Field notes · 2026
Technology should help us live better, without asking nature to pay the price.
The question is what we choose to build with them.
nature first
possibility
01 / Point of view
AI and robotics will change how we work, build and live.
The question is not whether we use them.
The question is what we choose to build with them.
Progress should bring people with it.
Nature should not pay the price.
What if intelligence helped life flourish?
A question in the margin / community
Belonging is not the same as living near other people.
People belong when they are known, needed and able to shape the place around them.
Diversity gives a community richness. Shared values give it coherence.
A community should not be a collection of similar people. It should be a network of complementary ones.
Belonging grows through time, repeated encounters, contribution and shared memory.
Safety is more than protection. Usefulness is more than work. Connection is more than proximity.
People feel safe when they trust the people around them, know where help comes from, and still have privacy.
People feel useful when they can contribute something that matters.
People feel connected through repeated encounters, shared rituals and doing things together over time.
People feel connected when they are not only welcomed, but needed.
Participation needs somewhere to happen.
Isolation grows when every function and every resource is private.
Participation grows when some things are shared.
Not everything should be shared. Share what becomes more useful when shared.
Shared infrastructure turns individual needs into collective capability.
SHARE CAPABILITY, NOT JUST SPACE.
Belonging needs layers.
A place should not tell people how to be. It should give them room to be human.
Not everything should be private. Not everything should be shared.
People need different ways of being: alone, together, active, quiet, playful, reflective, expressive, social, hidden and visible.
Belonging grows when freedom, expression and encounter all have a place.
FREEDOM WHERE POSSIBLE. BOUNDARIES WHERE HARM BEGINS.
Care before punishment.
If machines do more of the boring work, humans can do more of what makes life meaningful.
To be human is not only to be entertained, informed and made comfortable.
It is to care, create, play, learn, teach, move, make, love, explore and belong.
A more human place is not one with less technology. It is one where technology leaves more room for life.
THE FUTURE SHOULD NOT ASK WHAT HUMANS CAN STILL DO BETTER THAN MACHINES.
IT SHOULD ASK WHAT IS WORTH DOING BECAUSE WE ARE HUMAN.
Questions that emerge when belonging becomes more than an idea.
Enough difference to create complementarity. Enough common ground to create trust.
Different enough to need one another. Aligned enough to trust one another.
People do not need the same nationality, profession, income, beliefs or lifestyle.
Shared values can be simpler: respect, curiosity, responsibility, contribution, freedom and care for place.
SHARED VALUES NEED NOT MEAN SHARED LIVES.
A healthy community contains the whole arc of life.
Children bring play and curiosity. Young people experimentation. Adults continuity and building. Older people experience. Elders memory.
THE GENERATIONS SHOULD MEET, NOT LIVE IN SEPARATE WORLDS.
Paid work is only one kind of usefulness.
People can contribute through knowledge, care, teaching, making, food, repair, art, mentorship, hospitality, ecology, time or capital.
MONEY IS ONE FORM OF CONTRIBUTION, NOT THE MEASURE OF HUMAN VALUE.
Different people bring different resources.
Capital, skill, time, trust, knowledge, stewardship and creativity can all matter.
DIFFERENT RESOURCES. EQUAL DIGNITY.
Do not share everything.
Share what becomes more useful, affordable or capable through collective access.
home · intimate life · retreat · personal possessions
workshops · tools · tractor · larger truck · fabrication equipment · sports · gardens · learning spaces
SHARE CAPABILITY, NOT INDIVIDUALITY.
A free community should make room for different lifestyles, art, nightlife, drinking, smoking, altered states, spirituality, sexuality, solitude and unconventional behaviour.
Freedom does not mean indifference to harm.
FREEDOM WHERE POSSIBLE. BOUNDARIES WHERE HARM BEGINS.
Every real community will eventually face addiction, depression, illness, conflict, loneliness, ageing and loss.
The first response should not automatically be exclusion.
PEOPLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO STRUGGLE WITHOUT HAVING TO DISAPPEAR.
Privacy is not the opposite of community.
People need the right to close the door, withdraw, be quiet and choose when to participate.
private → threshold → semi-private → shared → public
TOGETHERNESS WORKS BETTER WHEN SOLITUDE IS PROTECTED.
A community should contain places to create, not only places to consume.
CONSUMPTION GIVES CONVENIENCE. CAPABILITY GIVES AGENCY.
The strongest shared infrastructure gives people reasons to do something together.
THE BEST SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCES RELATIONSHIPS AS WELL AS SERVICES.
AI can make information abundant. That may make real experience more important, not less.
Children need more outdoor play, exploration, climbing, building, making, nature, tools, boredom, mixed ages and contact with adults doing real things.
WHEN INFORMATION BECOMES UNLIMITED, EXPERIENCE BECOMES PRECIOUS.
Older people should remain part of ordinary community life as long as possible.
They can mentor, teach, care, advise, garden, make and pass on knowledge, while gradually receiving more care themselves.
A COMMUNITY SHOULD LET PEOPLE REMAIN USEFUL WHILE GRADUALLY BECOMING MORE DEPENDENT.
Large communities need smaller communities inside them.
household → close circle → neighbourhood → wider community
HUMAN SCALE INSIDE LARGER SCALE.
Arrival should begin with listening.
Belonging requires learning the local culture, landscape, climate, food, history and existing community before trying to reshape it.
ARRIVAL SHOULD BEGIN WITH LISTENING.
Culture cannot be ordered from an architect.
It accumulates through rituals, food, music, stories, jokes, celebrations, arguments, work, loss and memory.
DESIGN THE STAGE. LET PEOPLE WRITE THE PLAY.
Would people still spend time together if nothing had been organized for them?
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE TRY TO TURN THESE IDEAS INTO A REAL PLACE?
500 people. 200 hectares.
Not a masterplan. A question.
What would it take to create a place where people can belong, contribute, grow, age, make, learn, celebrate and live close to nature — without simply reproducing the patterns we already know?
Not 500 people arriving at once. A staged growth of community capability.
STAGE 1
25 people begin the place.
Not simply the first residents. The people who help create the social, ecological and productive foundations for what comes next.
BUILD THE CAPABILITY BEFORE THE POPULATION.
THE FIRST 25 ARE NOT BUILDING A FINISHED PLACE. THEY ARE BUILDING THE CONDITIONS FOR ONE.
Not 25 copies of the same person.
