Start exploring
Exploring what is already out there is an important step for starting to setup your own community. There are people all over the world who have already been doing it for years. There is already a lot of technology, structures and system figured out along the way. That said the downside is that very little of this information can be found online, it's a lot in the minds of older generation.
Visit existing communities.
We highly recommend to visit other communities in your area to learn from their expertise. They have years of knowledge, mistakes, tryouts prototypes and they are often very aware of local conditions. Which trees grow, what are the challenges, how water flows etc. Ecovillage (GEN) is a good place to find them. But it can be challenging to visit many communities, thats why we made this chapter for you, we went there and made videos about it. This gives a glimpse of how some communities run and what's going on in their daily life.
Houses, vegetables, technology
Visiting communities is a good way to understand fully operational systems, once you see one running that is been around for a few years it's kinda magical to see all the details and structures they thought about. However inspiration and research can also come from individual actions, like alternative ways to build houses, what materials to use and how to construct them. Or how to grow food, visit farms, vegetables gardens etc. And how to manage energy infrastructure, drop by at a windmill or talk with a solar guy. The main point here is to keep your eyes open and try to learn from all the things that could be implemented in a community.
Watch online content
One of the main things we aim for is to document everything clearly online. So you can gain more knowledge in a centralised place. Besides the research videos we made there are also a few documentaries/videos we recommend you to watch and you can learn a lot from. Let us know in Discord if you have others to recommend. For now we have these:
| 🎥 Name | Type | Location | Lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wild wild county | Video | India/USA | Make friends with your neighbours, avoid fear. |
| The experimental city | Video | USA | Good plans are hard to execute work without local support. |
| Spaceship Earth | Video | USA | Try things, but take care of your documentation. |
| Tamera in Portugal | Video | Portugal | Example of a place and the challenges of sharing knowledge |
| Auroville in India | Video | India | How the largest community in the world is organised |
| Version 4 | Video | Netherlands | A year community-testrun with stranger from around the world |
| Nice Try Podcast | Podcast | World | A podcast going deeper into a few "failed" Utopias |
If you have more to add or ones we should watch share in our Discord