Green Building Forum - Open source eco building Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:02:32 +0100 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.0.3 Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244484#Comment_244484 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244484#Comment_244484 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 10:25:12 +0100 fostertom http://openbuildinginstitute.org

Is this what people here have been saying should be, off and on?]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244486#Comment_244486 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244486#Comment_244486 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 10:57:23 +0100 SteamyTea Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244650#Comment_244650 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244650#Comment_244650 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:19:45 +0100 gravelld
For starters, you can't make something that is inherently, physically closed, "open source". I know they are talking about design more than end product, but this is a misunderstanding of what open source is.

Building designs are not analogous to code. Building designs are just that: designs - what might be. More analogous to a requirements specification in 1980s style software development.

Open source accepts the premise that code *becomes* the specification once written, because it is known that maintaining specs, design and documentation as well as code is asking for trouble.

What this looks like at the moment is a set of re-usable templates. This isn't the same thing.

What open source building means to me:

- Every building detail *as it is now* to be available - windows, walls, floors, whatever
- An ability to comment and contribute back on an existing house
- "Hackable" houses - houses made with acceptance that we want to change them, and allowing maximum transparency of what we have and how to do it
- And no doubt other stuff

And if you think all of that is unachievable, it probably is.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244660#Comment_244660 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244660#Comment_244660 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:40:46 +0100 fostertom Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244665#Comment_244665 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244665#Comment_244665 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:13:17 +0100 gravelld
That isn't the case for building design. Physical elements degrade in a different way to software.

I want buildings to be open - not building design.

I'm being overly curmudgeonly - I'd love to see more sharing and publication of building details (as an example).]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244666#Comment_244666 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244666#Comment_244666 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:41:39 +0100 fostertom Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244677#Comment_244677 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244677#Comment_244677 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 22:01:04 +0100 gravelld
My view of open source is total transparency and editability at all levels, with resulting shared ownership of and contribution to said items.

This appears to be mainly an open and shared set of common elements that can be used in building design, but that's a very very small part of what open source means.

I didn't see any way I could fork what they've done, improve it and submit it back. The library is very thin right now. The current contribution process is... complicated http://openbuildinginstitute.org/contribute/

It's a bit like saying you have a sustainable house because you've installed a water butt. I'm being unfair and I hope this develops.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244678#Comment_244678 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244678#Comment_244678 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 22:38:52 +0100 SteamyTea If then someone came along and modified a bit of it, had all the relevant legal stuff done, then that could be published as an open design.
And so forth and so forth.

I find it a shame that this does not happen with housing, not as if we only build one house every now and again, we build millions of them globally.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244682#Comment_244682 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244682#Comment_244682 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 06:47:56 +0100 gravelld Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244683#Comment_244683 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244683#Comment_244683 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 06:54:03 +0100 SteamyTea Posted By: fostertomMaybe the meaning of 'open source' is evolving, as is 'hacking'.As is design and engineered.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244685#Comment_244685 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244685#Comment_244685 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 08:55:39 +0100 fostertom Posted By: SteamyTeaAs is design and engineered.In what way? I'da thought those words were quite stable.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244688#Comment_244688 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244688#Comment_244688 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 09:33:46 +0100 SteamyTea
Now for engineered. Similar to above, but is an engineered bit of oak flooring really engineered? Can it be likened to bit of plastic flooring. One grows on a tree, gets sawn up, left to dry and then planed flat with basic machinery and basic labour. The other has the force of the petro-chemical industry (geologists, engineers, chemists, technologists, qualified and tested delivery drivers) behind it to make the raw material, that then goes into a sophisticated extrusion machine, designed by an engineer and set up by a skilled operator.

Is the software I wrote, using a template from someone else, to monitor my have energy usage, designed or copied, or is it just cobbled together to do a job? Could I call myself a 'software designer', or a hardware designer as I wired in the components myself?

I think the issue is about intellectual property and if that can/should be shared, rather than design/engineered.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244692#Comment_244692 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244692#Comment_244692 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 10:12:03 +0100 gravelld http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html

It was the press that changed the meaning to something relating to [conceptual] unauthorised access to systems.

See also: trolling.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244693#Comment_244693 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244693#Comment_244693 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 10:29:30 +0100 fostertom Posted By: gravelldIt was the press that changed the meaning to something relating to [conceptual] unauthorised access to systems.Oh yes, the press, the politicians, 'the system' is greatly threatened by the decentralising anarchistic spirit and effect of hacking, so has done its best to demonise the word and the practice, painting hacking as senselessly vandalistic at best, criminal or traitorious at worst.

I see hacking as use of intelligence and new (e.g. new-generation) vision to elegantly create what's wanted or needed from what exists - rather than wasting energy on getting angry, demanding that 'the system' provide what's wanted or needed etc. Typically 'the system' doesn't understand, or even notice, what's just happened, and eventually resorts to hiring the very same hackers to plug the leak.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3062210/the-future-of-work/the-most-critical-skills-gap-cybersecurity
The worst thing that can happen to 'the system' is to find itself bypassed and regarded as boring, old fashioned, irrelevant.

I'm glad to hear that
Posted By: gravelld"hacking" always meant what it has returned to mean now
May be right - despite the bad press, initiatives like http://aechackathon.com/london-2 thrive.]]> Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244696#Comment_244696 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244696#Comment_244696 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 10:38:39 +0100 gravelld Open source eco building https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244700#Comment_244700 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14416&Focus=244700#Comment_244700 Thu, 28 Jul 2016 12:55:33 +0100 fostertom /president 'pawns', the intelligensia and Economists, to the masses.

We are all playing out a universally-agreed story, which is fast running out of steam and could evaporate overnight, under numerous decentralising, distributive influences including Hacking, particularly strong in the 2 coming generations.]]>