DIY housing business-model concept (not design)
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This subject is a continuation offspring from the previous post (hope I haven't exceeded word limit).
My soul is in the last (3) “type” of solution - DIY housing. According to ASHOKA research, about 70% of all affordable housing is built this way. The projects done by any organization or government are peanuts compared to that. By facilitating DIY quality housing we may make a real difference.
I am continuing to work on details of the concept (topic “what type of housing", item 3)- so fare it is somewhere in-between a dream and a vision.
To get such thing done - a teamwork of many dream-sharers is needed. I think $300 House platform makes sense, that’s why I care about its brand-value.
Yes, Ian, you are right - it is for publicity, not for consumers. We need publicity to attract right people, material and component manufacturers, to open doors for pilot-projects and, of course, to raise financing. It has to be for-profit enterprise - investors will love to invest.
I believe such a concept must work - it fits to all the recent modern theories and beliefs like Porter’s shared value, Hart’s sustainable value, Govindarajan’s reverse innovation and Sarkar’s social ecosystems. I mean a business-model concept, not a design concept. Design is secondary (except the emergency shelters and ready-to-live houses, where everything starts with design, could be). This understanding came from my Jovoto experience - all comments were about the design; no attention to the concept behind my housing proposal. Therefore I decided to leave design in piece. There can be many different designs satisfying the same need, fitting in the same concept. We got different designs from Jovoto, not really concepts. Designs somehow tend to compete to each other, that limits collaboration between enthusiasts.
The thing is bigger than us. No one, even TATA, even IKEA, can make a real difference, alone. May be a bunch of crazy people can. May be in this century? May be we can be part of it, I would love to.
Hope on brain-storming.
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