6 Free Open-Source Projects to Get Inspired

The open-source movement aims to make inspiring projects free to download so that others can interpret them to create their own design. Let’s have a look at 6 open-source projects available online.

• Elemental, the architectural studio of Pritzker-prize architect Alejandro Aravena, released construction drawings of four social housing designs for free download and public use in 2016. As stated by Elemental, the aim of the studio’s open-source movement is to be able to rule out one more excuse for why markets and governments don’t move in this direction to tackle the challenge of massive rapid urbanization. Aravena’s participatory design philosophy, known as Incremental Housing, enables the inhabitants to finish the designs of the half-done homes.

• XH System House is an open-source project under the Creative Commons license. Dekleva Gregorič Architects believe open-source architecture provides an opportunity for user customization to become collaborative design. The modular housing project is a single storey volume with a central core and a set of XL windows that outline its particular appearance. XH System House is available to anyone and everyone to build and customize since 2016.

• Wikihouse is an open-source digitally-manufactured building system maintained by a non-profit company Open Systems Lab. The project consists of an adaptable system of standardized parts, and the construction system requires only a CNC router and timber sheets. Wikihouse aims to explore how the web could be used to transform the way we make homes into more low-energy and low-carbon. The unique Wikipedia for stuff concept is sharing common solutions for others to freely adapt and improve to create an environment where no problem needs to be solved twice.

• Opendesk is a global platform that shares their workplace furniture designs under the Creative Commons license for local makers. Their motto is From‘Business as Usual’ to ‘Business as Mutual’, aiming to provide a real alternative business model to mass production. DIY digital fabrication files of the designs are free to download. When you have the parts cut on a CNC router, you just need to follow the mounting instructions leaflet.

• AKER is an urban garden kits company that shares the open-source files of their all designs to help you transform your urban home into your farm. AKER aims to promote people in urban areas to grow food and create habitats for wildlife, even in small spaces like balconies, rooftops, backyards, and countertops. The kits are easy to assemble in just seconds without tools or glues. You can also remix the free files and build the kits in your own style.

• Bricksource is an online open-source database of weaving patterns created by Sstudiomm for on-site parametric brickwork with stencils. The studio designed a low-tech parametric patterned brick facade, then they made the templates of the facade public domain. According to Bricksource, their database fills the deficiency of DIYs made by architects for other architects or other builders on the internet.

If you know of any other open-source projects, please comment below to share with us !