first steps: team up

How will I make this adventure attend it's purpose? It feels like I'm building a mountain that nobody is asking for. And nobody knows how to built it as it wasn't done before. Nor is there any direction or path, let alone signage that mark the way to go. Yet I'm walking on it as you read this. I'm not an architect or engineer nor am I a building contractor or a construction worker. It did not prevent me to completely re-engineer, redesign and rebuilt our French house with my bare hands and I guess I like to travel this unknown road.

A close friend of mine used the notion of a one man army to characterise an energetic part of me. I don't consider that as a virtue nor very valuable but like to approach the metaphore in my attempts to give birth to the Hohmes project as if it was a fact.

If an army would get involved in a battle, I would say it's effectiveness also depends on it's allies. I will team up and look for professionals that add value, within their role and responsability, but also outside that. People that are willing to think outside their own field, eager to listen and understand the rest of the process they are part of. I will look for people that are specialists and that are attracted to the idea of interdisciplinarity as a way to strengthen their own.

Measured on the earthscale, in Holland we live with 16 million on a swampy stamp that for a part lays under sealevel. Available building sites there are as rare as mountains are. To go short: if you don't have a municipality on your side don't even dream to start a building project. No site, no building. Certainly not if it considers innovative building. A building that is unique in it's ability to be placed off grid and pursuits zero carbon emmitance and aims at energy neutrality, may have elements in it's concept that are not dealth with in Dutch building law (nor European law). Think about cleaning your own water. Think about not using the sewerage and producing clean wastewater. Or maybe a low voltage circuit is applied in the house whereas law only addresses 220/230V circuits. Or maybe the facades of the house will follow the sun: how will a civil servant judge a design or its facade if it doesn't have one, but several facades, changing over time besides?

There is no guide as there is no existing landscape I'm walking in, no path that can be known. The way is created per every step made. Best I can do is walk and look for fellow travellers which I will. Both in local authorities as well as in specialisation within the several disciplines.