Invitation

Dear friends,

this goes in particular to some architects and planners, but also to the Global Villages list in General because I hope we do not leave anybody out who might be interested.

In a nutshell, this is about the attempt to opensource a whole village design process and constitute a learning example for communities around the world. Very basic questions will be asked, and although local circumstances and the structure of participants are very special, there are lessons to be learned for similar endavours around the world.

So what is it? As most of you know, there is a 30 acre site in Missouri, a one hour drive away from Kansas City, called the Factor E Farm. This site was established by Marcin Jakubowski and friends about three years ago to host a research and development center for the development of a set of technologies they originally called the "Global Village Construction Kit". These technologies aim at enabling people to live in circumstances of greater freedom and independence, by simply enabling them to maintain the basic infrstructures of life in a locality themselves as a group, community or local society.

We have seen several experiments witch communities and ecovillages around the world from New Alchemy, the Farm, Findhorn to Arcosanti, we have seen legendary places that often fall short behind their aspirations but have been influental inspiring nevertheless. What is special about this endavour in Missouri is that it is totally designed around the new possibilities of the internet and global communication. The idea is that all technology involved should be understandeable and replicable, according to climates and circumstances, in most areas of the world. The resonating power of many communities should enhance the knowledge and abilities of each single one. In one word: the bottomline is Open Source.

In the course of the presentation of this approach in Austria, it was the agreed purpose of Marcin, the founder, and me, the networker, to overcome some limitations that so far plagued the project. The prime goal is to make the project as a whole more comprehensible for outsiders so they can pitch in with their qualifications and do part of the work - simply because there is no better place in the world you can invest your work into. No pension fund and no monetary compensation can create the security and perspective that a fully developed Global Villages infrastructure can give us and the rest of the world.

Now we want to go right to the heart of the matter and involve you, the architects.

We think there is a lot to be learned from an Open Source planning process. We think there will be always advantages to engage a knowledgeable person in one phase of a project to come up with a good solution to a complex set of questions, draw on experience and deep embedded intuitional knowledge formed by years and decades of studies. But we also think that on the other side, Users should be knowledgeable too and take active poart in the design process. In fact that makes your work much easier and makes the result less prone to mistakes and the curse of overlooked details.

You have to think of many things when you start to build the first house, and that is exactly where we are at.

As a side result to Marcins trip to Austria several new people volunteered to participate from afar or locally on the project, among them is Inga, a translator by profession, who will move from Austria to Facrtor_e_Farm and wants to catalyze both the emergence of the planned solar village and the liveability of the structures. So "Inga's house" is the centerpoint here, but this comes with the necessity to build a good masterplan for the whole village and consider many questions to be answered correctly.

Thats where you come in. Please respond to Ingas ongoing design specifications

http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Inga%27s_House/DesignSpecifications

and the basic discussions

http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Inga%27s_House/Functionality_and_Aesthetics

Please inform yourself about the general idea of a solar village by considering the following pages:

Here is a sitemap:

http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Inga%27s_House/SiteDocumentation

The location of the village is in the Western Area of the farm, which is supposed to be a living, gardening and demonstration area.

The idea is that about 30 people will eventually living and working at the farm, with a flexible scheme that also holds families.

Basic assumptions are outlined here:

http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Evolve_to_freedom

Factual information is collected here

http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Factor_e_Farm

and a caveat:

"We have not mastered our living environment to date. As such, we hope that a high-production (3000 brick per day) CEB machine, and a sawmill, combined with stabilized brick floors and central hydronic hybrid heating - will allow us to demonstrate that we can build comfortable housing readily with almost all local materials. We have not succeeded at this with the earthbag and cordwood structures - because of the large time requirements for building and finishing irregular, round structures. We still aim to put in stabilized CEB floors in these structures, and finish stuccoing at some point - but that is a priority secondary to the above goals and our skill base will evolve with this year’s experiences." Weblog post on the solar village, http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=632

So what is needed?

Answers, and in this phase both practical answers and visionary answers, to the following questions:

• What could be the overall design of the village, expandeable and

modular? How would a public space or village square be placed?

• Keeping in mind that this place has a definite goal and is more than

hust a regular living and housing comunity, how could a certain degree of co-ownership and common responsibility be established? (Covenant)

• How can local resources and systems be integrated?

• Good ideas for methods, procedures, functionality, aesthetics? Bring in

what you know best!! Even if its a small detail!

Please be as subjective as you like and add ideas for the house baised on the constraints outlined above, and write a letter to Inga and Dustin: Dustin Tusnovics volunteered to guide the communication professionally.

Ingas mail is: Inga von Boehm-Bezing <ivboehmATchello.at>

Dustins mail is: "dustin a. tusnovics" <dtATarchcom.at>

Ideally, your letter should become the core of your Wiki page.

There will be regular team meetings on Skype. Ingas Skype Handle is ingeburg66 and Dustins is dustin.tusnovics

I will observe the process but not actively take part in it unless required.

All the best

Franz Nahrada