Hey amazing members! I am loving all the cross-pollination ideas that is happening in this group! However, I am needing to reassess the value of this platform. It currently costs $100/ month and am considering moving this over to Circle where it would be free for me host. Im taking votes on how people feel about this platform and if you are getting value out of it, or if I should switch over. If I make the switch, it would be here in the next couple weeks! What do you think?

Group brainstorm session and potential presentation from yours truly on Sunday 4pm MST :) Who will be joining us? ***update: this event is being cancelled due to lack of engagement. Will try for a weekday on may if that is a better time for people (let me know!)

One of the things @Tim White suggested to me was to focus on making a geopolymer block that could be cut with normal tools to make it easier to work in the field. I wanted to let the geopolymer woodcrete blocks "cure" for a few weeks to ensure full strength before doing any destructive testing on them. Today I tried cutting the block using a carbide wood-cutting blade. I am happy to report that the material cut readily without any sparks or difficulty in doing so. Yes, it was a bit dusty, but so is wood! And because the geopolymer cement itself is made from amorphous silicates, the dangers associated with inhaling the dust are quite a bit lower than with crystalline alumino-silicates - still not great to inhale ANY kind of dust, but it's no where near the danger levels of crystalline silica or silicates like asbestos. By the way, don't fool yourself into thinking wood dust is benign - there is often a lot of silica in wood as well, especially in tropical hardwoods. It's really best to NOT inhale any dust of any kind ;).

I made a few test samples of geopolymer woodcrete! This is one of the possible products I'm exploring made from geopolymers. The goal is to make a block similar to hempcrete, but with some additional goals: 1. Use wood chips from recycled/upcycled wood instead of hemp hurds, primarily to reduce the cost while still benefiting from the carbon sequestration and insulating properties of incorporating natural plant fibers. 2. Create load bearing blocks that have compressive strength at least as high as adobe, but possibly higher. Would be ideal if it approached compressed earth blocks. 3. Create a material that is more robust and able to handle direct exposure to the elements 4. Benefit from faster curing times over lime-based materials - not necessary to wait for days, weeks or months for the material to dry I've created a YouTube playlist with the videos for this series.

Hi, I'm Fonna from the Silicon Valley, Bay Area. I am an artist/musician who is in love with eco-sustainable home design and development. I had a strong love affair with interior design as a youth, which led me into my intrigue behind designing homes, using ancient knowledge and wisdom, patterns, natural elements, and embodiment to create living spaces. I recently heard a term that helps me understand my connection to nature's designs - spatial consciousness. Yes, this sounds about right! This community will assist me in aligning all of these components; I can feel that. Thank you ahead for your time.