Supernuclear - A guide to coliving

I’ve spent the last five years living in community homes that ranged in size from five to sixteen people. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but I do think it is something that would make sense for many more people than are practicing it right now. Which is why I’m teaming up with Phil Levin to write this guide. We want to distill the years of hard work we’ve put into figuring out what makes communities function into a resource for anyone who’s interested in coliving. If you’re just beginning to explore the concept, we’ll show case studies of what’s gone right (and can go wrong). If you’re already living with friends, we’ll share best practices for managing your finances, collaborative decision making, and making sure the dishes get done. And if you’re looking to take the big leap and purchase property with a group, we’ll help you figure out how to pitch your unconventional structure to banks and protect yourself legally. As we navigate the current health crisis, we need to figure out how to make better use of our resources and help each other thrive. Choosing to live with others could be one of the simplest and most effective ways to do that. Chances are that it’ll be pretty fun as well. So I hope you’ll come along with us as we dive into what it means to go supernuclear: to build a life surrounded by more than your immediate family.

Heyo Product Hunt! Gillian and I have experienced great joy and purpose building coliving and cohousing communities. The sole purpose of this free resource is to enable others to experience the same! We see a movement away from isolated nuclear families (hence --> "supernuclear") to living situations that create a more interconnected and mutually supportive urban fabric. Our bigger motive: We want cities to be different. We want homes to be different. We want people to live differently and live better. This is about giving people tools to reshape their spaces to mirror their most rewarding social relationships. And if enough people do this it will start to reshape cities themselves. + We want people to look at two homes next to each other and think “imagine if we knocked down that fence.” + We want people to look at a big mansion and say 10 friends could thrive here. + We want people to look at an empty plot and say “what if that was a circle of tiny homes around a large communal space?” We want 10,000 of these moments to slowly reshape cities and the underlying logic of how we build and use space. We want our physical space to mirror our social relationships. We want cities to be more relational and interconnected. And when the next generation thinks about home, we want them to first think about the people, not the space. Home can either be the walls and the countertops or it can be the people within the walls and the magic you create with them. May yours be the latter.

This is a hot market idea right now given Covid and the impracticality of cities. I sent this Tweet from @leepnet to a friend just the other day: https://twitter.com/leepnet/stat...

I’ve done coliving with Gillian a couple times now and it is always amazing. She is the expert

sideways vouch for @gillianim and @phil_levin - they have a ton of experience across many locations in different cultures. they know how to observe, write and communicate. EXCITED.

I love this. Congrats on the launch @gillianim and friends!

Some of the content indirectly doubles as a great guide for managing teams, especially when it comes to esprit de corps, conflict, and making decisions. Great stuff @gillianim and @phil_levin

This is just a book or Do you provide any service on it?

super cool! i'm so glad this info is being collected, and I hope it inspires the creation of more community homes

I'm biased of course, but am super excited to see this in the world!!! Phil and I went through SO MUCH learning (and mistakes) to build RGB and Radish. If someone is even considering starting community/co-housing/buying a house with friends, this should dramatically improve chances of success. This is not just about living the dream - it's about how to build the dream. :)