CENTER FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The Venus Project has begun development of its next phase: the Center for Resource Management. This facility will showcase The Venus Project’s vision and will act as a stepping stone towards the development of our proposed network of cities.
Center for Rsource Management - Side View
A LIVING LAB FOR GLOBAL SOLUTIONS
The Center for Resource Management, in collaboration with partners from around the world, will test and advance solutions for an entirely new social system, along with approaches to restoring the Earth’s collapsing ecosystems.
SUSTAINABLE HOUSING, FOOD, ENERGY, AND MORE
As an integrated total system, the Center for Resource Management will showcase a systems approach to sustainability across the entire social complex.
City Concept
A SOCIAL BLUEPRINT FOR FUTURE CITIES
The Center for Resource Management will create an evolving social blueprint upon which highly efficient future cities can be built.
The Center for Resource Management demonstrates a holistic approach* to social betterment, helping to initiate the next stage of social evolution in order to solve humanity's global challenges.

MEET THE TEAM

The drawings and specifications for the Center for Resource Management are being developed by a globally distributed multi-disciplinary volunteer technical team. This organized group of architects, engineers, technicians and specialists are taking action using their unique skill sets to materialize the technical details required to see this project become a reality. Let's meet some of the team!

Adam Bouzane, D.EDDT
Project Manager
Adam has 16 years of Architectural and Engineering design experience in a variety of light & medium & heavy commercial construction projects. His varied technical background has diversified his portfolio Read More
Georgi Tsochev
Lead Architect
The planet earth is our home and it is the only real estate and abode and habitat we all possess.* It is apparent and more obvious to all of us, Read More
Sherry Swiney
Lead Quantity Surveyor
Over 30 years of experience in Engineering, Construction, and Manufacturing. Experience includes project management, contracts management (including CMSi), project planning, budget forecasting, estimating, construction coordination, scheduling, procurement, technical writing, project Read More
Alexander Rodriguez
Lead Electrical Engineer
Alex works professionally as a senior electrical engineer and has over 11 years industrial experience as building services and infrastructure electrical designer. Alex takes great pride in his work with Read More
Seán O'Callaghan
Electrical Engineer/Contributor
Engineer and Sustainability professional (B.Eng, M.Sc RES, MIET), EV early adopter (Nissan Leaf 2012), NZEB architect and owner. Presently employed in the ocean wave energy space working on the design Read More
Larry Mintz
Statistician/Contributor
Larry fulfills a statistician role in this project. He has been volunteering for The Venus Project since 2017 and his main focus is on obtaining datasets and finding statistical correlations Read More
Kevin Mulvey
Architectural Designer
Kevin works professionally as an Architectural Technician and has over 10 years of experience in building design and planning services working on projects in residential, commercial, educational and health care. Read More
Augustinas Lipskis
Mechanical Engineer
Augustinas works professionally as an HVAC engineer.
Frixos Proedrou
Nutritionist/Dietitian
I am a nutritionist/dietician specialized in clinical nutrition and dietetics. I have been working for 10+ years with patients and healthy individuals and also collaborated with several hospitals and universities, Read More
Guilherme Forton Viotti
Project Manager
Graduated in business administration with minor in economics. Advanced knowledge in project management, marketing, automation solutions and computer programming.
Geisa Thielen
Water Management
Geisa has 10 years of experience in the engineering field. Her diverse background has given her experience in wastewater treatment plant design, water dischargers permit compliance, state and federal regulations Read More
Roxanne Meadows
Master Planning
Roxanne Meadows worked with renowned futurist Jacque Fresco for 41 years to develop and promote The Venus Project. The function of this project is to develop and implement alternative solutions Read More
Borislav Zlatanov
Education, IT Automation
Borislav learned about the concept of a Global Resource Based Economy in 2009, upon which he decided to volunteer his time to help make this social direction a reality. He Read More
Gabriel Avila
Project Manager
Gabriel has over 20 years of expertise in technology solutions implementation and business process management. He holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering and a PMP certification from the Project Read More
Eoghan Brophy
Medical/Facility Management
Eoghan has a variety of experience in a variety of fields ranging from IT, pharmacology, transport, water management, archery, social media and woodturning to name a few. He currently works Read More
Vijayakumar Narayanan
Lead Agriculturist / Aquaponics Futurist
Brief Bio Present: Seven plus years as Aquaponics Farmer, Independent Aquaponics Research, Independent Aquaponics Consultant, Aquaponics Franchise, Integrated Agriculture, Protected Cultivation Horticulture (design, management, mentoring, operations), Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), Read More
LEO JK
Architect, Technologist & MEP Engineer
About me in short: - Primary & Secondary Education like everyone else - College of Music (Piano, Keyboards, Composing) - First Master Degree in MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) in Read More

