ABOUT
This vision came into form when volunteering to install an off-grid solar system for a Puerto Rican family that had bee left without power for 8 months after the hurricane wiped out the island's power grid. The team leader, when I mentioned my design for a $300 house, told me that the island needed 1,000 of them built ASAP. Specifically requesting them in villages of 30 homes to provide the undocumented 'un-permitted' locals that were being chased off their rubble piles with another solution for their needs for shelter.
Having been a student of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic designs, Bill Mollison's "Permaculture Design", Germany's "Bau-Biologie", Christopher Alexander's "Pattern Language design", and Thoreau's "On Walden Pond" as well as E. F. Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful', a combination of all these concepts came together to design a "superorganism". A living community pattern language design solution to provide a decentralized self-reliant off-grid homestead cooperative. Designing for a single-family home seemed to be thinking too small to be most efficient. Just as a tetrahedron may be the smallest stable physical structure, but the Icosahedron was a more efficient shape to enclose a volume of space with the fewest pieces to craft a stable structure.
Building first a pattern language recipe around a cluster of truncated icosahedrons around a central community dining icosahedron developed the collection of sustainable patterns as the recipe for the homestead cluster. Applying the Permaculture principle of stacking functions suggested a combination of co-working co-housing structures. The principle of designing to take care of the land and the people, returning the surplus to both the land and the people" led to mimicking natural systems for turning waste products from one system into resources for other on-site systems.
Initially designing for multiple families, the base pattern evolved into a form of single-family office residential structure. Applying legacy wealth protection tactics to crafting the 'invisible structures' to the organization of the governance model of the single-family homestead cluster. Distributing risk and control both internally and externally providing liability protections to the permanent residents when sharing the facilities with short and mid-term visitors to the property. Designing the property to be used by my own family as the permanent occupants, not as a low-income charitable solution, a high-income money-making solution, nor as a simple mental exercise.
Having personally evolved from an owner/builder into a high-end residential general contractor and most recently into an author and trainer of Bitcoin Bankers, the integration of private banking arrangements built on both a Bitcoin standard and a precious metal standard seemed a necessary piece of the puzzle. One that could provide for a functional, livable, and healthy 'tiny-home' community to be built. Experience on the mainland US had taught the hard way about how the banks didn't want to finance, and local authorities didn't want to 'permit', alternative building structures and living arrangements. Many times not only prohibiting the implementation of many Permaculture design solutions such as grey-water gardens, methane generators, and composting toilets, or even local sharing of electrical power between neighbors. Finding the Banks unwilling to finance the building of new building shapes or 'alternative' materials and design.
Having spent the last 30 years researching, building, and designing natural building systems and working professionally as a general contractor, both the broadscale thinking and the wide networks of peers had been developed. Leading to the accumulation of a wide network of specialists in alternative building, farming, energy production, cryptocurrency tokenomics, website applications and virtual reality development, as well as private finance, and business structuring. The many pieces of the puzzle have come into place to allow for building the first model template of this 'superorganism'. And as Puerto Rico is having to rebuild its infrastructures, has realized no one is coming to save them from off-island, and is highly motivated to act right away, it seems to be the ideal location for a demonstration site.
Many organizations around the world are working on similar solutions and are supporting these endeavors as potential and current strategic allies.
Including:
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the Living Community Challenge, a framework for master planning, design, and construction. It is a tool to create a symbiotic relationship between people and all aspects of the built environment.
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the Biophilic Design Initiative, Biophilic Design is the practice of connecting people and nature within our built environments and communities.
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Earthships Global, the number one eco-construction and self-sufficient living company.
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Metabolic, Metabolic’s overarching mission is to transition the global economy to a fundamentally sustainable state.
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Lotus Energy, an Australian based tokenized energy sharing cooperative
and more...
OUR TEAM
Having evolved from a natural building subcontractor into an owner/builder and a high-end residential contractor, I've acquired experience with natural building systems, mainstream building systems, financing, and business structuring. Over the last 3 decades I've developed a network of trusted contractors in all the relevant trades, ranging from private banking and financial planning, to on and off-grid solar electric, builders of homes and gardens, as well as alternative building of geodesic, timber bamboo, treatment, and laminate beams, and aquaponic gardens. Connecting with many landowners in Puerto Rico, Columbia, and the mainland US that are interested in having these homestead clusters built on their properties.
Over the last couple of years connecting with blockchain projects focused on community building, decentralized utility micro-grids, tokenized waste recycling, and peer-to-peer lending. Personally crafting blockchain integrated marketing, private family banking arrangement, and private trading networking strategies. Building relationships with other educators and service providers in these industries that come together to allow for the potential to design and build a fully integrated nearly closed-loop multi-purpose land trust as part of a real estate investment trust arrangement.
These multiple roles each have multiple candidates to wear those 'hats' as needed. Who actually fills those spots on the roster will depend on the timing, the location, and the funding. As with any general contractor, I've established a broad-based network of trusted associates to call upon when needed. And have enough experience with each of these roles myself to not only know what needs done but to also assess who is best qualified and capable of performing the work. Then accurately assessing and overseeing the work as it is completed, knowing what order the processes must be completed and whether the work has been properly done.
Michael Louis Ovsen Jr.
Designer/Builder