Grand Designs: Open-source platform comes to housing

Using the website, house plans can be downloaded and directly inputted into a CNC cutter. The plans can be customised in Google Sketchup, giving users creative control over the outcome of the structure. The parts then fit together like a layered jigsaw.

‘We are on a trajectory where design will no longer be done by professionals only. It makes much more sense to take something and change or hack it to make it your own,’ says Alastair Parvin, lead designer from Architecture 00. ‘The model is designed as hyper global and the manufacture as hyper local.’

This is a compelling example of an open source platform emerging in a new area. For more examples of brands blurring the consumer/ producer relationship, read our 3DIY Culture micro trend.