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J_Howard

I found the OSE project when looking for information on what it would take to maintain a community of 300 people, mostly self sufficient in terms of food and building materials.

I don't know if I'll be able to contribute a whole lot, but I will definitely be asking questions.

Thanks,
Judah.

DavidIAm

300 is alot of people to live together without killing each other. I think the challenge would be more social than logistical, pragmatically. I'd start by starting with three subcommunities of 100 people with a collective council.

Matt_Maier

I'd spend more time defining "living together" and "mostly self sufficient."

J_Howard

Hi, thanks for replying. I should mention that I started think of this because the community that I am in has felt the squeeze of soaring house costs, while having a larger than normal amount of young people stay here, and not head elsewhere.

David, I believe that 300 is not a lot - about sixty to eighty families all up, including children above age nine. The social aspect is not a huge problem, as while this was primarily a thought exercise it does have a possibility of happening, and the community that I might propose this to has a strong social web.

Matt, by self sufficient, I mean either growing sufficient food to keep the community alive plus have a cash crop of something to bring in luxuries or having a large enough cash crop to supply all the needs of the community, without having to rely on the "city cousins" to have holdings in the community to pump money into the village for it to survive.

Cheers,
Judah

Matt_Maier

Well, we could probably provide more help if you specified where you'd like to provide 300 people with food and building supplies. I've seen estimates floating around like "5 people per acre in a good climate" but the specifics of what you can grow and how much experience you need to achieve that level of density would vary widely from place to place. And that's not even touching on the need for building materials. I suppose if you live in a place without forests you could just dig holes in the ground or pile up rocks until you had a comfortable house. Then any cash crops you grew would depend on the local markets.

J_Howard

I am in Victoria, Australia. I would have no problem with acquiring land - Australia has a lot to spare. I was thinking somewhere on 500 acres or so. The building materials have given me problems, but I see no way to be able afford enough for eighty houses, various community buildings, workshops and stores and and farm buildings on what eighty families could raise in cash. The cash crops I haven't even considered beyond "I need one", because it would vary depending on exactly where the land was.

Any thoughts would be most gratefully received.

Edit to say: Regarding the raising of cash, under no circumstances would borrowing from a bank be considered.

Cheers,
Judah

Matt_Maier

Well, the official advice from OSE is to wait until the end of 2012 when the entire GVCS will be prototyped. The ballpark estimate is lowering the cost of getting established from 1 million to 100 thousand.

In a more general sense, this whole project emphasizes the power of "bootstrapping." You start with a little and build it into a lot. You don't need to build accommodations for 80 families right away. If you're planning on becoming self-sufficient you couldn't even hope to do it from scratch. It will take at least a couple years to get your crops established and get everyone comfortable with their part of the various jobs.

I suggest you get your group together and identify the core group that has the right skills to get things started. Like a farmer, architect, and engineer. Get some land, with the option to expand later, and prove that the little core group can plausibly sustain itself. Then you'll be in a much better position to create a small town.

Also, if you can figure out how to do any of this WITHOUT a bank loan please come back and add that information to the wiki. I think everyone could benefit from that kind of know-how.

J_Howard

Sorry I took so long, my computer
melted down a couple of days ago, here is what I had written:

Oh,
I never planned to build it all in one shot. I had figured on between
seven and ten years building time, with the families moving in in
waves - the first wave being the builder/s, plumber, electrician and
a few others, and so on. We wouldn't need every position to be filled
by a prospective villager, we could always hire professionals
(architects, engineers, ag people, and as much as we might wish
not lawyers, etc.) from the wider community

The families would
have to create a corporation, with a buy in amount. The amount would
have to be set to cover the budget without being too high. I had
thought of two buy in amounts, one regular and one double or triple
that for the families that are not interested in helping with the
build but that have money and would like a house in the village -
these would be done last. At the low end - sixty families - at five
thousand each, gives three hundred thousand - one fifty to two
hundred thousand for the first hundred acres or as much as possible
and one hundred thou for tools.

I had more but can't
remember right now. Thanks for the advice!
Cheers,
Judah

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