Think in capabilities, not job titles.
BUILD + REPAIR
construction · carpentry / timber / bamboo · electrical · plumbing / water · metal / repair · practical maintenance
LAND + FOOD
agroforestry · farming / nursery · soil · water · ecology / biodiversity · cooking / food systems
CARE + HEALTH
first aid / emergency response · basic health knowledge · mental-health awareness · childcare · elder care · conflict care
LEARNING + CULTURE
teaching · facilitation · arts / music · storytelling · sports / movement · rituals / events
SYSTEMS + ORGANIZATION
finance · operations · governance · legal / permits · logistics · procurement · digital systems / data
DESIGN + MAKING
architecture · engineering · product / material experimentation · digital fabrication · prototyping · documentation
BRIDGES TO THE OUTSIDE
local relationships · regional suppliers · farmers · healthcare links · education links · business / trade · communications
THE FIRST 25 SHOULD CONTAIN ENOUGH DIVERSITY TO START A PLACE — AND ENOUGH HUMILITY TO KNOW THEY CANNOT COMPLETE IT.
ESSENTIAL TO LIVE
ESSENTIAL TO BUILD
ESSENTIAL TO GROW
ESSENTIAL TO BECOME A COMMUNITY
THE FIRST SHARED BUILDINGS SHOULD CREATE CAPABILITY, NOT STATUS.
DO NOT FINISH TOO EARLY.
FOUNDING SHOULD CREATE STEWARDSHIP, NOT PERMANENT PRIVILEGE.
The first phase should test assumptions, not merely construct them.
the first year is a prototype, not a miniature final village
PROTOTYPE → MEASURE → LEARN → CHANGE.
Growth is earned, not assumed.
DO NOT SCALE A PROBLEM.
STAGE 2
Can 500 people become a real village?
500 PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL LIKE A VILLAGE, NOT A DEVELOPMENT.
500 people should not feel like one large group.
Perhaps the village is made of smaller communities that overlap.
ONE VILLAGE. MANY HUMAN-SCALE CIRCLES.
CENTRALIZE WHEN SCALE HELPS
DISTRIBUTE WHEN PROXIMITY MATTERS
CENTRALIZE WHAT BENEFITS FROM SCALE. DISTRIBUTE WHAT BENEFITS FROM PROXIMITY.
The centre should not be a clubhouse.
It should be the most useful piece of shared civilization.
NOT A CLUBHOUSE. A LIVING CENTRE.
500 residents does not mean only 500 people use the place.
THE COMMUNITY SHOULD BE USEFUL BEYOND ITS RESIDENTS.
How much of everyday life could sit within a 5–15 minute walk or ride?
DAILY LIFE SHOULD NOT REQUIRE A VEHICLE FOR EVERY DECISION.
BUILD THE PATTERN FROM USE, NOT ONLY FROM DRAWINGS.
If this works for 500, what should scale — and what should multiply instead?
Scale only what has learned how to remain small.
PROVE THE PATTERN BEFORE REPEATING IT.
HUMAN SCALE INSIDE LARGER SCALE.
THE LAND IS NOT LEFTOVER SPACE.
not 500 villas
WALK FIRST. DRIVE WHEN NECESSARY.
GROW HERE + BUY NEARBY + PROCESS LOCALLY + EAT TOGETHER.
SCHOOL + WORKSHOP + FARM + FOREST + LAB.
A PLACE SHOULD PRODUCE CAPABILITY, NOT ONLY CONSUMPTION.
CARE SHOULD BE PART OF DAILY LIFE.
VALUE THE DIFFERENCE.
FREEDOM WHERE POSSIBLE. BOUNDARIES WHERE HARM BEGINS.
DIFFERENT RESOURCES. EQUAL DIGNITY.
SHARE WHAT BECOMES MORE USEFUL WHEN SHARED.
VISIBLE SYSTEMS ARE EASIER TO UNDERSTAND, CARE FOR AND IMPROVE.
A HEALTHY PLACE SHOULD ADD VALUE BEYOND ITS BOUNDARY.
HOW MUCH OF A FUNCTIONING CIVILIZATION CAN WE BRING WITHIN WALKING OR CYCLING DISTANCE — WITHOUT GIVING UP THE ADVANTAGES OF THE MODERN WORLD?
STAGE 3
How do we prepare for 2,500 without building for 2,500 too early?
2,500 is not necessarily the target. The question is whether infrastructure, land use, ecology and governance can grow toward that scale without destroying what made the village work.
If the community eventually grows toward 2,500 people, what should happen to land, density and the wider territory?
REPLICATE HUMAN SCALE. DO NOT SIMPLY ENLARGE IT.
BUILD SYSTEMS THAT CAN GROW WITHOUT MAKING DAILY LIFE FEEL BIGGER.
Perhaps 2,500 people should not become one larger village.
Perhaps it should become several human-scale communities connected by shared institutions.
REPLICATE HUMAN SCALE. DO NOT SIMPLY ENLARGE IT.
Some systems should grow by adding modules, not by becoming one enormous system.
ADD CAPACITY WITHOUT ADDING FRAGILITY.
SOME THINGS SHOULD STAY SMALL ON PURPOSE.
Informal trust matters. So does structure.
KEEP POWER AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE PEOPLE AFFECTED BY IT.
One school may become a learning system.
DO NOT SCALE SCHOOL BY MAKING CHILDREN MORE ANONYMOUS.
Walking inside. Shared movement between.
MOBILITY SHOULD CONNECT PLACES, NOT DOMINATE THEM.
If the population grows, the ecological question becomes more important, not less.
GROWTH SHOULD INCREASE STEWARDSHIP, NOT ONLY FOOTPRINT.
Scaling is not automatically success.
THE ABILITY TO STOP IS PART OF GOOD DESIGN.
BUILD SYSTEMS THAT CAN GROW WITHOUT MAKING DAILY LIFE FEEL BIGGER.
Which outcome measures and prediction tools could serve both people and nature?
Should we build 20 more homes near the stream?
PROPOSAL
20 homes near the stream
EVIDENCE
water · habitat · access · housing need · cost
CONFLICTS
who owns nearby land? who benefits financially?
PEOPLE + NATURE
residents · neighbours · watershed · biodiversity · future generations
ALTERNATIVES
build elsewhere? build fewer? increase density elsewhere? restore the stream edge?
