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Unlimited Building Materials, $5500 We Raging Nerds are Big Fans of what used to be called Appropriate Technology, and is now called Sustainable Technology. Basically the idea that human ingenuity will (and probably must) find ways to produce food, shelter, and communities that will last. Committing your society to exploiting limited resources didn’t work for the Mayans, the Easter Islanders, or most recently, the inhabitants of Nauru Island.
Our approach has been the hacker/DIY approach, repurpose old tech, and reduce, reuse, recycle. Through the good offices of the Global Guerillas (not for the easily disheartened) we learn of a group doing the work of getting beyond our current resource limits.
Open Source Ecology talks about “Inventing a New Civilization on a Shoestring Budget” and their newest announcement, a Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Press, could definitely start the process here in the Southwest, Latin America, and Africa, maybe even the Mediterranean region. Put one of these on site, crank out the bricks as you build the foundation, then start building.
We still have a lot of adobe in San Diego, some original (Casa de Estudillo, the San Diego Mission), some newer (see a lot of Cliff May’s work). They are special places, particularly on hot summer days.
Marcin Jakubowski
November 6th, 2009 at 17:56
Thanks for spreading the word.
marcin
November 7th, 2009 at 09:51
Just another comment – if you guys are interested in using our products, subscribe to the True Fans – we’re 100% supported by the crowd donations. If you do, you will be getting a discount off the purchase price if you want to buy something from us. It’s worth it, and we need the research money. Right now we have only about 40 True Fans – http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=True_Fans – Marcin
Jon
November 12th, 2009 at 12:55
Thanks, and we are now True Fans!