Future Builders Crash Course - December 2025
Event
https://www.opensourceecology.org/builder_crash_course_2025-2/
CAD
Graphical Index - in a Google Slides Presentation - [1]
Schedule
Last Day
- 9-1:30 PM Build
- 1:30-2:30 PM Lunch
- 2:30-5 PM cleanup
- 5 PM - 5:45 PM - written feedback session
- 5:45-6:15 - Feedback Discussion
- 6:30-8 PM - Irresistible Offer Design Sprint. Each person takes a page in a work doc - with the following Irresistible Offer Specification Questions
More:
- 9 AM - Water Hookup and Service Entrance + distribution
- 10:30 AM - Heat Pump Final Hookup and Run
- 11 am - drywall group
- 1 PM - PV. Till :30 PM
Running
- Daily schedule is 9 AM to 1:30 PM for the morning session.
- Lunch: 1:30-2:30 PM
- Afternoon build session from 2:30-5:30
- 5:30-5:45 is wrap-up and cleanup
- Evening presentation starts at 6 PM and goes to 6:45 PM including question and answer session.
- Housekeeping discussion is at 6:45 PM, ending by 7 PM.
Daily Workflow:
- Day 1 - Morning Intro + House tour. Afternoon: Tool Basics and Tool Organization
- Day 2 - Walls build
- Day 3 - Roof Trusses build
- Day 4 - Roof Box + Floor modules Build
- Day 5 - Morning: Concrete Pour Preparation. Afternoon: Concrete pour
- Day 6 House Build! Floor Install for 3 sections. Section 3: Interior and Exterior Walls on Section 3. 5 minutes.
- Section 1 is used to build roof section 3 in parallel including PV
- Day 7 - Section 1 Roof Build + PV - house closed in. Windows and siding.
- Day 8 - Plumbing, Water, Electrical including PV connection. Afternoon water connection + pump vault.
- Day 9 - Front and Back Porch. Interior: tub
- Day 10 - Drywall, Heat Pump, painting
- Day 11 - Cabinets, toilets, water heaters, finish exterior trim
- Day 12 - Thermal Battery v1.0, geothermal, flooring
- Day 13 - Biodigester v1.0
Add your photos and see why you should add your photos and videos at Future Builders Crash Course Video Plan:
Logistics Form
Feedback Form
(video about this form - [2])
Please spend the time to provide feedback to help us improve the Future Builders Crash Course (FBCC) in the future. Our goal is to satisfy the section of the population (about 1%, or 60 million people worldwide) who are currently interested in building their own home. Towards this, 1000 FBCC courses would have to be run per month across the globe to satisfy the global need of effective DIY construction. We see this as an enterprise opportunity that can be an outcome of the Future Builders Academy Apprenticeship - training enterprise-minded collaborators to replicate similar education/production operations around the globe as an open, collaborative franchise providing mass creation of right livelihood. Note that we are highly interested in the FBCC as a replicable education product - a product just like any of the machines in the Global Village Construction Set.
There were many 'situation factors' - freezing weather, mud, exploded water heater, inadequate tool control and working space, insufficient space inside the Hangar due to the partial completion of the Hangar, a flexible curriculum that changed based on state of completion, chaos (see Nietzsche on Chaos) which produced challenging conditions during the workshop. Note that none of these will exist with continuing improvent - whose need we are well aware of:
- Completion of the Hangar - from 50x50 feet of available space to 50x160 workshop space, with all materials available indoors without even having to leave the building
- Completion of a kitchen and bathroom inside the Hangar - bringing food to the worksite - and minimizing time going back and forth to other buildings to eat and go to the restrooms
- Insulation and installation of 100kW of solar panels on the roof, and installing 100,000 BTU of heat pumps to heat and cool the space
- Completion of the Rapid Learning Facility - for rapid build kits that assist in acceleration of the learning process 5x
- Automation of CAD for automated generation of new house models, automated extraction of build instructionals and technical drawings, and a FreeCAD Seed Eco-Home design workbench which facilitates the creation of new house models and allows us to automate engineering drawings for the plan check phase of the build process
- Growing food on site so that part of the build experience would be delicious local food, grown using open source machines and integrated automated growing eco-systems.
- Developing a clear schedule for the event detailed down to the hour, developing a clear operations plan that addresses logistics, supply chain, tool control, food, cleanup, housing, etc - and recruiting people to assist in these aspects.
- Providing more detailed work breakdown structures for each part of the swarm build, such that each person's role and activity in the build is clear, visible, productive, and accountable. This helps people to learn more, do more, and attain a higher level of house completion.
- Including build automation and production on site that enables us to source (produce or fabricate) parts and materials used in the Seed Eco-Home from local and recycled materials, including solar lumber, concrete, steel, and plastic.