DECISION
Some intentions are clear; the institutions are not yet designed. This is a direction for a living community, not enacted bylaws. Thriving people and a thriving living world are the purpose.
RESULT
measure what actually happened
REVIEW
was the decision right? what should change?
AI does not decide what is sacred.
It makes consequences, conflicts and alternatives harder to hide.
GOOD GOVERNANCE SHOULD MAKE BETTER QUESTIONS UNAVOIDABLE.
Shared decisions / a working exploration
Some intentions are clear; the institutions are not yet designed. This is a direction for a living community, not enacted bylaws. Thriving people and a thriving living world are the purpose.
Founders create the initial plans and lead at first. When the first 25 people are living here, residents join the founders in shaping plans going forward. Non-resident investors do not take part in this planning process at that point. Governance beyond this stage remains open.
Specialists would have formally greater decision power within their relevant domain, not merely an advisory voice. Knowledge, experience and demonstrated results would together inform recognition. How credentials, responsibilities and the boundaries of each domain work still needs designing.
Futarchy interests us: informing decisions through predictions of their outcomes. No prediction market, operating model or token-profit-only measure is selected. The question is what helps people and the living world thrive.
AI, an elder board or a combination might help resolve disagreements across domains. Their roles and authority remain open; AI is not being granted binding authority.
For elder elections, residents would each have one equal vote. Their votes, normalized within that group, collectively carry 60%. Non-resident investors would vote with token-based weights, normalized within their own group, collectively carrying 40%.
Resident investors participate as residents, not in both groups. This 60/40 balance is specifically for electing elders—not a formula for every community decision, removal votes or seat allocations.
Elders means demonstrated wisdom and character, not simply age. Contribution, handling conflict and treatment of others over time matter more than campaigning. Nature’s regenerative ability, individual rights, privacy and beauty are guiding concerns, not a fixed constitutional checklist.
Any resident could nominate someone, with examples of their conduct. A seat opens when an elder dies, steps down or is removed for no longer adding value or crossing lines. Continuity while trusted, with periodic confidence, is the direction.
Nomination, succession, removal and confidence procedures remain to be worked out. No fixed terms, retirement age, frequency or voting thresholds have been chosen. Safeguards and future limits on majority power are also open.
How should domain authority be recognized, bounded and coordinated when specialists disagree?
Which outcome measures and prediction tools could serve both people and nature?
What fair nomination, confidence and removal arrangements—and safeguards against majority overreach—can earn lasting trust?
Clear intentions. Authority that earns trust. The institutions still to be shaped.
What we measure reveals what we value.
Do people feel known, needed and able to contribute?
Are biodiversity, soil, water and habitat improving?
Are people moving, eating well, connecting and ageing well?
Can children, older people and others move through daily life safely without depending on a car?
PEOPLE · PLACE · FUTURE
Can the community make, repair, grow and solve more for itself over time?
Are people actually using shared spaces, tools and institutions?
Are power, opportunity and contribution becoming more distributed rather than concentrated?
Can essential systems keep functioning when something fails?
Some indicators are numbers. Others are questions we keep asking.
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS. CHANGE WHAT DOESN'T WORK.
not everything important can be reduced to a number
Perhaps the real question is not: how do we build for 2,500?
Perhaps it is: how do we let 2,500 people live inside a network of places that still feel human?
WHAT MUST THE FIRST 25 DO DIFFERENTLY IF THEY KNOW THEY ARE NOT ONLY BUILDING FOR THEMSELVES?
lightly on the land
02 / Minimum impact
less impact
03 / Love for the natural world
Not outside our lives. Not somewhere we escape to. But around us, within our communities, and woven into the way we live.
we belong within it
Food / a working exploration
A proposed food system, rooted in living soil, water and biodiversity.
Kitchen gardens and shared growing areas would complement one another. The ambition is self-sufficiency; the starting point is dependable local production, with outside supplies whenever needed.
Herbs within reach. Removable growing sleeves containing soil and seedlings could sit in a holder outside the window: open it and harvest while cooking. Lettuce, tomatoes and other suitable vegetables are candidates.
Fruit trees throughout the properties. Pick ripe fruit as you pass, take what you need and leave some for others.
Rice, potatoes and other larger crops would come from shared growing areas, chosen for the seasons and the suitability of each site.
A shared nursery would prepare the sleeves. After sprouting, they move to window holders; used soil and roots return to the renewal cycle as sleeves are exchanged as needed.
The growing-sleeve idea comes from Zach Bush.
Which materials, holders, watering arrangements and exchange intervals would make this safe, practical and easy to maintain?
The proposal is a shared refrigerated pickup space. Residents would pay for what they order, separately from homeowners’ association fees. Prices, collection schedules, cold storage and delivery logistics still need to be worked out; none of these services is operating yet.
Work with the land and permaculture principles, without pesticides or herbicides. Organic waste would return through compost and soil renewal. An integrated kitchen organic-waste bin or composter is envisaged; collection and processing mechanics remain open.
Specialists would lead each domain, deciding what grows where and when. Residents could contribute according to their skills and interests, voluntarily. Chickens, cows, goats and pigs are envisioned, with animal welfare and skilled, dependable daily care central to any decision.
Residents, chefs and food lovers from around the world bring diverse food cultures and high standards. Asian roots and herbs, local and European ingredients would be selected for actual growing conditions—not a promise that every crop will thrive. High standards should be everyday, not another way of saying high prices.
Everyone remains free to buy outside, choose their food and cook or eat privately. No daily communal meal is required. Recipes, techniques and growing knowledge could circulate openly among residents and specialists, without compulsory workshops.
Bars and restaurants, fresh deli takeaway, event catering from a restaurant or shared kitchen, and resident facilities such as an outdoor kitchen near the community pool are envisioned. A separate bakery belongs in the exploration; cheesemaking could emerge if someone with the skill wants to do it.
What emerges depends on who joins and the value they bring. Independent business owners choose their own brands; products such as honey and hot sauces could carry a community identity and create visibility inside and outside.
If more capital is needed, a possible startup fund could assess each case: a clear community need alongside profit potential. Loans, investment or potentially tokenized arrangements are possibilities, not a committed token scheme. Financial sustainability supports enduring work; profit is not its purpose.
This does not open the pool, residential facilities or every kitchen to the public. Once or twice a year, a community festival could bring residents and invited friends together around food, art and more. Its format would be developed with residents, with no fixed program or mandatory attendance.
