The farmer-engineers of Open Source Ecology are bringing high-tech savvy to the age-old pastoral dream. Their Global Village Construction Set project is an ongoing sustainable design experiment that aims to develop plans for the forty machines necessary to build “a self-sufficient modern life from low-grade, abundant local resources.” Things like a compressed-earth brick-making machine and a self-propelled tractor (which looks a bit like the Batmobile repurposed for plowing).

As their charming video shows, the GVCS will let any motivated group of tree-hugging neckbeards eco-conscious global citizens build a “small sustainable civilization with modern comforts” from scratch. Since most of the basic machine parts are manufactured in China, this scheme won’t be much good for rebuilding society after a post peak-oil apocalypse scenario, but the OSE-ers are hoping that the final versions of the GVCS plans will not require any overseas sourcing.

The big idea behind the GVCS is its modular design: the plans are free to download from the OSE’s sprawling wiki, and all forty machines will use interchangeable parts and power sources. They call it a “life size Lego set,” which reflects that modular philosophy, but these aren’t easy snap-together tools: you’ll need some serious shop skills in order to put the plans to work.