MASTERPLAN

The sections below provide more detail about the functioning of the Center for Resource Management and our overall plan.

1. The Vision
The Venus Project envisions a world where all people on the planet have their needs met, and the Earth’s ecosystems are protected and restored. In this vision, human activity is in symbiosis with nature, and all people live peacefully in a world with no borders. To achieve this ambitious vision, The Venus Project is initiating a small-scale project – The Center for Resource Management, with an exponential increase in global impact through replicating and scaling it, as described in the next sections.

The Venus Project seeks to create a Global Resource Based Economy, which is an emergent society, as opposed to the established societies of today. The chart below lists some key differences between our goals and the practices common in most parts of the world today:

Resource Based Economy Established Societies
Opt-in – each person chooses whether they want to live and participate in this society, and can leave at any point in time Imposed
Continuous feedback from all members of society about how well their needs are met People’s needs are often overlooked or disregarded
Continuous protection and preservation of the planet’s ecosystems, and knowledge about their state Care for the environment is usually in reverse relationship to business profitability. Practices and regulations might be changed only after huge crises and devastation has been caused.
Iterative planning Big, hard-to-change, top-down-enforced plans
All aspects of society undergo continuous change: governance, economics, education, technology, and more Change in some elements of society (e.g. technology), but stagnation in the foundations: governance, economics, education, and others
Responsive to change Change is difficult or resisted by the established groups
Focused on creating abundance for all Focused on maintaining scarcity
Win-win relationships within society (if one person or group wins, everybody wins) Win-lose relationships within society (for one person or group to win, another one has to lose)

Through the intelligent and humane use of the best of science and technology, The Venus Project’s emergent society, which we call a Global Resource Based Economy, can easily provide a high quality of life for all people. This comes in combination with an updated value system that enables people and nations to bridge their differences and work collaboratively towards a common social direction.

This new society:

  • Recognizes the Earth as common heritage of all people
  • Provides free access to all products and services
  • Uses scientific principles, testing and research to arrive at decisions, with social betterment and environmental preservation as the priority
  • Utilizes interdisciplinary teams of experts to look after each area of society. They, too, will eventually delegate their work to more efficient automated systems.



2. The Organization
The Venus Project is an international and globally distributed organization. It operates a Center in Venus, Florida, where in 1980 the founders purchased 21 acres and have since constructed 10 experimental structures. They developed the whole Center over many years, funding it through their outside jobs, without any sponsors or going into debt.

One of the purposes of this Center is to show how technology and nature can co-exist and to help people see what a positive future for all could look like. View the video below for an overview:

The Venus Project has gained worldwide popularity and support. Media coverage has been extensive and in many languages: in newspapers, TV shows, websites, magazines, documentaries, books, blogs and more throughout the world.

Today, the organization is distributed throughout the world, with its members working collaboratively within a number of teams:

  • Academia team
  • Architectural, Engineering, & Construction team
  • Communications team
  • Data-Driven Decisions team
  • Digital Technologies team
  • Editorial team
  • Fundraising team
  • Graphics team
  • Human Resources team
  • Land Acquisition team
  • Marketing team
  • Organizational Structure & Project Management team
  • Public Speaking team
  • Social Media team
  • Sociocyberneering Education Project
  • Transcription team
  • Virtual Reality team
  • Video team
  • Vision team
  • Website team

Some of The Venus Project’s progress to date:

  • A 21-acre Center comprised of 10 buildings has been completed in Venus, Florida by the organization’s founders. Its estimated cost is USD 1,250,000. This was paid for entirely by the founders, Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows, through outside jobs.
  • Over 400 scale models, 5,500 design sketches, video lectures, books, and CGI produced.
  • USD 200k+ funding was raised from public donations to write a script for a major film production to present this social direction to the general public. This is an ongoing project.
  • In 2012, the documentary Paradise or Oblivion was created and translated into 37 languages.
  • In 2016, USD 76,000 was raised from public donations to produce the documentary The Choice Is Ours, which presents this social direction.
  • One of the co-founders of the organization, Jacque Fresco, was awarded the Global Goals Award of Excellence & Leadership for Sustainable Cities & Communities by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2016.