How would we organize nursery care, sleeve exchanges and organic-waste collection without creating a burden?
Which crops and animals suit the land, and what dependable care and outside supplies would the first phase require?
How would we set fair prices, manage refrigeration and pickup, and test a new food enterprise against a real community need?
Taste first. See how good it looks. Success would mean healthy residents who love food from the grounds—and a thriving natural world that sustains it.
many sources / one system
04 / Elements in symbiosis
Sun, wind, rain, water, earth, people and technology can work as one quiet, responsive system.
05 / Safety + comfort
shelter should feel human
Health & wellbeing / a working exploration
Begin with the place, not the medical services: good food, nature, movement, connection and room to be still.
This is an exploration of a community where people can thrive, not a healthcare development. Shared amenities and care would grow with resources, residents’ needs and professional guidance.
Good coffee or tea in morning sunlight. A newspaper, art alongside natural beauty, a walk as the jungle wakes up. Quiet places to linger without having to exercise or join anything.
Vegetation in view, daylight, shade and comfortable outdoor spaces: biophilic homes bring nature into everyday life, with privacy and room to retreat. A contribution to wellbeing, not a promise to prevent or cure disease.
Coffee, food pickup, the pool and shared places an easy walk or ride away. Walking, bicycles and golf carts would be the easiest internal choices, without banning residents’ cars or forcing a way of life. Design should keep pressure, noise and combustion-engine traffic from dominating the day.
Hiking and jungle trails, surfing and beach facilities, soccer, boxing, yoga shalas and bike trails. Simple, affordable activities with room for different ages and abilities—not a golf course.
A large community pool would have lap-swimming and recreation areas. The pool, trails and core movement facilities belong among residents’ shared amenities. Specialist-led classes would be paid separately and welcome surrounding communities; that does not open every resident facility to the public.
A shared covered space could host several activities. Natural play and discovery trails, a pump track, beach volleyball, balance or climbing, outdoor strength, dance, gentle loops with benches, accessible gardening, tai chi, table tennis or pétanque are options to shape with residents, not a committed checklist.
From infancy through older age: healthcare professionals could become residents, bringing everyday physical care and confidential mental-health support or counselling. Pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care are longer-term ambitions, with feasibility and scope decided by qualified professionals.
Older residents would receive care at home, including end-of-life support according to their wishes and clinical suitability—not an institutional elder-care village.
Regular preventive checks would be offered voluntarily. Clinician-interpreted body-fluid analyses could help guide individual nutrition or supplements where appropriate, not a blanket testing protocol or diagnostic guarantee. A holistic approach sits alongside practical conventional medicine, ordinary treatments and medicines when needed.
A good ambulance and a reliable response and transport arrangement may be a better first investment than a fully staffed urgent-care unit. It could serve residents and neighbours. Staffing, readiness and equipment need professional assessment, not a promise of round-the-clock coverage.
A long journey to hospital makes readiness and transfer important for serious injuries, envenomation, cardiac events or stroke. Basic urgent-care tools are an ambition: a defibrillator, and appropriate antivenom only within qualified clinical arrangements—not equipment alone as an emergency solution.
A central clinic for consultations, everyday care and emergency stabilization is envisaged as the population grows. Later, professionals could offer voluntary first-aid and CPR workshops for residents; these are not mandatory training for the first group.
Healthcare is costly. Facilities, staffing and services would be phased, not a hospital from the outset. What is offered when, and how it is funded, paid for or insured, remain open. Each phase needs clear local capabilities and limits, with reliable external care and transfer.
One possible enterprise is accommodation in regular homes with added care after treatment elsewhere, coordinated with the treating provider in the city. This explores hospitality and clinician-coordinated recovery, not providing or endorsing that treatment.
The ambition is to thrive alongside surrounding communities and share prosperity, not build an independent, walled-off enclave. Strong local connections, national and local law, taxes and contributions to shared infrastructure belong to the project.
A future public clinic and paid classes would welcome neighbours. Private homes and residential amenities remain private; this does not open the pool or all shared facilities to the public.
Which movement spaces and quiet, accessible routes should come first, given the site, resources and residents who join?
What response, staffing, equipment and transfer partnerships can professionals reliably support in each phase?
How can funding, payment and insurance keep care accessible, including care at home and recovery coordinated with outside providers?
Healthcare should not be a barrier to joining. Aim for the highest standard within what each phase can genuinely offer—and be clear about where outside care is needed.
Privacy & dignity / a working exploration
A community holds real lives: affection, emotions, arguments, noisy and quiet moments. Sociability and solitude both need room. Privacy begins at the gate of a private home; consideration for neighbours does not end there.
Distance, orientation, planting, walls and fences would all be used where appropriate for visual and acoustic privacy. Sound still travels, especially from gardens and terraces: a boundary is not a promise of silence or permission to disturb others.
Quiet hours, occasional louder gatherings and advance notice need shaping together. No loud music after 10pm, perhaps two larger gatherings a year and two weeks’ notice are examples to discuss—not adopted rules. Giving notice never replaces consideration.
Give neighbours a direct way to reach you if you wish, let them know before hosting, and be willing to turn the volume down when asked quietly. Each resident chooses their contact preferences; no compulsory public phone directory.
The resident app would give people full control of which personal information they share, with whom, and how reachable they are. Solitude would not be monitored: no required check-ins or inactivity tracking. Begin with trust and natural neighbourly care; consider better arrangements only if experience reveals real gaps.
Dignity means expressing who you are without ridicule or discrimination. Everyone has equal rights and standing. Frank, even heated discussion can be part of resilient community life; disagreement or an uncomfortable opinion alone is not a violation.
The line is crossed when someone’s voice or standing is dismissed because of gender, nationality or identity. Racism, bigotry, harassment, intimidation and disrespectful discriminatory behaviour have no place; neither does repeated abuse. The same standards apply to residents, founders, staff and guests—wealth or influence buys no exemption.
For ordinary neighbour issues, start with a private conversation where comfortable, then a willing mediator or community host if useful. Serious discrimination or intimidation must have a direct formal route: nobody should have to confront the person involved or accept mediation first.
A trusted, trained support contact is a direction to explore, not a finished legal policy. Confidential informal help must remain distinct from investigation and enforcement; explain confidentiality limits and share only on a need-to-know basis, rather than promising absolute secrecy.
