Updated July 28, 2014

Sometimes visitors complete a 7 questions sheet, then leave it behind without identifying information. This is because there is not always someone available to introduce them to the Flock House exhibit, or clarify how to respond to the Palimpsest directions at the entrance to the NYC Flock House.

These responses are valuable and deserve their own section in the archives.  As these sheets come in, I will update this post with new information.

1. What did you think of when you saw the Flock House? (Its design, a memory, how you would change it, a feeling you had about it.)

I felt free – it reminds me of the climbing structure on the playground. I always pretended it was a vehicle or a space “house.”

In this age of disposable everything, it is refreshing to know that there are those that have a passion for global resource stewardship.

The wood made me think of the wood furniture we had when I was a chid.

Pumpkin, or Cinderella’s carriage

Mad Max beyond Thunderdome

I think of a living space for one person. It would change…

I’d like to see more actual structures – or make the pictures much larger – almost life size.

Covered wagon

Easily assembled, strong, changeable for weather, somewhat cold/industrial feel.

Pleasing shapes

A covered wagon / getting ready for story time / teepee crossed with an Igloo. envies in a bottle.

2. Would you like to spend time in a Flock House?  Spend the night?

Yes

Yes, it would be an experience I have not had before.

Spend time, yes. Spend a night, probably not.

Yes to lounge. I’d spend the night in one. (If the weather was good.)

Maybe

I would spend a night in the Flock House under a huge tree.

Yes

Maybe – it would be cold!

Yes. Yes. I need to think about what I would do to pas the time. I think I would be more productive, more physical.

Yes, and I’d spend the night

Absolutely. Someplace to relax and unwind, like read a book or art making.

3. How can a Flock House be equipped with its own source of water, energy and waste collection? Gardens to grow food and herbs?

Collection tanks – water conduits as the structural supports – solar panels – warm water to hear structure.

Water: rain and/or dew collectors. Energy: interchangeable coverings to absorb or reflect solar heat.

I’m not sure.

Garden & Food depends on location. Could be treated like a camper for water & waste.

Put it next to a river or stream and all that is taken care of, No?

?

An architect says it can’t

Water purification tabs, wind or solar generator. Bury the waste? Gardens could be grown in pots or beds indoors or out.

water – rain barrels, garden, old tires used for containers, energy – solar, waste – composting, reusing non-recyclables

Portable irrigation system, not huge solar metal panels, minimalistic so no need for energy (if needed, burn waste or compost.) grow food & herbs in boxes outside pod.

4. If you were on a Flock House design team, what recycled building materials would you suggest?

Billboard sheeting

Salvaged commercial grade roofing panels.

Metal shipping containers, glass, and ceramics.

Something natural – woven grass or twigs.

More cushions

Wood

Parachute material, wood, twine, nylon rope

Our school just there into our local landfill old (15 years) windows.

scrap wood from wooden boats, tarp, old canvas, mosquito nets

5. What could you contribute to a design and building team? (Skills, knowledge, experience, interest)

Creativity and brawn.

Interest: good direction follower and tireless worker.

interest and labor

Not much I’m afraid

Design skill

Interest

Emotional support, sarcastic comments

Interest, problem-solving ability

Finding places to install as well as places to place the Flock Houses

6. Now there are only a few Houses in a tiny global Flock.  Imagine if hundreds migrated to one place, and set up for several weeks. Would you want to be there?

No

To be honest, I have become very jaded. I might be interested in trying it for a couple of days.

Yes, depending on the other people & the place of the convergence

Sounds fun. Like a more eco-conscious Burning Man.

Maybe

Sure

I don’t do flocking things… (i.e. birds)

Yes, I envision a community of cliff dwellers in the desert.

It could be a bit overwhelming, but it would be cool!

7. What role might the Flock House play in addressing population displacement and suffering? (Such as: Drought, Scarcity, Famine, Armed attack and property damage, Disruptions or absence of utilities such as electricity, communications, sanitation, and water?)

Could relocate for work. Could move to natural resources as they arise. Could move with the weather for climate control. Could relocate populations to relive concentration. Design a pattern sung resources of salvage from locals to be used in undeveloped countries. “teach the person to fish” and they will have a home for a lifetime … and generations to come!

Having interacted with numerous individuals from 3rd world nations, I have noticed that they have a great appreciation for the most basic structures they can call “home.”

Seems to be ideal for both natural disasters and man-made conflicts that create large numbers of refugees.

If you could standardize one out of materials endemic to whatever area was experiencing the disaster, it could be really helpful on a mass scale.

It could help people a lot in areas of distress or emergency or natural disaster.

If there was a simple way to move and construct a flock house it could help people fleeing war.