The Venus Project was operating as a private corporation for decades. In May 2018, it became a public 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

3. Center for Resource Management

3.1. Overview

The Venus Project has begun development of its next phase: the Center for Resource Management. This facility will act as a stepping stone towards the development of our proposed network of cities.

Primary goals:

  • Create an evolving and scalable social blueprint which future cities can be built upon and further develop. This will be done in collaboration with worldwide partners and with input from many diverse parties.
  • Present The Venus Project’s vision through immersing visitors in a physical environment that implements many of these concepts on a smaller scale.
  • Help construct a first city that implements and further develops these principles and social blueprint.
  • Help find effective strategies for reversing climate change and restoring the Earth’s collapsing ecosystems.

The Center for Resource Management will utilize The Venus Project’s holistic, systems approach to social betterment. This approach looks at the entire social system as one whole. This is in contrast to today’s typical approaches of companies and governments who focus on isolated elements of the social system (which we could call an elementalistic approach). The following table outlines some main differences between the two approaches:

The Venus Project (Holistic, Systems Approach) Elementalistic Approach
Innovate at the level of the whole system Innovate at the level of an element of the system (an isolated product or service)
Measure success at the level of the whole system and the wellbeing of all its participants Measure success at the level of the element (company or product or service), without regard to negative retroactions on the rest of the system and participants

As part of its systems approach, the Center for Resource Management will include food & agriculture, water management, renewable energy, housing, education, collective use and sharing of items, tourism, media production & outreach, and more – all in an integrated plan. One other highly innovative aspect, that is again a part of the larger social plan, is that all residents of the Center for Resource Management will have entirely free access to housing, food, energy, water, education, common items, and more.

The location of each component and building in the site plan is likewise a part of the systems approach. The Center for Resource Management utilizes a circular arrangement, with all its components arranged in five rings. The systems approach makes it much easier to lay out the energy grid, the water piping, the landscape and other elements of the urban plan. Another aspect is the use of many similar architectural components which can be duplicated. This conserves energy and resources, which is important for enabling all people to have a higher standard of living.

Center for Resource Management - Sections and Rings

The five rings and eight slices allow for efficiency, replicability and modularity.

This is however not a cookie-cutter approach. The images below show The Venus Project’s current Center in Venus, Florida, where 10 experimental buildings are totally immersed within the natural environment:

Treating the entire complex as a single system also allows us to reuse many of the materials and resources, such as food waste for composting and recycling of the wastewater. The following diagram outlines the use and flow of energy and materials (metabolic plan) within the complex:

Center for Resource Management - Metabolic Plan

Center for Resource Management – Flow of energy and materials

A scalable and replicable social blueprint
The Center for Resource Management will test and advance the social blueprint The Venus Project has been developing for decades. By social blueprint we mean the collection of all the design principles, architectural and infrastructure blueprints, procedures and processes, educational courses, reference information and data, business model, and more. This social blueprint will continuously evolve through the work and feedback of the Center for Resource Management’s residents, outside participants, as well as through input from visiting researchers who examine how well the entire complex is working. A set of metrics can be used to assess how well the social blueprint is performing in each of the following areas:

  • Universal access to clean air
  • Universal access to clean water
  • Physical wellbeing of all members of society (including access to effective healthcare)
  • Universal access to nutritious and healthy food
  • Ecological sustainability
  • Universal access to the best available education
  • Universal access to comfortable clothing
  • Safety (little or no violence and crime)
  • Personal satisfaction
  • Universal access to comfortable housing
  • Universal access to effective transportation
  • The population’s engagement and participation in efforts towards the wellbeing of all people

The social blueprint will allow for subsequent cities to replicate and scale up the functioning of the Center for Resource Management, while at the same time tailoring it to their local circumstances and needs, as well as contributing to improving it. Ultimately, this social blueprint will lead to The Venus Project’s long-term aims and goals described under our Phase 4.

