Open Building Institute

09/22/2025

You can learn to build your own house in 14 days at the next Future Builder Crash Course. Early bird discount and 2 for 1 offer end midnight CST tonight. Sign up today. https://www.opensourceecology.org/builder_crash_course_2025-2/

04/24/2025

Success. Now hiring change agents to rebuild civilization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RnvSqkqAGI

Apply today ( https://bit.ly/43YMlkw ) for a 4 year apprenticeship where you learn to design and build just about anything. $72k starting after graduation, and $95k starting for completing the Enterprise Track. Work-study and financial aid available - designed so you finish our education program without debt. Location: Kansas City area. Audience: change agents interested in rebuilding the world.

See the TED Talk for a background: https://bit.ly/42p6kYm

Ladies and gentlemen, we are taking the next major step towards scaling the work of OSE. We are starting a 4 year program for civilization re-design/build. F...

06/28/2022

This year is a big one for OSE as we are nearing traction on a revenue model that can deliver on the promise of creating the open source economy. Release of the Seed Eco-Home - in the form of a 24-person swarm build of a 1000 square foot, code-compliant home in 5 days - would be big news for the world. Average homes in the USA take 36x longer to build. The promise of radical efficiency of open source design and collaboration is at stake here. Once successful, there will be a potential cascade of evolution in the business world, as people recognize that open, collaborative, distributive enterprise is possible for economic traction. Nobody believes this today, or at least nobody is doing it. To get there, we document the Seed Eco-Home, and prove the business model with 4 builds for real customers in October and November 2022. Join us. Join our weekly meeting to collaborate on documentation - see meeting link and sign up on our Collaboration Team Form - https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Seed_Eco-Home_Collaboration_Team. Or sign up for the wait list for the house - we plan on building a minimum of 25 in 2023, and if all goes really well - hundreds. https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Seed_Eco-Home_Interest_List. The Seed Eco-Home Rosebud model: it is stick frame, and we're developing the Compressed Earth Block version next. See our meeting from last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuZ9bWombS4

Meeting notes - Key Links:Wiki Instructions:https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Wiki_instructionsTaxoomy:https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Wiki_Tax...

06/01/2021

Updated announcement for Summer X - Early Bird Registration ending Thursday night. Read the descriptions - for an unprecedented flurry of immersion experience where you truly will have the opportunity to learn more practical skills than you would in a lifetime. 3 months of immersion, some impressive builds, and building the OSE facility in Missouri for people to participate year round. Sign up and find more info at https://bit.ly/3wHGWdx. Early-bird registration is extended a few days to 23:59 CST on Thursday, June 3, 2021. True Fans discounts and multiple day discounts are available, and we can also do work exchange for people who can come early and help with prep.

05/17/2021

2 weeks left for early-bird registration to the Seed Eco-Home Builder Crash Course. https://bit.ly/3uUXYV4

05/08/2021

Major update - Summer X and OSE Apprenticeship are now live - taking the Seed Eco-Home 2 to the finish line.

Please download and post a flyer here. September 1 – November 30, 2021 Factor e Farm, Kansas City, USA 90 days of immersion hands-on builds where you collaborate with a team to build things that will blow you away. Here’s a chance to play with a lifesize Lego set, as we work to deliver the …

06/29/2020

Paul Wheaton is doing yet another Kickstarter - on a zero energy passive greenhouse that can grow food in midwinter Montana. That is cold! This is more basic than Open Source Ecology's Aquaponic Greenhouse ( https://bit.ly/2Aeoim2) but we definitely should be using more earth mass in our design. Support Paul Wheaton at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/greenhouse-1?ref=1clnie. Full disclosure: Open Source Ecology gets a kickback for people that pledge via this referral).

A story of a new frontier in greenhouse design: a greenhouse that stays warm through a Montana winter with zero electricity or fuel

03/05/2020

Check out a little bit of history from 9 years ago.

This is "CEB Construction Time" by Open Source Ecology on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.