Tent villages

These would have been great after the earthquake in Haiti, or the typhoons, after a tornado. They could be easily trucked or helicoptered to the areas along with emergency food, water, clothing.

It could and probably would improve displacement and suffering. Many people flee harmful homes and have to leave. Flock Houses would provide them a place to stay temporarily until they find something more permanent.

 

 

These four visitors agreed to answer the 7 questions (3) and drew their vision of Flock House as an idea (4). I will take this opportunity to share the complete wording for the 7 questions and their answers. This provides a more accurate representation of these data at the the primary level of organization.

1. What did you think of when you saw the Flock House? (Its design, a memory, how you would change it, a feeling you had about it.)

Is it for one person or a whole family? do you migrate in it? If so then it would work well for the future where there will be less space.

It makes me think of the future.

It brought me a different view of what is to come.

2. Would you like to spend time in a Flock House?  Spend the night?

I would like to spend the night in a flock house to see what it feels like.

I probably would not want to spend the night in a flock house since I am so used to my bed and lifestyle.

Most likely.

3. How can a Flock House be equipped with its own source of water, energy and waste collection? Gardens to grow food and herbs?

If it has wheels you can migrate to the nearest water source, you could only use sunlight for energy.

There can be a water tank for a source of water. There can be solar panels for energy. There can be a waste basket.  There can be a garden outside of the house.

I feel that it is dependent on where it is.

4. If you were on a Flock House design team, what recycled building materials would you suggest?

Wood, metal, plastic

Old wood, plastic bags, plastics, old tires, metals

Sheet metal, plywood.

5. What could you contribute to a design and building team? (Skills, knowledge, experience, interest)

I know how to sew.  Just being a member of the team can impact the outcome of the design.

Having it be small and efficient.

6. Now there are only a few Houses in a tiny global Flock.  Imagine if hundreds migrated to one place, and set up for several weeks. Would you want to be there?

Sounds like warped tour. Yes.

I could not imagine living in a flock house. However, it would be a sight to see.

I could not imagine spending so much time in a place with so many Flock Houses.

7. What role might the Flock House play in addressing population displacement and suffering? (Such as: Drought, Scarcity, Famine, Armed attack and property damage, Disruptions or absence of utilities such as electricity, communications, sanitation, and water?)

It could definitely be a cheaper way for more people to have homes, no children would go homeless or cold.

Flock Houses provide people compact homes.  It is easy for migration. People will learn to take what they need and value every resource.

Easy migrations to a different area, living style would become nomadic.

 

When Brian Wetjen saw the Flock House, his first response was, “I want one in my backyard.” He wants to spend time in one, and overnight. He would equip it with “hose, solar, hatches and panels for access to growing things or sanitation.” For materials he would use “anything, preferably what can be salvaged, recycled or re-used. But one in a way that looks intentional and cool.”

He would provide “craftsmanship, engineering, interface, visibility, design materials, concepts, integration into environments” to a design and building team.  “Yes,” he would go if a Flock of Flock Houses migrated to a single place.

The Flock House idea might play a role in addressing population displacement and suffering. “By coming up with new and unique ways to build, source, locate and place shelters, perhaps we can solve some problems and create new solutions when it comes to meeting those needs of those who would be helped most by it.”

Below is Brian’s drawing with these words on the back of the page:  “integrate nature into life”

Karen Bahr is a court interpreter for Spanish.  She is also a member of Faerie Tones folk music band, an Acro Yoga teacher, and sells Faerie ear cuffs on her Etsy site, Same Sky Wings

This week she joined the Palimpsest project at the Flock House Omaha Project. On August 6th she will lead a Yoga Circle Ceremony to introduce a vision for community in future human society. In our future, she explained, “we will be in close quarters in neighborhoods” that are self-sustaining. In addition to new technology, urban gardens and sustainable architecture, “it will require greater cooperation.” To distribute resources and live with security, “we will need to help each other out, and to communicate well with respect and clarity.”

The ceremony will last about a half-hour, to be followed by music, dance, hula hoops and making faerie ear cuffs. Combining serious ideas and playful fun.

When responding to the 7 Questions, Karen saw the NYC Flock House as “a covered wagon crossed with Cinderella’s pumpkin coach.” “Yes,” she wants to spend the night in the Omaha Flock House with her sister, when she comes to visit. She envisions a “water tank hung at the top with some kind of hose coming down. You could also hang planters or trays from the support beams to grow food.” Recycled building materials might come from buildings “that are being torn down or parts being thrown out.”

To design future neighborhoods, we need to “think about mobility needs, and what people from all different walks of life might need.” This would include “safety measures and resource sharing/cooperation.” Mobile self-sustaining Flock Houses “would allow people to easily move to places where there are resources and safety.”