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3.2. Tourism

The Center for Resource Management will welcome visitors from around the world. The complex will be located near a major tourist area and an international airport. The main purpose is to provide visitors with a lived experience of a different way of organizing society, and to show them a vision of a world where everyone enjoys a high quality of life and people symbiotically co-exist with one another and the rest of nature.

The Center for Resource Management’s visitor experience will be a further development of the tours which The Venus Project’s current Center in Venus, Florida holds regularly:

Starting from the outer ring and moving toward the center of the circle, the visitor experience will begin with a pass through of the agricultural belt, energy sector, and living premises. The visitors will see how the complex is growing food in clean and healthy ways, conserving and reusing water, utilizing efficient housing, generating clean energy, and how all the residents enjoy accessing the benefits of this at no cost.

Reaching the central ring, the visitors enter the Exhibition of the Future. This unique facility is comprised of several buildings and walking paths between them. It shows, through many types of interactive exhibits, scale models, and virtual reality, what can be achieved when we direct our resources and efforts toward worldwide social betterment and sustainability.

Center for Resource Management – Exhibition of the FutureCenter for Resource Management – Exhibition of the Future
Center for Resource Management – Visitor ExperienceCenter for Resource Management – Visitor Experience
Center for Resource Management – Exhibition of the Future – Opposite SideCenter for Resource Management – Exhibition of the Future – Opposite Side

Tourism will be one of the main revenue generators, enabling the Center for Resource Management’s residents to purchase from outside all materials, products and services that are not produced and provided internally at the time.

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3.3. Food & Agriculture

The purpose of the food and agriculture program is to provide a healthy and nutritious diet for all residents and visitors of the Center for Resource Management, all year round. This is to be accomplished in clean, symbiotic ways, and using only the most environmentally sound practices.

The Center for Resource Management includes an agricultural belt for producing as much of its own food as possible. The agricultural belt will utilize the Polydome concept as developed by Except Integrated Sustainability. The Polydome creates an ecosystem of many different types of plants and animals and utilizes the symbiotic relationships between them. This is in an enclosed environment, removing the need to use pesticides or other toxic chemicals.

Polydome - Greenhouse
Polydome greenhouse. Source: Polydome book.

Polydome - Indoor
Polydome greenhouse interior – a polyculture symbiotic ecosystem. Source: Polydome book.


Food is provided in a Restaurant where residents of the Center for Resource Management can dine at no cost. The meal plans are prepared by nutritionists.

Center for Resource Management - Restaurant

Restaurant building in the Center for Resource Management

Excess agricultural produce will be sold to the local food market. The revenue from this will help accelerate the project’s rate of development, and it will help bring more sustainably grown food to local food markets. This model of exporting excess food can readily be used by subsequent cities, helping to change the world’s food systems.

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3.4. Water

The primary purpose is to provide clean, safe drinking water to all residents and visitors. This is accomplished through capturing and cleaning rainwater, conserving water, and recycling wastewater.

Another main purpose of water is to provide places for recreation, relaxation, swimming, and social gathering.

The Venus Project’s current 21-acre Center in Venus, Florida includes beautiful ponds and lakes:

The Center for Resource Management will similarly have many beautiful ponds and lakes throughout its landscape.

Center for Resource Management - Water

Lakes and ponds will be throughout the complex.

The drinking water requirements and harvestable rainfall for the entire complex have been estimated as follows:

Drinking water needed 37,017 cubic meters/year
Harvestable rainwater 130,704 cubic meters/year

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3.5. Energy

The goal of the energy program is to ensure sufficient energy for electrical, heating and cooling requirements is provided all year round through sustainable generation. Energy includes electrical and thermal (heat) energy.

The anticipated peak electrical demand of all buildings and infrastructure in the Center for Resource Management is 18.4 MVA (estimate includes a high safety margin). This will be supplied by the energy belt which at this time is planned to consist of solar panels and batteries for storage. This setup will provide sufficient energy for the entire complex for most of the year.