Neutral fact review, a fair hearing, proportionate consequences, an appeal and protection against retaliation should guide a formal process. An alternative reporting route is needed when a founder is implicated; outside expertise may help a small community. Real accountability remains to be designed, within and in addition to national and local law—not outside it.
Which architectural and neighbourly arrangements give each home privacy while keeping outdoor life considerate?
Who can provide trusted informal support and independent formal review, including when a founder is involved?
How should reporting, confidentiality limits, fair consequences and appeal work under applicable law?
Freedom to be yourself. Equal dignity. Consideration that travels beyond the gate.
Water, energy & material cycles / a working exploration
Reliable drinking water, a clean-energy direction and as little waste as possible. The ambition is to stay within the land’s ability to replenish and regenerate, using pragmatic stages rather than purity tests—and adopting better solutions at comparable cost when available.
Several community-managed wells are envisaged, with appropriate treatment and distribution to buildings, other drinking-water points and firefighting supplies, including hydrants. Well water is not assumed drinkable without treatment; well numbers, yields and system design need specialist assessment.
Specialists would manage shared and building systems, not residents acting as technical maintainers. Applicable approvals, allocation and payment remain to be verified. Metering can detect leaks and support conservation; it does not itself settle how water is charged.
Keep sealed ground minimal. Permeable paths where suitable and planted rain-retention areas would help rainfall infiltrate. Properly treated wastewater reuse and site-appropriate groundwater return form another part of the cycle—not untreated wastewater recharge or an assumption that infiltration is safe everywhere.
Roof rainwater could serve appropriate non-drinking uses such as irrigation and toilets. Building greywater recycling is also worth evaluating; Hydraloop is one example, not a selected system for every building, all wastewater or drinking water.
Solar on each structure is envisaged, with modest surplus supporting shared uses such as street lights. A professionally coordinated, connected microgrid could share available generation and battery power across buildings during local peaks; isolated home systems cannot simply do this automatically.
Keep a grid connection, battery storage and pragmatic backup generators—diesel may be an option. During outages, preserve normal use as much as possible and set priorities when power is scarce, without promising unlimited uptime. Capacity, design, prices and the electricity-charging model remain open.
Generator backup is a bridge to reliability, not the ultimate goal. Compare lifecycle cost and environmental effects together; choose a better equivalent-cost solution when available. Hydro or other sources are possibilities only if the actual site, river, ecology and approvals make them suitable. Specialists would design and operate the systems when the time is right.
Shared infrastructure and collection would keep streams separate for reuse, recycling and verified outside processing. Reduce incoming waste through refills, returns and reuse. The ambition is to keep plastics and toxic waste out of landfill—not claim a zero-landfill result before dependable routes exist.
Residual and hazardous materials need specialised controlled treatment or disposal where necessary, never dumping, open burning or indefinite stockpiling. Track quantities and destinations beyond the collector: collected is not the same as actually recycled.
Organics would return to soil through appropriate specialist-led composting at the nursery and gardens. Suitable clean green material or mulch can support nature and forest soils; raw mixed food waste does not belong dumped in the forest. A repair and reuse space would also be a community workshop, where resident skills, mutual help or businesses can restore furniture, tools and materials.
Two or three household bin types could keep daily sorting simple, with finer separation handled by specialists; exact categories remain open. Hazardous waste needs special handling, never mixing into compost or ordinary recycling.
When full, bring bins to a sheltered, discreet pickup point at the gate. Collection stays outside the private boundary: nobody enters the property, and residents need not be home. In the proposed app, choose the stream or bin and request collection.
Eventually, on-demand requests could be combined into efficient routes. The small first phase may use simple or scheduled rounds before that system matures. More waste should mean a greater contribution to handling costs, rather than everyone paying an identical flat fee. Standard bins, quantities, possible weights and differentiated charges are ideas to work through, with incentives for proper separation—not a settled billing formula.
Enough to live well. Systems cared for by specialists. Honest accounts of what returns—and what does not.
07 / Gather what is given
observe → adapt → return
capture · filter · store · reuse · landscape recharge
light · solar energy · shade · passive design · seasonal use
natural ventilation · energy · cooling · airflow
rivers + streams · micro hydro · low impact · treatment · reuse
stable energy · heating + cooling · low surface impact
batteries · supercapacitors · hydrogen · thermal storage · emerging concepts
Work & contribution / a working exploration
Remote and outside careers, enterprises within the community and specialist skills can coexist. The aim is thriving people and thriving businesses, not profit alone.
Shared coworking, quiet call rooms, workshops and reliable internet are envisaged. Basic access would be included in being a resident; dedicated spaces or specialist equipment may cost separately. Facilities and costs need shaping, not invented tariffs.
Collaboration often begins in ordinary social moments: a conversation, a skill offered, someone helping another. We have seen this happen in Venao. Leave space for it rather than orchestrating a skill-matching app or compulsory programme.
Entrepreneurial support can grow through shared experience and relationships, without a central programme directing businesses. The possible startup fund is already explored in the food chapter; it is not a new promise here.
Essential work that keeps the place functioning needs paid, dependable specialist roles. Those opportunities should be open equally to residents and surrounding communities. Core services must not depend on unpaid goodwill.
Volunteers can make collective life richer around that foundation. Participation is entirely optional: no minimum hours and no social pressure. Different lives have different room to give.
Which shared spaces and connectivity should come first, and where does basic access end and a separately paid use begin?
Which dependable paid roles does each phase require, and how can neighbours and residents access them equally?
How can facilities support natural collaboration while keeping volunteering genuinely free of pressure?
A place where contribution matters—and where nobody has to earn belonging through unpaid work.
Learning & education / a working exploration
Local schools, homeschooling and a possible school within the community: the choice belongs to families. The ambition is young adults ready to succeed independently, with practical capabilities, judgment and individual talent.
A nature-connected school in Cañas is envisaged, inspired by the Green School example in Bali—not a franchise or formal affiliation. It would develop as the community grows, with qualified educators, legal requirements, structure and finances still to be designed; no opened school, accreditation or adopted curriculum is being claimed.
Reading, writing, basic mathematics and broad science would form foundations for everyone: physics and how things work, nature and ecological understanding. From there, hands-on teachers and mentors could help each child develop their own interests and talents. This is a direction for learning, not a claim that one method is universally superior.