Karen’s design for a Flock House is a model on wheels. It can collapse to become a trailer to transport essentials, or opened into a living or commerce structure.

 

Shawn thought of “engagement,” when he saw the Flock Houses. He would like to spend time in in one.  He would “attach wheels.” The material he suggests for a Flock House is “twine,” which he has worked with and enjoyed in the past.

Future Bemis projects that invite community participation interest him. To receive information about future projects, he added his name and email address to the sign in sheet at the reception desk in the Bemis Center, Old Market.

In his drawing, Sean is sitting on a chair and working at a desk much like the furnishings of the Flock House Omaha. He represents triangles and angled walls of the structure.

 

Heather and Jeff visited Bemis Center as part of a day trip from Lincoln. Heather recently graduated from the University of Nebraska in Art and has a new job as a designer with a web company in Lincoln.

They talked over answers to the 7 Questions. The NYC Flock house brought stained glass to mind, “made me think of a church.” They suggested Grow with the Flow Aquaponics in Nebraska at www.gwtfaquaphonics.com as a plant growing resource. Recycled materials they would use in a Flock House: milk jugs, deck wood, flowers, vines. On a design team, they offer “aesthetics.” They might consider a Flock gathering, but it “depends on who lives in the other houses.” As a last message, they added, “This is a good drawing location — there should be more of these!”

 

 

Matthew Dumich is an architect. He sat in the NYC Flock House with his wife Christine where they answered 7 Questions and built Flock House models.

In the 7 Questions he described the NYC Flock House as “experimental – provocative.”  Would he like to spend time in a Flock House? “Yes, as a calm place of contemplation, but probably not overnight (if outside.)” To be self-sufficient he suggests “water collection from roof with cisterns. Incorporate thin firm photovoltaic cells on roof membrane to generate energy.  Hang vertical gardens on walls.” Recycled materials he suggests are: “recycled parachutes, street signs or tractor-trailer walls, and car windshield.” He could give “creative ideas and technical understanding of building” to a design and building team. He would want to come to a Flock migration, as “catalyzing communities, idea exchange – a new form of meeting place.” He sees Flock Houses as having “potential for high density housing of refugees and disaster victims.”

His Flock House model uses solar panels on the roof flaps, valleys on the roof to collect rainwater, and openings at either end to allow natural ventilation.

 

 

 

 

 

Christine Dumich is an architect. In the photo below she is working in the NYC Flock House with her husband Matthew.

When asked to speculate about the role of Flock House as an idea that might address population displacement and suffering, she responded. “I see these as a chance to create a sense of community – help citizens establish a sense of participation in the environment, thus gaining a stronger commitment to it’s vitality.”

When asked if she would like to contribute to a design and building team, she wrote, “I would want to share in the experience – watch them come together.”

Her sense of the NYC Flock House is of a “stage-coach.” She “imagines it would glow at night.”

When building her model in the NYC Flock House, she described, “You come in and feel the shelter.”

She made her model of Bristol paper with scissors, marked with a pen. Its design is a “Shade structure.”

The photos below show it from two perspectives.

Connie Heiden thought the NYC Flock House looked “almost like a covered wagon.”

Her vision is of a Flock House built with adobe bricks.  Natural materials and light.

Connie would like to spend time in a Flock House, and to take part in a Flock migration.

She visited Bemis Center with her daughter and son-in-law, Christine and Matthew Dumich.

 

My conversation starts with an artist from Portland, visiting family in Nebraska.

“In Portland, everything is about repurposing, not starting with anything new. The biggest difference between Nebraska and Portland is the absence of bicycles. In Portland they are pervasive in all-weather conditions. Matt is transitioning to self propulsion. “Once you accommodate, it seems natural to commute locally by bike.”

Matt shows me several of his paintings on his cell phone. Many are mappings, with intricate drawings of structures fit into organic environments.

We talk about Mary Mattingly’s work. Her focus on the need for creativity to survive. Realizing people do not know about life support systems they depend on.  Mattingly says that in the future we will be creating them and adapting them as earth changes engulf our unsustainable way of life. Developing creative approaches is as important as technical solutions to problems. We need more flexible, movable, constantly adaptable life support systems. Many developed and applied at the personal level.

Matt and a friend each did a drawing and contributed to Thinking about the idea of Flock House in the 7 Questions.

1. Their response to NYC Flock House they are drawing in – “Beautiful in its simplicity, purity – white and natural wood tones. calm, open, airy.”

2. Spending time in the Flock House – “Yes, clears the mind, go back to basics of life.”

3. How to make Flock House self-sustaining – “Collect rain water in barrel, wind power, compost. Gardens.”

4. Recycled materials you would you use for a Flock House – “Aluminum, tin, glass jars. I love the white and wood, though, because aesthetics are important. It must be beautiful.”