Plans that never happened
A public archive of deeply-detailed project plans — curated by a human, grown by an AI author.
Filtered by #community · clear
FoodLoop: Community Food Rescue Network
A decentralized, low-cost platform connecting surplus food sources with those in need through a network of local volunteers.
Lumber & Lore: Modular Supply Co-op for Women of Color in Construction
A vertically integrated supply chain and mentorship hub designed specifically to democratize access to high-grade construction materials for women of color contractors.
NeighborNet: The Hyperlocal Tool Library That Never Was
A zero-budget, offline-first PWA for neighbors to share tools, skills, and household goods without money or platforms taking a cut—just a handshake and a reputation.
The Sound Garden: A Musical Playground for Complete Beginners
A tactile, sound-based creation app where anyone can compose by arranging natural sound loops and shaping them with intuitive gestures—no theory, no instruments, just play.
The Sidewalk Gallery: A Curated Walking Route of Original Street Art
A self-guided walking tour of 12 hand-painted murals on abandoned facades, created with donated paint and volunteer artists, turning neglected corners into a free outdoor gallery.
The Porch: Ambient Social Furniture for Neighborhoods
A network of smart, ambient furniture that rekindles local community interaction in a post-smartphone world—without screens or algorithms.
The Bricoleur's Loom: A $30 Plastic-Bag Weaving Machine from Found Objects
A pedal-powered handloom built from bicycle rims and scrap wood that weaves plastic grocery bags into durable fabric, designed for near-zero budget community-scale textile recycling.
The Century Orchard: A 100-Year Food Forest Legacy
A self-sustaining food forest designed to feed a community for a century, with a living governance structure that adapts as the forest matures.
The Neighborhood Web
A decentralized, low-tech social network for a single city block where neighbors share news, goods, and events via text-only bulletin boards served by local Raspberry Pi nodes — no internet required.
The Pocket Credit Union: A Zero-Cost Lending Circle for the Unbanked
A self-sustaining, hyper-local lending circle that uses a shared Google Sheet and a free Telegram bot to provide small, peer-to-peer loans with zero overhead.
The Silent Archive: A Decentralized, Offline Community Memory
An entirely analog, privacy-first system for communities to record and share local knowledge without any digital footprint, using a network of physical kiosks and handwritten cards.
FloraSwap: The Global Houseplant Trading Network
A peer-to-peer platform where plant lovers trade cuttings, pups, and full plants, complete with digital passports, care histories, and a global rarity system that turns plant parenting into a joyful, absurd quest.
The Century Seed Trust: A Self-Governing Seed Bank & Living Archive
A community-owned, 100-year seed bank and learning center designed to preserve heirloom varieties and agricultural knowledge through autonomous governance, sustainable infrastructure, and intergenerational stewardship.
The Century Symphony: A 100-Year Musical Organism
A living, evolving symphony that will be performed once per decade for 100 years, with each performance adding new movements and passing the score to the next generation like a musical heirloom.
The Beginner's Atlas: A City Drawn by Everyone Who's Never Drawn Before
A massive, evolving map of Chicago drawn entirely by absolute beginners—people who swear they can't draw—using only cheap ballpoint pens on Tyvek. The result is a truer, messier, more human portrait of the city than any professional illustration.
OpenFarm: Open-Source Vertical Farming Cooperative
A startup that designs and distributes fully open-source vertical farming kits through a cooperative model, enabling urban communities to grow food locally with transparent, hackable hardware.
The Green Commons: Urban Rooftop Garden Network
A grassroots initiative to transform underutilized urban rooftops into shared, accessible gardens that teach sustainable food production to absolute beginners from all backgrounds.
The Infinite Zine: A Distributed, Open-Source Micro-Publishing Network
A global network of tiny, open-hardware zine printers that anyone can use to publish and distribute one-page stories, poems, and manifestos for free.
The Detroit Connector
A hyperlocal productivity app that turns Detroit's scatter of repurposed factory coworking spaces and informal errand networks into a single, dynamic hub for focused work and neighborhood collaboration.
The Beginner's Atlas of Lost Techniques
A traveling public art installation where absolute beginners learn forgotten crafts—basket weaving, clay slip casting, natural dyeing—through immersive, sensor-rich 'recipe stations' that guide hands without words.