A musician should also understand where food comes from, how to obtain it and clean water, cook, communicate and learn basic emergency skills. The aim is capable, resilient, well-rounded adults who can understand the world and solve problems, alongside deep individual talent.
Children and adults can learn from one another across generations. Resident specialists could share experience and mentor learners; they would complement, not replace, trained educators and safeguarding.
English and Spanish would be core, required languages in the proposed school, with others offered. Multilingual ability opens connections and helps people navigate the world; it does not mean every child must learn five languages.
Neighbouring children would be welcome too, including those who need financial help. A funding and scholarship model remains to be worked out, not a promise of already financed places.
AI is changing the future. Prepare children to work with tools and question them, in ways appropriate to their age. Less screen time is the direction; making, nature and human relationships stay central.
The exact AI and screen policy is open: neither a blanket screen-free ban nor a compulsory AI tutor. Educators and families need room to shape it as children grow.
How can qualified educators, legal requirements, family choice and safeguarding shape a school as the community grows?
What sustainable funding can welcome neighbouring children who need help, while keeping strong foundations and individual talents?
What age-appropriate language, mentorship and AI practices keep hands-on learning and independent judgment central?
Not one prescribed future. The confidence and capability to build your own.
Looking backward to move forward
What did past civilizations understand that we have forgotten?
How did they live with climate, water, materials and seasons?
What can we learn from older ways of building, farming and gathering?
Where did they succeed?
Where did they collapse?
If we already had materials and techniques that worked with place and climate, why did we industrialize their replacements instead of their evolution?
What wisdom should be carried forward into future civilization, and where can it create the greatest environmental and economic impact?
↳ What did past civilizations understand that we have forgotten?
They understood that a building begins with its climate.
Long before air conditioning, sealed glass and mechanical systems, people living in the tropics had to understand sun, rain, wind, humidity, vegetation and ground simply to be comfortable.
Across very different cultures, many of the same ideas appeared.
The building was not a sealed object placed in nature.
It was part of a larger environmental system.
Perhaps what we forgot was not one particular construction technique.
We forgot to listen before we built.
Remembering does not mean going backwards.
It means recovering the intelligence that existed before abundant energy allowed us to ignore the climate. Technology can then build on that intelligence, rather than replace it.
old knowledge + new possibilities
↳ How did they live with climate, water, materials and seasons?
They adapted.
Not everything needed to remain the same all year.
A house could open to the breeze in one moment and close against rain in the next.
A veranda could become a living room.
A roof could give shade, collect water and protect an open wall at the same time.
Rain was expected. Heat was expected. Humidity was expected.
The dry season and the wet season were different conditions, and life changed with them.
The building was not trying to create the same day every day.
Water was not something to remove as quickly as possible. It was caught, guided, stored, absorbed and used.
follow the water
Water did not disappear into a pipe. Its journey remained visible.
Materials had a geography.
Wood, earth, stone, bamboo, fibre and leaves were understood through generations of experience: how they behaved, how they weathered, how they could be repaired, and when they needed replacing.
The inhabitant participated in the climate.
People adapted buildings to seasons.
And they adapted themselves too.
Perhaps that is one of the things we have forgotten.
Comfort does not always require eliminating variation.
Sometimes it means learning how to live well within it.
Older ways of living often accepted variation as normal. Modern systems increasingly try to eliminate it altogether. Modern comfort, sanitation and engineering bring real gifts; the question is whether we have pushed too far. The point is not to go backwards. The point is to recover intelligence.
Adapt first. Add technology where it genuinely improves life.
↳ What can we learn from older ways of building, farming and gathering?
They understood relationships.
The house, the garden, the forest, the water and the places where food came from were often connected.
A tree could provide fruit, shade, medicine, timber, habitat and protection for the soil.
A garden could hold many layers rather than one crop.
Land resting from cultivation was not necessarily empty, and forests were not always separated from agriculture.
People gathered, cultivated, protected, selected and replanted. They learned which species belonged together, when to harvest and when to leave something alone.
Soil, insects, seasons, trees, water and animals were parts of the same system. The landscape itself became a form of memory.
The home is part of the ecology.
Many layers can share one piece of land.
Knowing when not to take is also knowledge.
Water can serve more than one purpose.
Healthy soil is stored time.
Can a productive landscape become more alive, not less?
not everything old was sustainable
learn from what endured / learn from what failed
Perhaps the lesson is not to recreate old farming systems exactly.
It is to stop thinking in isolated categories.
A home can also produce food.
A garden can also manage water.
A farm can also build soil.
A forest can also feed people.
A human landscape can also create habitat.
How many useful relationships can one place support?
Future places could combine living, food, water, biodiversity, soil, community, beauty and habitat, instead of designing each as an isolated system.
one place / many relationships
↳ Where did they succeed?
↳ Where did they collapse?
They succeeded when their systems could change.
When there was more than one way to find food.
More than one place to find water.
When knowledge was distributed.
When buildings, farms and infrastructure could be maintained and repaired.
When communities knew how to manage what they shared.
When the landscape could absorb a bad year.
Success was not the absence of difficulty. It was the ability to respond to it.
Success was the ability to absorb disturbance without losing the whole.
growth → specialization → dependence → stress → cascading failure
But successful systems could also become fragile.
A larger population needed more food.
More food needed more land and water.
More water could need more infrastructure.
More infrastructure needed more maintenance, energy and coordination.
Slowly, resilience could become dependence.
Then a drought was no longer only a drought.
It could become food shortage.
Shortage could become political pressure.
Pressure could become conflict.
Conflict could weaken institutions.
And an environmental shock became a social one.
Efficiency is not the same as resilience.
A system tuned for normal conditions can look extremely efficient. But if one part fails, the whole may fail with it.
Collapse does not necessarily mean disappearance.
Cities can be abandoned, political systems can fail, trade can break and infrastructure can be lost. Yet people, families, knowledge and practices often continue elsewhere, or reorganize in another form.
A city can collapse while a culture adapts.
Maya water and food systems · Mayapan, drought and political strife · the scale of Angkor's waterworks · Sri Lanka's cascading village tanks. Examples, not proofs: never climate alone, always systems interacting.
What happens when one thing fails?
Our systems today are far more powerful, and far more interconnected. Efficiency can reduce cost and waste. But removing every spare capacity, backup, alternative and local skill can also create fragility.
Resilience often looks inefficient until something goes wrong.