A smart microgrid will distribute the electricity throughout the complex. Connection with the main electrical grid will provide a backup and supplementary electrical supply, as well as a way to export excess electricity generated from the energy belt back into the main electrical grid.

A GeoExchange district energy system will provide heating and cooling for the buildings.

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3.6. Sharing Of Products And Services

Today, the practice of checking out books from a public library, reading and then returning them is well established. The Center for Resource Management’s social blueprint utilizes a similar concept, and extends it further to include not only books but a variety of common items. These will be available in the Access center, or in other access locations.

Center for Resource Management - Access center

The Access center is one of the dome buildings in the amenities belt.

Products such as bikes, tools and cameras will be available for use from their respective access locations, and will be shared between all residents. For single-use items, residents will be able to obtain a range of those from the Access center at no cost. The need for single-use items will however be minimized through intelligent planning of the overall system.

Shared products will be maintained and kept in top condition by the expert teams who are responsible for that particular area of the social system. These teams will also track the demand for the various products and services to ensure they are available without waiting lines.

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3.7. Media Production & Outreach

One of the major goals of the Center for Resource Management is to help usher in a global collaboration towards the restoration of the Earth’s ecosystems and a transition to a society where everybody is housed, clothed, fed, and has their needs met.

One way of spreading and initiating this vision will be through media production and promotion throughout the globe. A dedicated Media center building will serve to help the creation of many different forms of media: TV shows, interviews, short clips, documentaries, comic strips, books, cartoons, songs, and more.

Center for Resource Management - Media center

The Media center will be located in one of the domes in the amenities belt.

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3.8. Medical Care, Recreation, and More

A medical care facility capable of handling acute operations will be available for residents and visitors. This facility will also be used for regular medical checkups for residents. Healthcare professionals participate in the design and operation of the whole Center for Resource Management complex, to help make it an environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing.

Various sports facilities will be provided: a swimming pool, tennis courts, a fitness center, and more. The whole environment is more akin to a garden or a forest than a city. It is full of walking paths, bike paths, lakes, and more:

Center for Resource Management

There will be no trees in a row but rather a natural environment similar to our existing Center in Venus, Florida:

Venus Center - Natural Environment

Natural environment within our Center in Venus, Florida.

Other elements of the Center for Resource Management’s social blueprint not described in the previous sections include education, transportation, architectural modeling, art & music, and more.

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4. Starting step: 1/8th of the Center for Resource Management

The Center for Resource Management’s circular shape can be divided into 8 equal sections:

Center for Resource Management - Eight Sections

To reduce the required upfront costs and operational complexity, we plan to build the whole complex in stages, starting with 1/8th of the circle:

Center for Resource Management - One-Eighth

Because of the systems approach to laying out the site plan, each element is included even when at 1/8th of the scale: agriculture, energy, living premises, amenities, tourism.

In the ideal scenario, once the 1/8th section is in operation, the revenue it generates will be sufficient to build and develop the other 7 sections.

5. Scaling Up For Global Impact

Considering the current state of the planet, we would like a scaling strategy to be able to accomplish the following:

  • Achieve global impact in a short period of time
  • Help reverse urgent environmental crises
  • Employ gradual transition rather than abrupt change
  • Ensure spread throughout the world
  • Go to a larger scale only when the smaller scale has fully matured, and allow for an effective transfer of experience

With the above goals as a starting point, inspiration for our scaling strategy was taken from nature and processes like splitting of beehives and division of cells.

Cells DividingWith each cell dividing, cells increase their numbers at an exponential rate while maintaining the proper functioning of each single cell.
BeehivesBeekeepers split their beehives to get two hives from one.

How our scaling strategy works: When the Center for Resource Management reaches the maximum population it was designed to support, half of its residents will transfer and initiate a first city, while the other half will stay and continue operating the Center for Resource Management. Both of these will then continue taking in people from the outside who choose to join, until they both reach maximum population capacity, upon which they will again split, now forming a total of four. Each of the four will then repeat the same process.

