Open Building Institute · 12 Sessions\
The complete OBI knowledge series — watch on demand, anytime. Twelve expert sessions covering everything from ecological home design and off-grid utilities to open source machines, automation, and collaborative building.
*These webinars were produced by Open Source Ecology and the Open Building Institute as part of a Kickstarter campaign to make affordable, ecological housing widely accessible. Every session is recorded and available here for free — forever.
Factor e Farm, Maysville, MO
6 WEEKS AFTER EACH CRASH COURSE
720 SQ FT EXPANDABLE HOME
$25K-$50K MATERIALS ONLY
Sessions
Topic Areas
To Watch
Replays
Category One
What does the most ecological and regenerative home look like — and how do we feed ourselves from it? These foundational sessions set the vision for everything OBI builds.
Available to Watch Now
Webinar 01
Featuring Bob Berkebile — co-founder of the Living Building Challenge — and Phaedra Svec of BNIM Architects. Discover what it truly means to build a regenerative home that gives back to the environment as much as it takes. The Living Building Challenge is the highest standard in eco-construction, and in this session you'll learn what it takes to apply that standard to an OBI home.
Living Building Challenge · Regenerative Design · Net Zero Homes · Ecological Standards
Webinar 02
Have you ever thought about building a greenhouse that provides all the fish and vegetables your family can eat? This session covers the complete design and operation of OBI's open source aquaponic greenhouse — built for under $4,000 at 3x lower cost than industry standards. Learn about vertical towers, species selection, integrated pest management, hydronic heating, and the biological cycles that make the whole system work.
Aquaponics · Greenhouse Design · Food Production · Integrated Biology
Available to Watch Now
Category Two
The Seed Eco-Home is 100% off-grid on water and electricity. These sessions go deep into the utility systems, code compliance, and modular design that make it possible.
Available to Watch Now
Webinar 03
A deep dive into the complete off-grid utility stack of the Seed Eco-Home. Covers water collection from pond and rooftop catchment through to potable; the 3kW PV solar system; the open source hydronic stove (buildable for $500 vs. $5,000+ commercial); the biodigester producing cooking gas; the heat exchanger tapping greenhouse heat for space heating; a thermoelectric generator; super-efficient refrigerator and LED lighting; and the separating toilet system.
Off-Grid Power · Solar PV · Biodigester · Water Systems · Hydronic Heating
Webinar 04
Building codes can feel like a maze — especially for non-standard, ecological designs. This session cuts through the confusion: what codes apply to the Seed Eco-Home, where and how they matter, and exactly how to achieve compliance without compromising the ecological vision. Covers structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing code requirements relevant to OBI's modular building system.
Building Codes · Permits · Code Compliance · Eco-Housing Law
Available to Watch Now
Category Three
Master the open source software toolchain and modular design system that lets anyone — with or without architecture experience — design and build a structurally sound OBI home.
Available to Watch Now
Webinar 05
The essential primer for anyone who wants to design and build using the OBI system. Covers the basic structural design principles of a house, code compliance considerations, and the modular approach that lets a large team work in parallel on simultaneous build tasks.
Structural Design · Modular Building · Code Compliance · Swarm Build
Webinar 06
The OBI Part Library contains engineered house modules — walls, roof systems, windows, doors, utilities — that can be combined like building blocks to create technically correct designs. This session walks through how to use the library in SweetHome 3D.
OBI Module System · SweetHome 3D · Part Libraries · House Design
Webinar 07
A complete survey of the free, open source software toolchain for every aspect of house design and documentation. Covers: converting SweetHome 3D designs to FreeCAD for advanced workflows; using FreeCAD's BIM and architecture workbench; exporting to WebGL for 3D viewing.
FreeCAD · SweetHome 3D · BIM · Blender · Open Source Software
Category Four
Open source construction equipment, site-working machines, regenerative landscape design, and the materials production systems that slash building costs while reducing embodied carbon.
Webinar 08
Open source construction machines are central to OBI's mission. This session covers the full product ecology: tractor, bulldozer, 360° mini excavator, and trencher for site work; plus the Open Source Materials Production Facility.
Open Source Machines · CEB Press · Site Equipment · Materials Production
Webinar 09
The Seed Eco-Home is designed to be part of a living, regenerative landscape — not just placed on a cleared lot. This session covers how to integrate the house with its site: food forest design, water catchment and management, permaculture zones.
Landscape Design · Permaculture · Food Forest · Site Integration
Category Five
Cutting-edge applications of 3D printing, IoT sensors, and smart automation that make the Seed Eco-Home and Aquaponic Greenhouse run themselves.
Webinar 10
3D printing is moving far beyond small plastic objects. This session explores how open source 3D printing technology can produce building materials locally — including multiwall polycarbonate greenhouse glazing, custom plumbing parts, and structural components.
3D Printing · Local Manufacturing · Recycled Materials
Webinar 11
How to use automated controllers and IoT monitoring to run the built environment intelligently. Greenhouse automation covers: automatic watering of grow beds, towers, and duckweed troughs; misting for humidity.
IoT Automation · Smart Home · Greenhouse Control
Category Six
Open source development only works when people know how to collaborate effectively. This final session brings the entire OBI series full circle.
Webinar 12
The final session of the series — and in many ways the most important. Collaborative literacy is the skill that makes everything else possible: the ability to work effectively on large, distributed, open projects.
Open Source Collaboration · Distributed Teams · Distributive Enterprise
More Webinars
New sessions are in development covering advanced topics — Living Building Challenge certification, Seed Eco-Home 2.0, materials science, financial independence, and more. Be the first to know when they drop.
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