Open-Source Toolkit Aims to Make Home Building Cheap, Easy and Green
As open source advocates and newlyweds, Marcin Jakubowski and Catarina Mota decided to reinvent the home-building wheel a few years back. In the process, they have been developing an entirely open-source toolkit that makes the design and construction of eco-friendly, off-grid modular housing easier, cheaper, and faster through use of modular designs, rapid-build construction, social production, locally-sourced materials, and open-source machines.
Image of $25K Open Source Starter Home Below the Fold
We recently published our submission to the Libraries Taskforce consultation about its draft strategy – Libraries Deliver: An Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-21. Today, we want to say a bit more about our having called upon the Taskforce to explore the opportunities for public libraries that could flow from the growth of the ‘sharing economy’ and, in particular, moves to establish Platform Cooperatives.
On 27 May the Competitiveness Council in Brussels announced a European decision to achieve Open Access to all scientific research data by 2020. This decision, and the implementing European framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020, will be recognized by future generations as the first serious step toward the creation of a prosperous world at peace. With this one decision Europe is turning away from centuries of war and waste; away from scientific reductionism, away from corporate ownership of public knowledge, away from legal barriers to innovation, and away from government neglect of the public interest.
A new type of urbanization is needed. One that reflects a different type of development, also known as the New Normal which is currently gaining widespread support throughout China. The New Normal understands the substantial changes affecting China (namely a decline in the availability of inexpensive land and cheap labour, slower economic growth and, above all, increasingly exacerbating environmental distresses) and responds by promoting a new kind of people-centred development that favours slower economic growth, people well-being, innovation, domestic market development and that is particularly devoted to environmental protection and sustainability.
Post Growth is a catalyst for identifying, inspiring and implementing new approaches to global well-being.
We are an international network of people committed to tackling the cause, rather than the symptoms, of a myriad of social and environmental problems to create a positive world future that does not depend on economic growth.
Our aim is to create a movement of 10 million people who are convinced of the need for futures beyond economic growth, believe they are possible and feel inspired and supported enough to play a role in their emergence.
The (En)Rich List celebrates a wealth of inspirational individuals. Collectively, the people highlighted throughout this website present a rich tapestry that points to globally prosperous and sustainable futures.
Seven of us from the Post Growth Institute spent months defining and refining this list. We were motivated by the way mainstream media often notes achievement: by celebrating material and monetary wealth. Take, for example, the Forbes Rich List, released each March, which showcases the world’s wealthiest billionaires.
For us, there are additional ways ‘richness’ can play out, be measured, and be celebrated. The people on this list represent wealth that cannot be defined by a dollar value. Learn more.