Future places could think about resilience across food, water, energy, communication, materials, community, infrastructure and ecology. Not by becoming completely self-sufficient, but by avoiding needless single points of failure.
connected, but not completely dependent
backup can be beautiful too
Civilizations do not only teach us how to build.
They teach us how systems break.
learn from what endured / learn from what failed
↳ If we already had materials and techniques that worked with place and climate, why did we industrialize their replacements instead of their evolution?
We did not only replace old building techniques.
We replaced entire material systems.
Earth.
Lime.
Timber.
Bamboo.
Stone.
Fibres.
Thatch.
Plant-based materials.
These materials had been refined through generations of use.
People understood where they came from, how they behaved, how they weathered, how they could be repaired, and how they answered heat, rain and humidity.
Modern industry offered something different.
Concrete could be specified.
Steel could be calculated.
Glass could be standardized.
Membranes could be made identically, then tested, shipped, insured and installed almost anywhere.
That was powerful, and much of it was genuine progress. But something else happened.
We poured research, capital and manufacturing intelligence into the replacements.
cement chemistry · steel · aluminium systems · glass coatings · membranes · plastics · sealants · machines
Many older material families were left behind. They began to look primitive partly because their industries stopped evolving.
What if we had spent the last hundred years improving natural materials with the same intensity?
Could we combine the intelligence of both?
Natural does not mean primitive.
Industrial does not automatically mean advanced.
grading · engineered joints · fire · moisture · prefabrication
What could bamboo become with another century of serious research?
rammed · compressed · stabilized · robotic · seismic
What happens when ancient material meets digital precision?
breathable · repairable · regulates moisture
Did faster curing make us forget long-term compatibility?
mass timber · CNC · modern connectors · digital design
Proof that an old material can be upgraded.
insulation · acoustics · panels · composites · weaving
biology can become manufacturing
The question is not simply: should we use old materials?
It is: how do we give old material intelligence modern manufacturing capability?
old material intelligence + modern science + modern manufacturing
Older materials had real limits too: short service lives, fire risk, pests, uneven quality, heavy maintenance, dependence on scarce skills, and pressure on resources when harvested badly. Modern materials solved genuine problems. The lesson is not to abandon them, but to ask why the path of development became so one-sided.
keep the progress / recover the intelligence
Industries grow around what can be measured.
Future building could join passive tropical design, local and bio-based materials, engineered timber, bamboo, earth and lime with modern engineering, robotics, precise manufacturing, sensors, renewable energy and today's safety standards. Not a return to the primitive.
ancient intelligence, upgraded by modern capability
Perhaps we did not outgrow these materials.
Perhaps we stopped investing in their evolution.
The future may not need completely new materials.
It may need new ways of making old ones.
↳ What wisdom should be carried forward into future civilization, and where can it create the greatest environmental and economic impact?
The question is not only what we should remember.
It is where remembering changes the system most.
The past does not give us a blueprint for the future. It gives us principles.
Listen before acting.
Adapt before overpowering.
Understand relationships before optimizing parts.
Keep systems repairable.
Allow diversity and redundancy.
Use materials intelligently.
Work with water.
Protect soil.
Keep knowledge distributed.
Respect limits.
Leave room for change.
Create beauty worth caring for.
Use technology to extend wisdom, not erase it.
Where do these principles create the greatest leverage today?
Where can one better decision remove the most material, energy, cost and dependence at once?
The cheapest material is often the one we never needed to use.
smaller footprints · adaptive reuse · less transport · less maintenance · not austerity, intelligence
One passive decision changes many downstream systems.
shade · orientation · cross ventilation · roof · vegetation · daylight · night cooling
Right material, right place, right amount.
timber · bamboo · earth · lime · recycled · lower-carbon concrete and steel where needed · repair · end-of-life value
Sometimes the most sustainable building is the one already standing.
retrofit · reuse · longer life · shade · ventilation · keep embodied value · avoid demolition
Water managed well does more than one job.
capture · storage · infiltration · safe reuse · erosion control · drought resilience
A landscape can feed, cool, absorb, shelter and restore.
agroforestry · gardens · habitat · native planting · soil building · community
Repair is infrastructure.
replaceable parts · reversible joints · accessible maintenance · less downtime · less waste
Keep value close where it makes sense.
local materials · fabrication · craft · maintenance · food · knowledge · work · global tools when truly better
Environmental improvement grows strongest when it does not depend on goodwill alone. A system becomes easier to spread when the better choice is also the better choice over its whole life.
Make the better choice the cheaper choice over time.
Not everything is money. The point is alignment: less resource use, lower running cost, less dependence, more resilience and better living can often strengthen one another.
Buildings are often judged by what they cost to build. But the real cost keeps going: operation, cooling, maintenance, water, replacement, waste, and the price of failure.
the upfront price is only the first page
what does this cost over 30 years?
What should be carried forward
Listen to climate, water, soil and place.
Adapt before overpowering.
Connect systems instead of isolating them.
Diversify because efficiency without alternatives can become fragility.
Repair instead of replacing everything.
Use less before looking for a greener substitute.
Build beauty because people care for what they value.
Keep knowledge alive locally and across generations.
Use technology where it truly makes the system better.
Leave it better than we found it.
The future does not need to choose between ancient wisdom and modern technology.
It needs to know what each one is good at.
Old knowledge tells us how to belong to a place.
Modern capability gives us new ways to act on that knowledge.
What happens when we combine them deliberately?
from remembrance to solutions
old intelligence / new capability
remember → understand → improve → build
What happens when old building intelligence meets modern manufacturing?
The future does not need to copy ancient buildings.
It can take the intelligence embedded in them and join it with material science, engineering, robotics, digital fabrication, testing, certification, modular building and better control of moisture and fire.
not old versus new
old intelligence + modern capability
For generations, builders learned how materials behaved in heat, rain, humidity and wind.
How walls could breathe. How roofs could shade. How fibres could insulate. How earth could regulate temperature and moisture. How timber and bamboo could make light structures. How lime could protect while still letting moisture move.
Modern manufacturing gives us something different: precision, repeatability, testing, speed, scale, and the ability to make complex systems consistently.
What if we combined them? Not by reproducing traditional buildings exactly, but by asking:
Which old principles deserve modern manufacturing?