Employing such an exponential process means that after 15 divisions, there can be 16,000 cities. The cities will likely vary in size depending on local conditions and needs. As a thought experiment, we estimate that somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 cities will be sufficient to house all people on the planet. The worldwide interest we’ve already had indicates that, by having tourism and open information about the cities, people will choose to visit and eventually live in them.

It is very important to emphasize that all these cities will be connected with each other like cells are in a living organism, forming an interactive global network, where all available resources, valid information and relevant education are made available abundantly to all people without a price tag or servitude to anyone.

6. Our Progress To Date and Next Steps

The below roadmap shows the progress we have made to date (last updated: Jul 16, 2019):

  • Plan and initiate the Center for Resource Management project. Done
  • Start the volunteer team of architects, engineers and technicians to develop the project. Done
  • Develop conceptual site plan. Done
  • Develop the buildings, infrastructure and operations. In Progress
    • Show Details

      Agriculture & Meal Plans: 10%

      Energy Production: 10%

      Water Resource Management: 15%

      Landscaping: 10%

      Electrical Distribution Network: 5%

      IT/Telecommunications Network: 0%

      Transportation: 10%

      District Energy: 0%

      Business Model: 15%

      Exhibition Of The Future: 5%

      Access center: 0%

      Restaurant: 7%

      Living Premises: 10%

  • Populate the team with experts from disciplines that we are currently missing.
  • Estimate land requirements for the whole complex and the cost of building 1/8th of it.
  • Acquire land.
  • Raise funds for the construction of 1/8th.
  • Physical construction.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

Get Involved

We need the volunteer assistance of many different professionals. Please expand the technical description below for more details.

Show Technical Description

The work for the Center for Resource Management is broken down into three phases:

  • Phase 1: Architectural Programming and Schematic Design
  • Phase 2: Land Acquisition and Detailed Engineering Blueprints
  • Phase 3: Physical Construction of the Center for Resource Management

Assistance from a wide variety of specialists is needed at this time in order to proceed with Phase 1 and Phase 2. We urge the following individuals to step forward and join us on this remarkable endeavor:

  • Access center: Inventory Managers, 3D Printing Specialists
  • Agriculture & Food: Agricultural Specialists, Fish Farming and Aquaponics Experts, Nutritionists & Dietitians, Restaurant Managers, Cooking Automation Experts
  • Building Design: Architects, Structural Engineers, Mechanical/HVAC Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Fire Suppression Engineers, Hydraulics Engineers, Interior Designers
  • Business Model: Business Plan Developers, Agribusiness Specialists, Tourism Experts, Strategic Partnership Managers
  • Cost Analysis: Quantity Surveyors
  • Energy Generation & Distribution: Electrical Engineers, Renewable Energy Experts, Battery Storage Experts, District Energy Geothermal Engineers
  • Facilities Management: Facilities Managers, Environmental Health And Safety Managers
  • Fundraising: See our Fundraising team
  • Land Acquisition: See our Land Acquisition team
  • Landscaping: Landscape Designers, Irrigation Designers, Lighting Designers
  • Medical Care: Healthcare Facilities Managers, Healthcare Professionals
  • Exhibition Of The Future: Museum Directors, Museum Planners, Exhibition Designers, Curators
  • Project Management: BIM Managers
  • Telecommunications: IT/Telecommunications Engineers
  • Transportation: Transportation Engineers, Traffic Engineers
  • Urban Planning: Urban Planners, Architects, Environmental Planners
  • Waste: Experts on Zero Waste, Cradle-to-Cradle principles, Upcycling, Life Cycle Anaylists
  • Water Management: Water Management Engineers, Hydraulics Engineers

Scientists, statisticians, and any other technical specialists who feel their unique skills could be of use are also encouraged to volunteer.

We would like to reiterate that these unpaid voluntary positions are at this time to help advance this first project.

Note that knowing English and having consistent access to a personal computer with Internet connection are prerequisites to joining the team. Also, if you are a software engineer, please look at our other volunteering opportunities.

To get involved, please submit the form below.

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Donate

Your contribution will help accelerate the progress of development of the Center for Resource Management. As we develop each area of the complex, we will be able to estimate the cost of construction and announce it.

Your support is highly appreciated and is what will make this project possible.