Let's get back to basics

There's nothing new under the sun.

It's true, but it misses the point.

Even if there's little new left in the world for us to discover, for us to imagine and for us to create, there's immense value in the re-discovery, re-imagining and re-creation of things that are old. Re-creation reinvigorates us.

Because when we rediscover the old, in the context of the new, it's a little different.

Let's not return to hunter-gatherer society, but lets see what we can learn from eating a similar diet.

Let's not return to tiny village-based existence, but lets see what we can learn about how to be community together from those stories.

Let's not return to stone houses, horse-drawn carts and open fireplaces, but lets see what we can learn about living with less from those who had to.

Because also, let's not imagine that these are in the past: There are people alive today who live in ways that have sustained communities and cultures for generations. We don't need to sit in our universities, think-tanks, focus-groups and retreats trying to imagine what the world would look like if we lived differently. We can go to people who live differently either by choice or by necessity, and learn from them.

It's not academic, it's life, and a lifestyle.

The language of social business

There's a lot of labels and terms floating around for businesses that try to do good stuff.

Social Enterprise.

Social Business.

For-Purpose Business.

Not-for-profit, but not-for-loss Business.

Triple Bottom Line.

Let's get serious here: A business going good stuff isn't anything special. It's just good business.

It's only special, because it isn't common.

Good, isn't common in business.

Buying Fairtrade isn't a do-gooder decision, a business model or a story used to sell a product: It's called paying a fair price. Businesses reliant on low-cost supply chains are at risk, because at some point you'll need to pay.

Deliberately pushing against the status quo, unconscious bias and systemic injustice within your business isn't a noble purpose: Diversity drives performance. We're better when we work together.

Solving societal problems, even in just a small way for a small group of people, isn't charity: It's necessary to regenerate and sustain society. Business doesn't happen in a vacuum, it happens in society.

Collaborative decision-making isn't a style of community engagement: It's the best way to (attempt to) keep pace with a rapidly changing world.

Making people's lives better isn't an optional extra that deserves to be applauded: It's called being human, and loving

When we all look after each other first, and ourselves second, we'll find ourselves very well looked after indeed.

When the houses all look the same

Richness in life comes from relationships with a range of people. Which means, people not like you.

When we buy a new house in a subdivision where the houses look the same, cost the same, and are sold at around the same time, it's no wonder that our neighbours look like us.

Let's build for diversity of people, diversity of connection, for a rich life.

Do the work

Nail by nail.

Batten by batten.

Board by board.

Incremental gains. Step by step. Piece by piece.

Its how you build a house.

It's how we build community.

Pinpointing purpose

We can wrap home ownership up in all sorts of things, some good, some great, some of dubious value, but when comes down to it:

What's the main purpose of a home?

Pinpoint that, stay true to it, and build from there.

If our purpose as people is connection, the home gives us a place to connect to the land, a base to connect from, and a space to connect with others.

Running the residential gauntlet

When community is such a buzzword, why do we insist on building barriers?

I'm talking about our six-foot front fences again.

Driving down a quiet, pleasant, meandering residential street recently, I was struck again by the impression of impermeability that rows and rows of tall front fences give to a casual passer-by. It was all the more noticable because several houses had recently been rebuilt, renovated and/or sold and therefore had the obligatory six-foot timber-paling fence erected. And immediately adjacent were several older houses with no fence to speak of.

Connection requires openness. And yet we're closing off our properties to the world. 

Making room

We're all seeking connection. And the richest source of connection is each other.

But it doesn't just happen. We have to make space for people. 

On purpose.

But we're busy. Too busy. Doing great things, good things, and neccessary things.

So simplify it. Make it easier. Lower the bar to connection.

Make space at home.

We all need to eat: Make room at the table.

We all need to work: Make room weeding the garden.

We all need to sleep: Make room on the couch.

We all need to play: Make room in the back yard.

We all need to make room.

Coffee, cost and rational passionate home design

Value is in the eye of the beholder and it seems that, these days, price is more reflective of value, than cost.

