Open Source House

Summary

Sustainable and affordable housing in urban areas; that’s the challenge! Before 2020 OS-house wants to build 100.000 houses, to provide better living conditions in low-income countries, such as Ghana. Architects and students around the world are challenged to contribute their ideas in the design competition. The winning designs will be built as a pilot in Ghana. After the competition the designs can be shared, improved and upgraded on an international online platform. And so the Open Source House knowledge and designs are made available to a large group of people all around the world.

Location	Netherlands
Start date	01.03.2008
End date	31.12.2012
Goal / issue	Contribute to more sustainable housing 1. less waste 2. less CO2 emission and energy saving 3. less transport of construction material 4. strengthening of local economies 5. increase the life-cycle of construction materials 6. local trade by exchange of elements
Contact person	Walter aan de Wiel

Description

OS-house wants to make worldwide knowledge and creativity regarding architecture and sustainability accessible for a large group of people. We want to contribute to enhance the living conditions in developing countries while at the same time reduce the negative impact of building. OS-house aims to use a system for architects consisting of 8 simple principles that make the exchange of construction elements possible. The elements will be designed with local materials and for the local climate; every designer can create a sustainable design or enhance an existing design. In this way the quality and intelligence can improve continuously. The project was initiated by the young architect Vincent van der Meulen, who now cooperates with Enviu to make it happen.
Watch the introduction video on: www.os-house.org

Targets

We want to start a project that:
-inspires and involves young entrepreneurial people wordlwide in the development of the OShouse concept;
-contributes to enhance the living conditions of home owners in developing countries;
-On the long term: convince real estate corporations and contruction firms to adopt the OShouse philosophy of building.