WikiHomes the shape of things to come \u2013 take 2<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/em><\/strong>For many, a smart home is not one that has a thermostat that responds to their temperature needs, a door lock that knows they are coming up the drive, or even a fridge that knows when they have run out of milk.<\/em><\/p>\n Instead it is one that is comfortable, affordable and in the right location<\/em>. \u201c<\/p>\n The opening lines of a BBC News item entitled \u201cTomorrow’s Buildings: Radical solutions to housing crisis\u201d –<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 which explores an alternative way to create homes for a growing population \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n Take a CNC cutting machine and a lot of this Plywood sheets a\u00a0lot of dowels and pegs and glue and with the Wikihouse open source building system<\/a> you could very soon have one of these<\/p>\n The principle itself of Wikihouse is not really new it draws many parallels with the community barn raising events that occurred back in the 20s&30s<\/p>\n Just as with the earthships<\/a> we featured in a previous article the requirement for alternative styles of living as communities is definitely on the increase, if you have a spare fifteen minutes the TED<\/a> (Technology, Entertainment, Design) video by Alastair Parvin is well worth a listen \u2013 it may just change your views on affordable housing forever.<\/p>\nThe concept is pretty straight forward \u2013 a group of interested parties use the facilities of the internet to design templates for timber housing modules share their knowledge and no how allowing all of the scheme participants to design, print and assemble\u00a0beautiful, low-energy homes, customised to their\u00a0needs. A property such as this can be erected within a couple of days using the system<\/h3>\n