Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Open source helps housing effort

February 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Open source helps housing effort

TAGS: Open Source

Open source software will serve at the heart of a project management system developed in a humanitarian effort to design housing for the needy.

Built on the drupal open source content management system, the Open Architecture Network Web-based system enables collaboration between building architects and designers.

"The primary focus is bringing [architectural] design services to communities who normally would not be able to afford it," said Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity, which is spearheading the project. Sinclair won a 2006 Technology Entertainment Design (TED) prize to develop the application, which will be formally launched at this year's TED conference, being held in Monterey, Calif. March 7-10.

With the system, building architects and designers can produce projects and comment on architectural drawings, for example. Copyright-free designs, building plans and blueprints can be downloaded and uploaded. Best practices and worst practices also will be featured.

Architecture for Humanity projects are licensed under the Creative Commons Developing Nations license, meaning anyone in a developing nation can freely use the copyrighted designs.

Communities in areas affected by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the South Asian tsunami are intended benefactors of the system. One particular project involves designing inexpensive homes for Gulf Coast families in Mississippi. Also, designers in places such as Afghanistan, Angola and Chile are putting projects on the network.

Powering the application are Sun Microsystems Sun Fire servers and a Sun StorageTek storage system. Sun will support the project for a year. Advanced Micro Devices is hosting the application at its data center in San Jose, Calif.

Architects contributing to Open Architecture Network work on either a pro bono basis or for a reduced fee. Funding for the housing projects themselves usually comes from individual donors and companies. Architecture for Humanity is involved in projects ranging from housing and community centers to schools and health clinics in five countries.

Posted by Paul Krill on February 9, 2007 12:43 PM

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