User:Benjamin Bungartz

Growing up in Wisconsin with a family of builders, I spent my formative years building houses from foundation to finish carpentry, renovations, new construction. Spare time spent Canoeing, sailing, skiing, and mountain biking. Gained an undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry, with a focus on freshwater ecology. Spent four years as a ski bum in Colorado as a ski instructor, snowmobile guide, and whitewater raft guide. Went to South Africa to pursue a girl and follow a dream of building boats. Was lucky enough, or persistent enough to get a position at a company building high-performance sailing catamarans in advanced composites. I managed to get familiar with every step of the process even doing some drafting work in AutoCAD and Rhino3D for the design office. Became lead of a team that assembled the primary composite structure for the 66' line. Took leave of that company to spend 9 months at sea racing the final boat I helped launch. The first few trips at sea for a new boat is an exercise in 'working out the bugs', especially when the owner of that boat likes to sail FAST... from electronics to composites and rigging to watermakers most repairs were done in the field. Back to SA, I got involved with a new startup building carbon fiber components for luxury yachts. The company started two years prior by a designer/engineer/3D modeling wizard and a passionate investor with his finger on the pulse of luxury and how to accomplish it. I joined purely as skilled hands but soon found my footing to head up manufacturing. When I started it was 4 guys 2 computers, a large bed 3 axis CNC router, and A LOT of ideas. I quickly became versed in CAD, CAM, design for production, manufacturing, electronic linear actuators, pneumatics, management... in field warranty work, etc. In my spare time I used the CAD/CAM software and the CNC machine to cut moulds for a cedar strip canoe and a few hollow wood surfboards. Probably the most fun I had was building a pneumatic ski press including integrated silicone heat blankets with a PID temperature controller to cure the high temp bio-resins on a specified cycle. I used the CNC machine to cut the skis raw materials down for a precise fit inside the press. Now, I'm back in the US as a home builder in the Portland Oregon area trying to help solve some of our social and environmental problems with the built environment. I've also drunk the KoolAid and have done my fair share of permaculture projects. What is really exciting are the opportunities to engineer complex self-organizing ecosystems into the residential urban environment to drive biodiversity... and social diversity. Imagine a conscious city that creates ever more niches for life to inhabit and thrive in doing so. Collaboration is foundational to that future. benjamin at revelhome dot io.