs) so the permitting costs are thousands of dollars lower. This includes certifying our building materials, which means real certifications that cost top dollar. But without it - we are still at a $100k (materials + labor) build cost as opposed to the industry standard $180k. This is a cost comparison for our area - not sure what the cost comparison would be for CA. TLDR; hippie shit = permitted stuff if you provide the hard core engineering, which is what we are working on.