When we buy a coffee at a cafe, we're not buying a coffee, we're buying the experience of the coffee. The anticipating, ordering and drinking of the coffee, and the planning, thinking and enjoying the cafe.

So for the budget-conscious, the challenge is to replace this routine with an alternative that has equivalent value, at a lower price.

It's why bench-top coffee machines are a hit. It's why niche coffee-machines exist. It's what instant coffee advertisements try to sell.

Of course, it is a different experience. We can't replicate the cafe experience at home. What we're trying to do is replace it with a coffee-drinking experience of equivalent value.

If we can do this, we haven't lost anything, we've just saved money! It's a rational, passion-based approach to designing our experience, and spending our money.

We can apply the same logic to our approach property. Or at least, the budget-conscious among us need to!

Our questions is the same: How can we achieve the same result (realise the same value) in a building for a lower cost?

This might mean that our original idea (drinking a flat white in a cafe) needs to radically change (making an Aeropress at home). This is a question of design. It turns out, Architects can be very helpful with design. Especially when we don't know what we don't know.

It might mean that we spend time reflecting to distill the essence of what we value (e.g. the caffeine kick in the long black, or the velvety milk in the flat white) and realise we can still achieve the same outcome in a different way (e.g. instant coffee, or a bench-top coffee machine).

If we go on the journey, we might just find that the reason we want what we want, is because we value what others have. We go after what we know exists, and what we can get.

A value-based home might not look quite like every other home you see around. Unless of course, what you value is being like everyone else, at which point you're job is easy!

For the rest of us, there's some thinking to do.

Standup

Stand up...

...and be counted.

...comedy.

...for what you believe in.

For a little bit of non-property related (or is it) of all of the above, you need to watch this.

How many people does it take to change a property system

I've been running numbers tonight.

It looks like, in order to activate about $3M of radical, purposeful, alternative property living, building, and ownership, we need a little over 100 of us.

The list looks something like this:

• 40 people who don't own any property and currently save around $50 per week.
• 40 people who are on the right side of the mortgage mountain, want to change the world at least a little bit, and can afford to pay an extra $50 per week on their mortgage.
• 12 people with cash who want to change the world, but need a return.
• 3 NGOs with cash sitting in their bank accounts.
• A bank in the business of community-building.

And most importantly:

• 15 people who can afford to pay $130p/w in rent and want to live with purpose; and
• The communities around them.

100 people with Purpose.

Do any of these people sound like you?

Disconnected conversations

How many unheard stories are out there in the world of how a broken capitalist approach to property has broken people, families and communities.

How many dreams, just like your, have gone unshared of how things could be better in your country.

How many conversations, just like ours, happen in your city every week.

How many people, just like us, living in your neighbourhood, wishing, willing and working a new way of living into being.

As always, its the connection between stories, dreams, conversations and people that matters and makes the difference.

Get to the midnight conversation

The best conversations seems to happen after midnight.

The craziest plans.

The most exciting dreams.

The moments of deep connection.

It's why we get together with old friends for a weekend, not a coffee. We get to the goodness, the stuff we really want to share, down the track a little way.

What's the after-midnight conversation piece where you live, the bit of your place you really want to share?

And how long does it take to get there and see it, experience it?

And how much effort has gone into the rest?

If your main thing is the kitchen, food, cooking, sharing and sitting down with a cup of tea/wine, what's with the preoccupation with the front lawn, and the roman columns at the entrance?

Spend your time (and money) in the places that matter. And share those places with other people.

Trim the candle wick (right)

An untrimmed candle wick makes for a whole lot of smoke. An over-trimmed wick is just a pain to light in the first place.

Whats your default position?

Do you tend to leave simple maintenance tasks too long to the point where you're effective, but cause collateral damage?

Or do you ensure you're vigorously being busy and looking great, but struggle to get started on the real task at hand.

Street food for the soul

It's good to share food with friends. To connect, and reconnect. Reminisce and dream.