- Improving the housing aspect by upgrading HabLab or building new facilities for housing - to address a wide range of housing needs spanning the range from camping to high-comfort accommodations.
With the above context, here are the feedback questions:
- What were your learning objectives coming into the course? (This question helps us to understand what demand exists for various aspects of the course - what are people interested in learning about construction - whether for their own home or in a production enterprise)
- What percentage of your learning objectives have you accomplished as a result of the course?( This helps us to understand how well we are meeting our stated objectives, establishing a baseline for improvement)
- What specific teachings did we not cover in the FBCC that you would have liked to be covered in future FBCC courses?
- What was you participation level - ie, what percent of actual group build time/class time did you participate in? Please provide an estimate. This means direct build time (most of the day, class time (1/2 to 1 hour prep session before the day starts), and theory session time (hour in the evening) - outside of any breaks, oversleeping, resting, going to church, doing other work, computer work, socializing, lack of interest in a particular aspect of the build, sickness, fatigue, doing other things such as housekeeping or facility maintenance, etc - anything outside of direct hands-on build work? For example on the frst Sunday, there were only about 20 of 40 participants in the Hangar during the actual build. (A high level of house completion is a great morale booster, and people not participating brings team morale down. Further, a high participation level during the workshop accelerates development of the enterprise model for the workshop, and helps us improve the build quality of the actual house. Hence, we are looking for ways to minimize distractions and make it as easy as possible for everyone to participate in as much of the actual hands-on build as possible - while leaving ample time for people to socialize and do other things after hours.)
- With the above question - what suggestions do you have for increasing the participation level of people who came to program? (It was fascinating to see the gradual decrease in participation as the workshop carried on - and we are interested in improving this or shortening the program if the 2 week duration is unsustainable)
- How much time did you spend preparing for the course - such as downloading and studying the CAD file? Looking through the design docs of former Seed Eco-Home versions? Participating in the prep webinars? What additional preparation resources which we did not provide would you have liked? (We would like to know how we can help participants to prepare better for the program, and how much preparation time people are willing to spend)
- Please list the top 3 things that you learning during the workshop. Please expand on this after your top 3 things - for as many little things and learnings as you remember. This could be both the hands-on build things, and design/theory aspects. ( We are interested in learning more about what people are retaining as a result of the workshop)
- What would your ideal food plan be for the workshop if you were to design the food program? Buffet? Cater? Hangar kitchen similar to what we had? Self-serve? Is location in workshop OK for you? ( We would like to make the food aspect of the event as wholesome as possible)
- What was the favorite thing about the FBCC? (Our program features a diverse audience of backgrounds and interests, a wide scope of content, and novel approaches - and we would like to know which aspects of the overall experience are the most compelling to our audience)
- Would you recommend a Future Builders Crash Course to others? If not, what additional features would this program need to provide for you to recommend it to others? Do you have suggestions for how we could execute the missing items effectively? ( This will help us to implement the changes that are desirable for future participants)
- What question should we ask in this feedback that we have not asked? ( We would like to understand if we missing any big picture items that would help us improve the program)
- Do you have any other comments or thoughts that would be constructive towards us improving the program in the future - outside of the gaps above that we have already identified?
- Overall, how would you rate this workshop on a scale from 1 to 5 stars with 5 stars being the best?
Responses
- MJ - Dec 2025 FBCC Feedback Form - MJ
- Caden - [3]
Working Docs
- Main Working Doc - both preparation and during workshop - [4]
- Bug List
Theory Sessions Requests
Participants - please list subjects here so I can make sure I can cover them during the theory sessions in the workshop.
- How to design any shape or form of the house - Richard
- Cold Weather Issues for House: Hot VS cold roof, snow load rating, continuous vapor barriers and insulation for the wall modules. - Mark M
Theory Session Recordings
- Session 4 - Integrating Food Production into Homes Webinar - presentation - [5]
- Session 3 - Seed Eco-Home Utilities Webinar - [6]
- Session 2 - Collaborative Litaracy - presentation - [7] - YouTube -
- Session 1 - Big Picture - presentation - [8] - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxlk4BNToDk
Video Plan
See Future Builders Crash Course Video Plan for how we will document the build with time lapse, build details, and testimonials - and why you should contribute to this documentation.
Food Plan
Prep Session Recordings
Newest on top:
- 6 - Utilities + FreeCAD 1 TechDraw - [9]
- 5 - Roof Truss Design - [10]
- 4 - Cheatsheet Generation - [11]
- 3 - Modular Breakdown Process - [12]
- 2 - Intro to FreeCAD and Collaborative Process - [13]
- 1 - Intro to FreeCAD - [14]
Email - Prep Sessions
Email 2
Friends, Here is the recording from yesterday's session on the Modular Breakdown process for collaboration in the December swarm build. https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Future_Builders_Crash_Course_-_December_2025#Prep_Session_Recordings
Please review it - and join us tonight at 7 PM CST USA time as mentioned in the video for a practical session of modular breakdown - core preparation for the build. It will be recorded. If you miss it, review the recording. 16 people have stated in the Logistics form that they will bring their laptop. Great. We will have 12 desktops with monitors in the shop as well.
