The Dream (Why):
I dream of a world where there’s a home for everyone. In this world, home isn’t just material security, it’s also social security in the form of community. But it’s not just that either, it’s shared belief, sensemaking, purpose.
What:
Let’s go out on a limb and assume this is possible — what does it look like more concretely?
It looks like urban areas with sufficient population density for intentional community to form around niche interests, beliefs, lifestyles. These communities co-opt the co-renting default to transition to co-living; the only difference between co-renting and co-living is an intent to connect, re-ligio (re-connect). In living together, they co-create an immersive, agentic alternative reality, where the space and rules are designed around whatever joint meaning they hold.
Dharma house? Gym apartment? Spanish immersion house? Hacker urban village? Art lofts? Syn bio warehouse? … each home, a vibrant scene.
I think we’re at the critical junction between an alienated and networked city, and the Fractal apartment is at the center of this phase shift.
The Proposal (How):
From my POV, one of the chief innovations of Fractal is discovering that a networked apartment works.
I would like to provide financing to support niches to spin out of Fractal apartment.
The beauty of a networked apartment is that embryonic sub-communities and niches form. But at a certain maturation point maybe they need to leave the nest? To serve their own interests authentically they need their own sovereignty, they need their own space. And if they don’t move out, they may begin impinging on broader community preferences and politics, even in a way that’s destabilizing.
I want to test the hypothesis that Fractal could be a scene incubator, and a scene incubator feels like a missing piece of the path to a networked city. It feels sensible to invest and I think it could be a good investment on its own terms.
About Me / Motive Check:
I want to put my eggs in multiple baskets. To me, it seems like NYC and the Bay Area have the best density + culture + housing stock properties to hit critical mass first. My deadline: family in a community context.
I’m actively building community and running experiments in SF. I’ve formed three grouphouses in the Bay Area and am working on my fourth now (FWIW the Fractal SF plan has probably fallen through in the short-run — landlord of the property next to Embassy is being sold off piecemeal rather than rented, womp womp).
I don’t feel drawn to living in NYC (yet?), but I could be open to living in a Hudson Valley satellite community around the time for family.