Keep what a prefabricated insulated panel does well: factory precision, predictable dimensions, quick assembly, quality control, repeatable joints, less waste, less work on site. But rethink the materials. Instead of foam, sealed membranes and layers that can never be separated, explore timber, bamboo, wood fibre, cellulose, hemp, cork, crop fibres, clay, lime, earth finishes, gentler binders and ventilated rainscreens.
The material system is not decided. Nothing here has been engineered or tested yet. It is an early investigation.
Can we keep the precision of a SIP panel, but change what it is made of?
modern manufacturing / older material intelligence
Precise, consistent, standard sizes, controlled assembly, less waste, fast to install.
prefabricated, not placeless
Tropical humidity, heavy rain, heat, insects, local materials, local maintenance and skills. One universal panel may not belong everywhere.
standardize the process / adapt the material
Explore vapour-open assemblies, drying potential, ventilated cavities, moisture-safe details and tropical rainscreens.
manage moisture / don’t trap it
Layers that can be inspected, repaired, replaced or upgraded, so one failed part does not turn the whole panel into waste.
replace the part / not the wall
Mechanical connections, reversible joints, replaceable skins, modular insulation, layers that separate.
designed to come apart
One manufacturing logic, different regional palettes: one mix for Panama, another for Northern Europe, Africa or Asia. Not prescribed yet.
global manufacturing intelligence / regional material intelligence
Embodied carbon, renewable content, transport, durability, repair, end of life, toxicity. Natural does not automatically mean lower impact.
measure, don’t assume
The wall cannot solve everything. A tropical building still relies first on roof, shade, ventilation and orientation.
good wall / better roof
woven walls · timber frames · bamboo · earth infill · lime · clay · plant fibres · layers that can dry and be replaced
↓
factory · CNC · robotics · modules · testing · digital fabrication
craft → knowledge → manufacturing
not primitive → modern
The goal is not to industrialize nature.
The goal is to industrialize the intelligence we learned from it.
Other seeds, not yet explored
Can a tropical roof join deep traditional shade with light modern manufacturing?
Can buildings touch the earth less?
Can rainwater become part of the architecture instead of equipment added later?
Can passive cooling shrink the machine before we optimize it?
Can regional crop waste become useful building material?
Can modern connectors make natural structures faster, safer and easier to assemble?
Can buildings be designed around replacement cycles instead of demolition?
Can robots build with earth, bamboo, timber and fibre, not only concrete and steel?
Can better materials also create better economics?
factory precision → less site labour → faster assembly → less waste → repeatable quality
repairable materials → longer useful life → easier maintenance → fewer replacements
regional sourcing → perhaps less transport → local jobs → local manufacturing
none of this is automatic. it has to be shown.
We already know how to manufacture with precision.
The next question is what we choose to manufacture.
old knowledge / modern science / better systems
prototype → measure → learn → improve
08 / Future energy systems
Compact modular nuclear concepts, fusion, advanced materials, smart distributed grids, and emerging energy systems.
Exploratory notes, not commercial claims.
still developing · possibility · what if?
repair before escape
A question of priorities / Earth before Mars
Why are we so ready to spend billions imagining life on Mars while failing to care properly for Earth?
A multi-planetary future may come, but first we need a civilization worth extending.
Earth already gives us everything we need.
Peace here comes first.
Repair before escape.
Learn to live well on this planet first.
A multi-planetary future is not absurd, but it is not the priority now.
If we cannot live in balance here, we may only export imbalance elsewhere.
We should not scale destruction into space.
09 / Learning from climate
build with the climate, not against it
The tropics are not a problem to solve. They are a climate to learn from.
Shade. Air. Rain. Ground. Vegetation. Then technology.
A tropical building should breathe and belong. It should work with its site rather than dominate it, finding comfort through understanding before machinery.
Inspired by the work and research of Bruno Stagno, the Instituto de Arquitectura Tropical, and Pietro Stagno / Luz de Piedra opens in a new tab.
10 / What a place gives back
Beauty is not a luxury. It changes how a place feels, and how we feel inside it.
We tend to speak about beauty as though it were a human luxury. But nature seems to disagree.
Again and again, what we experience as beautiful also does something.
Not that a flower experiences beauty as we do, or that every colour or symmetry signals health. Only that many traits we find beautiful also play a part in attraction, communication, reproduction, recognition or survival.
Why are we so responsive to
colour, proportion, rhythm, symmetry, complexity, texture, movement, sound, light, landscape, water, vegetation?
Is our response to beauty partly rooted in our long relationship with living systems?
Why do certain places make us want to stay, care, remember and protect?
Why do some places make us breathe more deeply?
Why do we remember certain rooms, gardens and landscapes for decades?
Can beauty make us care more deeply for a place?
Does a beautiful place invite us to protect and maintain it?
Can beauty be part of dignity?
Why should sustainable architecture be visually poor?
Can efficiency and beauty reinforce each other?
Can wonder be part of wellbeing?
Beauty may be a human word. Yet diversity, light, water, shelter, healthy vegetation, complexity and life, qualities that often feel beautiful to us, can also signal a richer habitat. A sterile landscape may be controlled but biologically poor; a living one is layered, seasonal, imperfect and relational.
Perhaps beauty is partly what thriving systems look like to us.Perhaps beauty is sometimes function made visible.Research supports restorative effects from exposure to natural and biophilic environments, but beauty is not a simple health equation.
If beauty plays such a deep role in living systems and in human experience, why should architecture treat it as decoration added after function?
proportion · light · shadow · material · texture · craft · views · vegetation · water · sound · ageing · patina · imperfection · meaningful detail
Function and beauty do not have to be opposites.A place can work well and still move us.
Perhaps beauty is sometimes function made visible.
If we are going to build the world around us, why shouldn't it move us?
nature first
A working principle
A beginning
Martijn Tjho
Cañas, Panama
leave it better
On the ground
Some places are part of the journey. Some make the next one possible.
A place where some of these ideas are beginning to take form. For sale, with the possibility of becoming part of the vision through the right co-creator partnership.
buy the place · continue the idea · build together
For sale. Its sale helps fuel the next chapter.
one chapter making room for another
Margins and further reading / inspiration
A quiet corner of the web, asking many of the same questions.
how to live · together · lightly
Different places. Different people. One recurring idea: work with nature, not against it.
Concepts summarized from How to Live on Earth, an Open Planet Studios film presented by Benedict Cumberbatch.
your name could begin here
The next page is unwritten
This is only the beginning. Leave your name and email if you would like to follow what comes next.
Co-creators are welcome.