Builder Crash Course Curriculum
Builder Crash Course
The course focus on providing the most complete and comprehensive introduction and practical experience required for any builder to build their own home. Because our techniques apply to DIY and production housing - the techniques can also be used to start a business in affordable, ecological housing construction. We will build an absolutely complete home, 800 square feet in size, with interior and exterior finishing in only 2 weeks (pending a minimum of 24 workshop registrations). The focus is on homes that can be built on the human scale and flexibly so: either in the field or in a workshop, either in a DIY or industrial setting, using either off-the shelf or self-produced or natural materials, and either fully manually or with the assistance of heavy lifting machines, automation, and digital fabrication. Over the years, we have developed flexible, modular, and optimized construction techniques that allow an individual to build a home at about 30% lower cost - while including significant quality improvements in construction compared to standard production homes, and eco features not found in typical homes. This translates to starter homes of around 1000 square feet that can be built at $40k in materials, which include 6 kW of photovoltaics and ecological features. The intent is for anyone to build their own home at $40k in materials instead of paying the average price of $400k for a turnkey house in a subdivision.
And to make this absolutely real, we are launching a limited-time opportunity called the Financial Independence Package.
We are inviting 6 individuals or groups to stay for an additional 6 weeks following the Builder Crash Course to build their own 700-1200 square foot starter home - the same interior design as the Core Module of 800 square feet built in the Builder Crash Course. The extended size comes from further extension of the living room space of the basic model. The build takes place on-site, using our modular construction techniques. Participants will cover only the cost of materials—ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 depending on selected features and size. Lower-cost builds may include basic finishing and no solar, while the higher end includes full interior finishing and a 6 kW photovoltaic system.
To qualify, participants are asked to contribute a modest amount of sweat equity: 6 days of build time assisting on Seed Eco-Home projects. This provides additional hands-on experience while supporting the broader learning community.
This is the first and only time we are offering the Financial Independence Package completely free of tuition to Builder Crash Course participants, as we launch this program and refine it for future cohorts.
On-site and off-site accommodations are available. Please inquire for lodging options and rates through our network of collaborating partners.
Financial Independence Package
To be considered, we are accepting groups of 2 people (or more) who must meet the following requirements. 1 person teams are also possible, but the person would need to be able to work by themselves - which is possible for people with more stamina and grit.
- Completed participation in the Builder Crash Course
- Commitment to participate on-site for 6 additional weeks following the completion of the Builder Crash Course.
- Ability to fund your own material costs ($20k–$50k, depending on chosen features and number of people working for the level of finish desired). We lalidate your chosen bill of materials to conform with an admissible part list, and we source all the materials collaboratively with you from ready, off-the-shelf sources such as Menards or Home Depot.
- Willingness to contribute 1 day of labor each week (6 days total) to Seed Eco-Home community builds
- Demonstrated alignment with the open source, collaborative, and ecological mission of the program
- Strong interest in achieving financial independence through hands-on building and entrepreneurship
- Readiness to participate in documentation, feedback, and exit interviews to help improve the program. Participants are expected to keep an open build log and data collection throughout their build.
- Acceptance through a short application process including a personal statement and basic build intent and materials selection particular to your build.
- Willingness to participate in video/photo documentation for educational and promotional purposes
- A deposit (e.g., $1,200 refundable upon completion) to confirm your commitment and secure your spot. If you decide to leave early without completing your house, or do not show up at all, you forfeit your deposit.
How it Works
Participants must have a site to which we transport the finished house, with a simple foundation ready to accept the house. We will advise the participant on the choice of foundation to build. The foundation is the responsibility of the builder. OSE can help transport the building using a 40' trailer, or another company can be hired.
During 6 weeks, there is approximately 300 hours of build time. This is sufficient to produce '300 modules' at 1 hour each - a conservative estimate. This is absolutely ample time for the build of a shell with walls, floors, roof, siding - but the real challenge is how much finishing work can be done in that time. This depends on team size and efficiency - where if a team can invite friends and family members to help, that will accelerate the completion. We can help with accommodation for visiting builders as needed. If the participant builds the shell and utilities only - the finishing detail (trim, paint, etc) can be done once the house is transported.
The participant will build 2 modules - 10x20 feet in size. These will be the more complex kitchen, bathroom, and utility modules. We expect all structure and utilities to be finished for a fully-functioning house. But that adds up to only 400 square feet. For 800 square feet, the participant will build additional wall and other modules that can be installed readily at their site. There is also an option to build more of the 10x20 modules at our site - which would require more than one trailer to tranport to the final site.
We will use a telehandler to load these on a 40 foot trailer. Along with these, we can load up a number of other modules. Each 10x20 module will be around 6000 lb in weight. The total weight of the house would be around 21000 lb - as living room modules are lighter than the more complex modules that include the kitchen and bathroom.
The participant is responsible for the completion of their house. The cutoff is 6 weeks, as we will have the next cohort of builders enter at that time.