It's good to share food with people.

If food is such a foundational element to establish connection between people, why are the spaces where we can share food so limited, outside our homes? Does this limit our potential for connection?

What could a more open food-sharing space look like? Perhaps:

• Movie nights at the local cafe with cake and coffee before and/or after.
• Inviting people in the fish and chip shop on a Friday night to eat with you at the local park.
• Street party barbecues.
• Sitting at the bus stop with a thermos of tea and a spare cup.
• Joining someone sitting alone at a cafe.
• Inviting the neighbours around for birthday cake.

Food brings people together. Bring food, gather people.

Opportunity and cost of change

Change is disruptive. Painful. Stressful. And typically unwanted.

And yet:

Change is necessary. Transformative. Freeing. And required for growth.

Moving houses is just one example of the paradoxical nature of change.

It requires so much work, physical and mental effort, planning, preparation and time.

But also an opportunity to declutter, reassess priorities, make lifestyle changes, and simplify.

Big houses...

... are a pain to clean.

Enough said.

Designing for impact

So you want to make a difference. You have a dream for a better future. You want to make an impact.

The next step is to try and make it happen within our sphere of control.

While positive personal, individual responses are necessary, it turns out that trying to convince others to "do what I did" isn't a particularly effective way to achieve a large-scale impact.

Attempting to control the situation based on your frame of reference isn't is not the determining factor in creating impact.

Collaboration might be.

This isn't to say that individual stories don't matter. They matter because they are all different. But listening and sharing is more important than convincing and justifying.

Collaboration, not co-opting.

Coordination and cooperation by communication, not command.

Imagine the solutions for housing we might arrive at if we wove our stories together:

• Simpler living in smaller spaces designed for neighbours, not purchasers.
• Coordinated, activated and populated public areas that are accessible to all.
• Households who know households. Neighbours who know neighbours.
• Cross-generational and cross-cultural living within a neighbourhood rather than demographic segregation.
• Shared facilities for making, fixing, growing, playing and being.
• Literal, and potentially common ownership of local commercial activities.
• Educational environments that extend outside the institution into our streets, parks, back yards, garages and kitchens.
• Urban design dominated by spaces for people, not cars.

Competing for what?

At times, it feel like the property market is a competition. Rather than as system for meeting the fundamental human need for shelter.

Why are we all fighting each other?

Build smaller, live closer, share more

We don't really do high-rise around here. The ground's too shaky. So we tend to sprawl instead, building new commuter towns.

But we hate commuting, and like our rural landscape. So we're having a crack at densifying.

Urban densification to combat suburban sprawl.

We seem to be struggling to make it work though. 

Maybe it's because we're still trying to fit a quarter-acre 240 sqm house, lifestyle and expectations into a smaller footprint.

If we built smaller and lived closer, we'd share more.

Share more space, and connect more often.

A Good Home supports the Rhythms of life

Communities are made of people. And thriving communities have people with rhythms of Stillness, Reflection, Connection, and Giving.

Stillness

Irrespective of any religious or non-religious attitudes, meditative practices are beneficial for everyone.

A quiet space in our homes, or neighbourhood public spaces encourages us to practice.

Reflection

Increasing self-awareness through personal reflection is arguably the key to creating a diverse community by deconstructing our inherent biases, prejudices and negative habits and patterns of thought.

Proximity buys time that we can spend being, rather than doing.

Connection

Food is an anchor for fostering connection with each other.

Our kitchen tables, breakfast bars, bump spaces and front-yard BBQs bring us together.

Giving

Giving is good for us. For all of us. Maimonides postulated a hierarchy of charity. He theorised that the highest level of giving is where the gift ultimately enables the recipient to become self-sufficient, no longer in need of charity.

Hospitality is a simple gift that requires nothing of the recipient other than their presence, and can be given regardless of the financial position of the giver. Indeed, some of the most significant spaces of hospitality can be found in the homes of those with the lease significant wealth.