17 people stated they could bring a cordless drill. That's great. We have about 18 more here. We need a total of one per participant - or 50. To the cordless drill - please add cordless circular saw if you have one and can bring one. We have 6 cordless saws here and 5 corded. Bring a tape measure, hammer, and snap string line for marking - if you have one. Based on your responses - we'll get more of the above.
If you haven't filled out the Logistics form yet - please do so now so we can coordinate better. Or if you have - please respond and update me with the cordless saw, string line, tape, and hammer.
Thanks, Marcin
Email 1
Welcome to the Future Builders Crash Course for December 1-14, 2025. Here are some prep notes.
The above are for all registrants where we get into the nitty-gritty of viewing the master CAD file. We will teach you how to view and analyze the design fully. All the details are in the CAD. During the workshop, we plan on setting up 6 computer terminals with the file - for the different teams to view. In conjunction with other documentation - you can see all the build details transparently. It's all in the CAD file. This requires a basic level of computer literacy, and can be learned in a few hours.
To get inolved in this part - do steps 1-3 below if you want to review the whole design in CAD. Do 4-7 if you would like to contribute to documentation. Documentation is never done. We work on it constantly to make the build easier.
- Download FreeCAD. FreeCAD 1 is the version you want.
- Download the master file for the home - SEH6 - Assembly.fcstd is the file you want from https://drive.google.com/
drive/folders/ 1ZVXjMMDMpyf0OuwnUzpeGdPN9QGeJ 0AV - Practice Hiding and Unhiding Parts in FreeCAD.
- Practice generating Technical Drawings from FreeCAD - if you dare! We will cover this in the prep session.
- Get familiar with Google Slides - such as writing and formatting text, inserting pictures, using various drawing tools within Google Slides, adding hyperlinks, embedding YouTube videos, etc.
- Start a Work Log if you would like to contribute to upgradeable documentation, so that you can share your work with others. Embed a Time Log if you would like to count in the overall development of open source civilization. We will produce screenshots from FreeCAD for build instructions. The entire build process can be extracted from the master file!
- Learn to upload files to the OSE wiki. See Wiki Instructions.
You can do this ad infinitum. We suggest you spend hours doing this. At the workshop, we will ask you first - how many hours did you spend on this exercise? This is actually data for us. Do people care? Do people review the materials beforehand? If not, what are the blocks?
On logistics -
Thanks, and see you tomorrow,
Marcin
Audience Feedback and Testimonials
- Tim Dooley - My name is Tim Dooley, I'm signed up for the December crash course. I'm responding to your logistics inquiries from your previous email. I have my own compliment of hand tools, drill and driver, and cordless saw.
I'm a carpenter and spent about 5 years working for a remodeling company in Minneapolis. I'm familiar with the fundamentals of carpentry and framing, but no experience with plumbing, electrical, HVAC, ect. The aspects of the build I'm interested in are first, the design. I'd like to become proficient in using the freeCAD software with the intention of using it in my own work. Additionally, I'm interested in expanding my understanding of the various other trades required for home building. Overall, I'm eager to learn this system of home building, see it implemented, and hopefully I can take what I learn here and integrate it in my own work.
In my experience working in the trades, I've been pretty disappointed in how little I've learned about the home building process beyond the tasks of a carpenter. Each aspect of a build is so compartmentalized, it's hard to gain an understanding of how the whole system works together. Additionally, one of the draws for working in the trades was the value that building and fixing homes can bring to individuals and families, and by extension, communities and society at large. But in my albeit limited experience, the only people that could afford the kind of work the companies I've worked for offered were people that already owned homes. They just wanted nicer ones. There was never any prospect that the work I was would to provide value for people who didn't already have access to sufficient housing to begin with. In a relatively small way, I felt that my work was only broadening the socioeconomic gap that's preventing any real upward mobility for lower and middle class Americans. I left the company I was working for a while back feeling pretty disenchanted, and with a strong belief that in order to alleviate the issue of affordable housing, new systems will have to be developed, parallel to the existing ones, and outside the prevailing industry paradigms. I think the vision of your organization and the goals of this course align with my own ambitions, and I'm excited to learn as much as I can and see what happens next.
Links
- Seed Eco-Home Future Builder Crash Course
- Registration - [15]
- Apprenticeship - [16]
- Future Builders Academy
- September 2025 Future Builders Crash Course