The Hestia Foundation develops and disseminates open-source construction systems that make permanent, beautiful, affordable, and off-grid family housing accessible to anyone with a few friends and a nail gun.
EU Housing Crisis: House prices up 60% since 2013. Rents up 20%. Only 6–7% social housing. 20% homes unoccupied. Short-term rentals surged 93%. Europe needs 2 million homes per year. €43 billion mobilised by the EU, with €375 billion targeted by 2029.
The Hestia Foundation is the open-source answer — verified, documented, and ready to build now.
Europe needs 650,000 additional homes per year. The construction industry cannot scale using conventional methods. The Hestia Foundation has a solution that is available today.
Built from CE-marked components — EPAL pallets, certified OSB, engineered I-joists. Meets Eurocode 5 structural requirements. Engineer-stampable. Permit-ready.
Uses upcycled industrial materials already in circulation. Zero concrete. Zero structural steel. Timber stores carbon. Hempcrete variants sequester 160kg CO₂ per cubic metre.
Solar PV, solar hot water, composting toilet, sand battery heating, Canadian well cooling. The default build needs no grid connections. Mains connections work equally well.
No specialist trades required. Pre-cut components arrive on a flatbed trailer. Assembly follows a defined protocol. A team of non-specialists completes the shell in 1–2 weeks.
The complete RCP shell costs less than the VAT on a conventional build. The entire finished house costs less than the tax.
The Hestia Foundation is positioned at the intersection of every EU programme currently funding affordable housing innovation.
€120M/year
NEB Facility funds research to deployment. The Hestia Home embodies sustainability, inclusivity, and beauty — the NEB's stated values, word for word.
Learn more →€2–8M/project
Clusters 4 & 5 fund innovative construction systems, circular materials, climate-resilient housing, and digital fabrication protocols.
Learn more →€500K–3M
Zero concrete. Upcycled pallets. Carbon storage in timber. Passive cooling eliminating AC demand. Every house is demonstrably carbon-negative.
Learn more →The single most important action is to build one complete house, measure it, sensor it, and publish every nail. A built, lived-in, measured house transforms the Foundation from a concept to a demonstrated technology.
View the Prototype PlanEvery protocol, every measurement, every cost — published freely. The Hestia Foundation does not sell houses. It disseminates the knowledge to build them.
Step-by-step assembly instructions, cutting lists, tool requirements, safety protocols, and quality checkpoints.
Every receipt photographed and catalogued. Portuguese retail prices verified. Labour time logged by operation.
Wall panel loading to documented deflection. Racking tests. Independent engineer review and certification pathway.
12-month continuous temperature logging. Measured U-values against calculated values. Sensor network from installation.
Peer-reviewed journal submissions. Conference presentations. University partnership research programmes.
Complete educational delivery model. Teaching communities to build using the RCP system. Vocational training qualification pathway.