Nova sees a domestic practice as a set pattern in which different household members play different roles, usually making use of artifacts and products, to satisfy a fundamental need.
A practice is a usage pattern. The household is an arena where usage patterns are operating. A usage pattern is an action that a specific person performs at a specific time and place for a specific reason with specific means.
It is not Nova’s core business to design, manufacture or promote domestic products loose of the practices that applies such products. A practice is the vehicle through which a given product is taken up in the household. It is the practice that must be developed and multiplied, not the product.
Any given technical solution to a problem will only be used by residents when it functions within a domestic practice and has become part of their daily way of living. Such a practice can be developed by people from outside and people inside the household working together.
We designed the Brickstar stove together with households, from our part providing technical guidance. Initially, five different prototypes of the locally built stove were implemented in households to be tested and developed towards a final prototype.
The stove has been taken to more than 4 000 households, not by selling stoves as products, but by community projects where people were assisted to build their own stoves, use them and maintain them on their own.
