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Humanitarian housing designers don't design construction components, they design with construction components. Open hardware designers do the same thing with el
by mcantelon 16y ago
Humanitarian housing designers don't design construction components, they design with construction components. Open hardware designers do the same thing with electrical components.
My point is that if humanitarian housing designers want to actually see their designs used they should open source the designs as open hardware people do.
- brudgers 16y agoWhile it might be possible to patent a system for building with shipping pallets, generally architectural designs are covered by copyright where they are protected at all, e.g. the US. Unlike hardware, good housing design tends to be site specific. It responds directly to the geography, micro-climate, solar orientation, and culture of the place. The slumtube is novel, but not particularly innovative. It's a slightly hipper version of the beer can house: http://www.beercanhouse.org/ http://www.beercanhouse.org/