The “Lavet”: A Sink, Bathtub, Shower, and Washing Machine on 1m2 of Space

April 1, 2021 by kris de decker Filed Under: Bathing, Random, Washing machines, Water

Image: Marktplaats.

The lavet is a typically Dutch invention that was mainly used in social housing in the 1950s and 1960s. It was produced up to 1975, with a total production of about 1 million. The lavet is somewhere between a sink and a bathtub. It consists of a plateau with a raised edge, in which on one side is a 40 cm deep tub with a diameter of almost 60 cm. Unique to the design is the multi-functionality. The lavet fulfilled the functions of a bathroom and laundry room but required ​​only one square meter of space. [Read more…]

Nettles are the fibre of the landless

February 11, 2021 by kris de decker Filed Under: Random, Textiles

Nettles for Textile is a website dedicated to all things nettle related, especially the sharing of skills and techniques that will help to best utilise this incredible resource for local textile production. There’s also a great selection of references on the historical use of nettles.

Post Growth Toolkit

November 26, 2020 by kris de decker Filed Under: Random, Technology

Post Growth Toolkit [The Game] is an invitation to reprogram ourselves out of the economic growth orthodoxy. It proposes to literally reshuffle our world-views through a compilation of stories, concepts and tactics in order to stimulate new modes of understanding in the context of current environmental crises. It takes the form of a tactical card game inviting players to explore a number of key notions to facilitate collective debate.

Landlord Tech Watch

August 18, 2020 by kris de decker Filed Under: Buildings, Random

Is your building management moving online? Have new cameras been installed in your home or neighborhood? Is your landlord using new payment, notification, or screening systems? Has access to your building changed? For instance, you no longer have a standard key? If so, then you might have Landlord Tech in your building!

Landlord Tech, what the real estate industry describes as residential property technology, is leading to new forms of housing injustice. Property technology, or “proptech,” has grown dramatically since 2008, and applies to residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, effectively merging the real estate, technology, and finance industries.

By employing digital surveillance, data collection, data accumulation, artificial intelligence, dashboards, and platform real estate in tenant housing and neighborhoods, Landlord Tech increases the power of landlords while disempowering tenants and those seeking shelter.

By Landlord Tech, we mean technical products and platforms that have facilitated the merging of the technology and real estate industries in novel ways, particularly as they impact tenant housing. Our research has led to two major categories of what we are calling Landlord Tech: surveillance and speculation, both of which are tied up in gentrification.

Read more: Landlord Tech.

Image: Erik Henningsen’s painting Eviction held by the National Gallery of Denmark, 1892.

The Development Hoax

July 29, 2020 by kris de decker Filed Under: Low-tech living, Random

The promise of conventional development is that by following in the footsteps of the “developed” countries of the world, the “underdeveloped” countries can become rich and comfortable too. Poverty will be eliminated, and the problems of overpopulation and environmental degradation will be solved.

This argument, reasonable as it may seem at first glance, in fact contains an inherent flaw, even deception. The fact is that the developed nations are consuming essential industrial resources in such a way and at such rate that it is impossible for underdeveloped areas of the world to follow in their footsteps. When one-third of the world’s population consumes two-thirds of the world’s resources, and then in effect turns around and tells the others to do as they do, it is little short of a hoax.

Development is all too often a euphemism for exploitation, a new colonialism. The forces of development and modernization have pulled most people away from a sure subsistence and got them to chase after an illusion, only to fall flat on their faces, materially impoverished and psychologically disoriented. A majority are turned into slum dwellers — having left the land and their local economy to end up in the shadow of an urban dream that can never be realized.

Quoted from: Ancient Futures, Helena Norberg-Hodge, 2016 (first print 1991).

The Galaksija: Socialism’s DIY Computer

July 27, 2020 by kris de decker Filed Under: Computers, DIY, Internet, Random

The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia, inspiring thousands of people to build versions in their own homes. The idea behind them was simple – to make technology available to everyone. Free play was implicitly encouraged: the sharing, collaboration, manipulation, and proliferation of software was built into Galaksija’s very operation.

A computing enthusiast since 1979, Zoran Modli caught wind of Galaksija after the publication of Computers in Your Home. As host and DJ of Ventilator 202—a renowned New Wave radio show on Serbia’s Radio Beograd 202—Modli was something of a minor celebrity in Yugoslavia. Because all the day’s computers, including Galaksija, ran their programs on cassette, Regasek thought Modli might broadcast programs over the airwaves as audio during his show. The idea was that listeners could tape the programs off their receivers as they were broadcast, then load them into their personal machines.

An overnight sensation, this DJing practice quickly became a staple on Modli’s show. In the ensuing months, Ventilator 202 broadcast hundreds of computer programs. During the hour, Modli would announce when the segment was approaching, signaling to his listeners that it was time for them to fetch their equipment, cue up a tape, and get ready to hit record. In the case of games, users would “download” the programs off the radio and alter them—inserting their own levels, challenges, and characters—then send them back to Modli for retransmission. In effect, this was file transfer well before the advent of the World Wide Web, a pre-internet pirating protocol.

Read more: Socialism’s DIY Computer, Michael Eby, Tribune, July 2020. Thanks to m.