'KNUTSTEE' is a Dutch/Flemish newly arranged compound made up of the words 'knut' and 'stee'.
'Knut' refers to 'knutselen', meaning to tinker or to potter but has also an echo of the word 'knus', meaning 'cosy' in it. 'Stee' is old Dutch/Flemish and has the same root as words like 'to stand', 'city', 'state', 'site'. In its oldest sense, it means 'bed' , 'elderly house' or 'homeground'.
This way Knutstee can be seen as a place where one feels at home and free to potter around, making artifacts with whatever scraps are being found around the house. Moreover, there's always someone around to hold up a ladder for you or to join you in your ultimate creative masterplan. Knutstee is a place where people of different crafts and disciplines can meet each other, live and work together and can discover the objectives of 'trading and exchanging crafts'.
The great advantage of a Knutstee is its possibilities to cooperate: the stack of old construction wood your neighbour was about to hand over to the garbage collector can be purchased easily with the small community van/bike with trailer/self made transport vehicle and, more important, can be stocked in the big barn or depot adjecent to the house.
Nowadays an average household produces enough waste to provide us of almost any material that one needs to make furniture, architecture, clothing, electronics, you name it. Our consumption overflow finds its way through garbage, not seldom offered nearby, in big bulks and perfectly reusable with the tiniest interventions. Where the individual or small household can only benefit of a small part of this goods and is often restricted in time and means to pick up/store/process the found material, a somewhat larger community has, if willing, the adventage of shared effort and shared means.
Let 'Knutstee' still be a project or dream for the future. For now it can be a virtual place on the net where I invite people to stroll around, poste ideas, and maybe make plans for a Knutstee of wood and bricks, who knows????
