Cohabitat Gathering 2011 Report

Here is a report from the Cohabitat Gathering 2011, the first international natural building conference in Poland:

Cohabitat Gathering 2011 from dobraidea on Vimeo.

Here are some interviews, including Pawel Sroczynski, the lead organizer of the Cohabitat Group.

You can see more pictures from the event at my Flickr. Here is another report from the event videographer. The full presentation videos will go online in 2 weeks. You can read my presentation here.

The Cohabitat Gathering was outstanding. It felt like a TED conference – where I got to witness excellent ideas that will soon turn to practice. I am impressed with the Pawel’s work – most importantly because he actively endorses open source development. He has already produced plans for an open source, manual CEB press, and is developing open plans for replicable straw bale construction.

Pawel and I are discussing ways to collaborate more deeply. I am proposing these commitments from our side:

1. Work together to develop a state-of-art, replicable, passive house systems that focus on open design and hardware, with access to prefabricated components as needed, under an open business model for the purpose of viral replication as needed to reduce total global energy consumption by 20%. (that is another BHAG)

2. Collaboration on co-funding, cross-fertilization of ideas and practice – via mutual assistance in documentation and practical implementations, focusing on parallel prototyping possibilities in Poland and the USA.

3. Seeking collaboration from various subject matter experts in Cohabitat Group, OSE, and other networks to develop open source materials and techniques that can move natural building forward – such as prefabricated panels made from natural materials, novel insulation systems, specialized machinery, glazing systems, energy systems, ventillation systems, waste-to-nutrient systems, bioplastics for glazing production, and other materials and systems development.

4. Providing technical assistance in developing ancillary mechanical equipment for natural building.

5. To develop open business models that promote all of the above.

On very practical terms, this is an opportunity to have Pawel’s group assist with professional architecture design for CEB/straw insulated housing at Factor e Farm, to upgrade last year’s plans with more rigorous technique. After the Tractor/CEB package of equipment will be in full product release later this year, we may have an opportunity to build out as needed to accommodate other developers at Factor e Farm.