KS Update
Dear Backers,
Happy new year from snowy Missouri at the Seed Eco-Home:
We are glad to report that we will finally be publishing the OBI Building Book e-Book this May. Yes, way delayed, and thanks for your patience. Catarina is coming out a very tough year of family and health issues - and now she is back on track.
The Building Book is the foundational document that describes the modular OBI construction system that is intended for both DIY and contractor-build housing. We will use the OBI Building Book as our original design reference book, and we will provide a copy to future house build workshop participants as background reading. The principles laid out will be useful for anyone interested in using our design language to make modifications to suit their specific needs.
Regarding future builds, we plan on 2 or 3 builds in late 2019 - in October, November, December. The November and December will be in the south of the USA, where weather still allows construction. In the meantime, there is lots of design and due diligence preparation to be done.
Right now we are back to finishing the OBI Building Book. We are adding designs of Compressed Earth Block (CEB) modules to our library. To date, all the wall modules were stick frame, so adding refined CEB detail will be a great addition to the Building Book. The idea is that we treat everything as a module - including the CEBs. Thus - just like we build 4'x8' wall modules from wood - we can build 4'x8' wall modules from CEBs. When designing - we think of modules as almost interchangeable - whether they are wood, CEB, or other materials. The only requirement for CEB is working out the interface details of joining wooden modules such as doors and windows to the CEBs. And CEBs are much heavier - at about 2 tons per 4'x8' module.
We are also beginning work on turning the OBI module designs into a 3D-printable modeling kit. This requires going from Sweet Home 3D to FreeCAD to STL files. So if anyone knows FreeCAD, you can help in this effort - email me if you can help at marcin at opensourceecology dot org.
We are now completing the sticker and t-shirt reward tiers, so yours should be arriving soon if you funded that tier.
Thanks, Marcin + Catarina
