Modular Cargo Cycles
Low-tech SolutionsModular cargo cycles are cheap to build and easy to customize.
Articles by Kris De Decker
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Well-Tended Fires Outperform Modern Cooking Stoves
High-tech ProblemsDespite technological advancements since the Industrial Revolution, cooking remains a spectacularly inefficient process.
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How Sustainable is Digital Fabrication?
High-tech ProblemsAutomation is more energy-intensive than mechanisation.
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High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network
High-tech ProblemsHigh speed rail is destroying the most valuable alternative to the airplane; the “low speed” rail network that has been in service for decades.
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Heat Your Clothes, Not Your House
Low-tech SolutionsThe arrival of compact lithium-ion batteries has increased the performance and diversity of electrically heated clothing.
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Power from the Tap: Water Motors
Obsolete TechnologyIn the nineteenth century, miniature water turbines were connected to the tap and could power any machine that is now driven by electricity
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Back to Basics: Direct Hydropower
Low-tech SolutionsThe hydro power installations in use today are less energy efficient than those of earlier centuries.
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The Mechanical Transmission of Power (3): Endless Rope Drives
Obsolete TechnologyThe trend towards small-scale, decentralised power production means that rope transmission might have a place in our energy system again
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The Mechanical Transmission of Power (2): Jerker Line Systems
Obsolete TechnologyJerker line systems can be used to operate water pumps or sawing machines, to forge iron, to process food or fibres, or to make paper.
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The Mechanical Transmission of Power (1): Stangenkunst
Obsolete TechnologyLong-distance power transmission predates the invention of electricity by almost four centuries.
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How to Make Everything Ourselves: Open Modular Hardware
Low-tech SolutionsA modular system unites the advantages of standardisation (parts can be produced cheaply in large amounts) with the advantages of customisation (a large diversity of unique objects can be made with relatively few parts).
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Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient
Low-tech SolutionsAbout a quarter of the existent wind turbines would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are people.