Well...as clever as Worldhaus might be, they're still in it for the money, which means they're still engineering in a profit margin. http://www.worldhaus.com/
I think by definition "universal" materials could be found anywhere :-P but I get your point. It seems like OSE isn't going to be able to come up with anything ground breaking in terms of low-cost housing design. That particular discipline is as old as humanity. I think OSE's contribution will be reducing the cost of the house itself by integrating it into the entire independent village economy. So... not so much "cheaper" as "money is less relevant."
I haven't been to India, but I suspect they're just as particular about what the homes they live in look like as anyone else. No one WANTS to live in an efficient little box that's identical to everyone else's box. People are WILLING to do so if they can't afford anything better.
As nice an idea as low impact design is, I doubt it will be all that relevant to the eventual shape of the GVCS. In order to squeeze onto a small plot of land the villagers are going to have to make the most of the area. To me, that strongly implies enforcing a detailed utilization plan on the area's natural resources; not letting nature do its thing and impacting it as little as possible. You can only let nature be nature when you aren't putting a strain on its resources. OSE's plan is to wring as much productivity out of the resources in a given area as possible. Sustainable design will put a limit on how far the natural environment can be replaced, but it places no limit on how far the natural environment can be rearranged.
You can't find information on passive solar? Or by "cheap materials" do you mean "not stick-built?" There's a lot of stuff here. Even free plans.
It seems like a key tradeoff is that you might be able to build/design a shelter that could work well anywhere on Earth; either through high-tech elements or simple modularity. However, you aren't going to be able to ship the shelter or the parts to anywhere in the world for a price that someone willing to live in a cookie-cutter minimalist home is going to be able to pay. Even if you air-dropped an inflatable structure it would still cost too much. You could still finance them via charitable donations, but that's outside the OSE paradigm.
I agree. That's what I meant by "...reducing the cost of the house itself by integrating it into the entire independent village economy."
Module building.JPG | 50K |
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