The Bigger Picture of OSE
The First Seed Eco-Home Is Now for Sale – And a New Era Begins
We’ve just reached a milestone: the very first Seed Eco-Home is now available for purchase, and we’ve developed eight different pathways to make it accessible to people around the world.
This isn’t just a house—it’s a launchpad. Each sale helps bootstrap the full development of the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS): a complete toolkit of open source machines required to build a modern, sustainable civilization from the ground up.
From This First Step to a Global Shift
This moment represents more than a building—it's a real step toward our broader vision: an open source economy characterized by near-zero marginal cost and high-efficiency productivity. In practice, that means:
- Lower cost of living
- Greater financial independence
- A shift from survival to purpose
- A culture of productive freedom, where people are empowered to do good work
- Delivery of the promise initially uttered by the Founding Fathers: Freedom and Liberty for All
We believe this shift will spark a move from scarcity-based business models to abundance mindsets, and that it will resolve the productivity paradox: why—despite exponential technological power—society still struggles to deliver real human well-being.
Our Strategy: A Hybrid of Education and Production
Our revenue model is simple but powerful: we combine education and production. This begins with our new four-year institution, now enrolling its first cohort of 24 students. These students will swarm-build a complete Seed Eco-Home—from foundation to rooftop photovoltaics—in just five days.
After years of development, we’ve validated the build. Now, we’re launching the school to scale this model—to train world-builders, to rebuild broken infrastructures, and to fund the GVCS through house sales.
The Vision: From $50M to a New Civilization
My TED Talk hinted at the GVCS’s potential. We now estimate that finishing the GVCS will cost $50 million over four years. This projection is based on our actual development costs per machine to reach product release. The development can be achieved by talent that we create - via the Future Builders Academy. This aligns with our OSE Apprenticeship tuition of $15,000—representing the investment needed to gain the integrated skills required to launch and thrive in a sustainable village. This is not a college-for-debt swap: we include work-study so that students can pay their way and finish debt free.
Without this training, nothing else moves. This is why we built the school - The Future Builders Academy.
But our ambition doesn’t stop at 50 machines.
We estimate that open-sourcing all hardware technologies foundational to civilization would require around $50 billion—roughly the cost of 20 years of global R&D in new products (about the length of a patent cycle). That doesn’t include organizational redesign, but we believe open collaboration will naturally evolve institutional structures as part of this transformation.
Even so, $50 billion is less than one ten thousandth of the global economy (when spread over the proposed 12 year timeline). It’s a doable number. And we’re bootstrapping our way there. Feed a hungry person for less than a cup of coffee per day. Better yet, fix the system that deprives most of the population from full nutrition.
Lessons from the Past. Tools for the Future.
When I spoke at Bioneers in 2011, the open hardware movement was peaking. We had industrial productivity on a small scale, with a dozen replications of our machines globally in one year. But the momentum faded. Why?
Because productization is hard. Because skill cultivation is harder. And because a scarcity mindset runs deeper than we realized.
Most people have never experienced the cognitive override needed to escape fear-based thinking. But that’s what we teach—not hippie optimism, but disciplined, productive abundance built through skill and collaboration.
This work has never been more urgent—or more possible. The Seed Eco-Home gives us our first real taste of zero marginal cost in practice. And the deeper we go, the more we realize that universal basic assets—not just income—are key to unlocking abundance at scale.
That’s our next challenge: building the infrastructures to deliver those assets through open hardware and collaborative production.
The OSE Response: Scale Through Purpose
Mainstream industry avoids the problem of complexity through specialization and mass production. But most products—and most systems—are mediocre at best. Sturgeon’s Law applies to civilization. It also applies to us.
Our answer is the OSE apprenticeship program - now re-branded as the Future Builders Academy. It's a bootstrapped engine of deep learning and production, combining build skills, collaborative design, and entrepreneurial training to liberate productive potential. We embrace the paradox of rapid learning and lifelong growth.
Because I believe: we can scale this.
The Roadmap: A Timeline for Transformation
Here’s what we’re doing:
- We’ve created a financing model—through a combination of education, production, and homebuilding.
- We aim to generate $50 million in revenue by 2028 from home sales, other open source products we release, and some assistance from the nonprofit sector - funding the full development of the GVCS and unlocking $11 trillion in potential productive power.
- We will seed experimental prototype communities of tomorrow, built around GVCS infrastructure.
- By 2036, we aim to open source the entire technosphere and its institutions.
This leads to the ultimate goal: an abundance-based economy rooted in distributed production and collaborative literacy.
All Hands on Deck
This effort requires everyone. Every house build funds the school. Every cohort fuels the GVCS. Every machine open-sourced distributes power—real, productive power—to the people. Swarm collaborative development events fuel expertise and execution into the program. This would be the success of Linux - on steroids.
This is how we build a world where nobody is left behind—a future where freedom, collaboration, and prosperity are not the exception, but the rule.
Paradise at scale. Not just for the few.