How to Live Together in Phalansteries, Castles and Urban Communes? Embassy Network

We are very happy to have within Superstudio, in conclusion of the series of seminars on Habitat & Environment, an intervention from some of the members of the Embassy Network, a very interesting example of networks of urban communes, communing and collective practices on the socialization of reproductive and domestic labor. Jessica Angel, Jessy Kate Schingler, Eric Rogers and Zarinah Agnew will talk about their experiences from San Francisco to Europe, their everyday struggles and their forms of economic and political organization for alternative forms of dwelling.  


About Embassy Network
https://embassynetwork.com

Communities experimenting with culture and commoning.
We are building a cooperative movement for those leveraging housing towards greater aims, where those aims are strengthened by operating in community with others, global fluid mobility, and by connection to other networks. Together, we start and support spaces that prototype new approaches to an open, creative society. These spaces are embassies of a future that is abundant, collaborative and transparent.

cultural values
A central part of finding the right people for your community is being clear about the cultural values that you hold dear. Sometimes you know where these are from the get go, and sometimes these cultural norms are emergent as the community grows together.  We found it helpful for example to go through certain questions about food, personal boundaries and so on, to find out who we all were.  This is our food survey for example This is our boundaries spreadsheet. Filling this in, we learn that some people don't like hugs, some people feel uncomfortable with semi nakedness in their private space and so on. We never would have known this without asking these questions explicitly. It's not that you all have to feel the same on all these axes, but it's good to know what is important to each other!