We believe in progress and technology
“Are we fixing the right things? Are we breaking the wrong ones? Is it necessary to start from scratch every time?”
“Vietnamese families living in slums along the Red River in Hanoi are using red plastic buckets and old printers to help light homes, cook meals and slash electricity costs by as much as a third. The recycled goods form the blades and motors of electrical generators that power old motorcycle batteries to illuminate lamps with a brightness equivalent to a 45-Watt light bulb. Though the output generated is small, it makes a significant difference for families previously denied power because they lived too far from a power station or had to ration supply because of the expense.”
More information at Reuters: Plastic buckets, broken printers shine light on Hanoi’s poor. Via Playground Magazine.
See all our low-tech windmill posts.
L’Atelier Paysan is a French-speaking collective of small-scale farmers, employees and agricultural development organisations who design open source farm tools.
Based on the principle that farmers are themselves innovators, they have been collaboratively developing methods and practices to reclaim farming skills and achieve self-sufficiency in relation to the tools and machinery used in organic farming.
They have an English language website, which includes about a dozen tool descriptions with technical drawings. All tools can be appropriated and modified by farmers. [Read more…]
A lamella roof, also known as the “Zollinger roof” (after Friedrich Zollinger), is a vaulted roof made up of simple, single prefabricated standard segments (mostly in timber) as a way to span large spaces. The individual pieces are joined together with bolts and/or plates to form a rhomboid pattern. Wooden sheathing covers the structure on the outside. The lamella roof was patented in 1910 and became popular between the World Wars, especially in Germany when metal for construction was in short supply. Some of these structures are now almost 100 years old and many of them remain in very good condition.
Read more: Lamella Roof, Open Source Ecology.
Is Progress an illusion? Are catastrophic changes inevitable? Is Technology the problem or the solution? What are the practical alternatives? Such questions were asked 40 years ago in the pioneering book Radical Technology [PDF, 31.5 MB].
The conference Radical Technology Revisited will ask them again with even more urgency. The main event is in Bristol (UK) on Saturday September 3rd. Other events will take place on Friday 2nd and Sunday 4th, and will include presentations, workshops, debates, demonstrations, exhibitions, and a party.
Thanks to Leah Temper.
