Hello there. Before I get started on what this actually is, I'll first have to explain certain things that need to be made clear from the start. Most importantly, this is a project that's already under way, since before I got into bronydom even, and it strictly involves me and my IRL friends. Somewhat sadly, we've mostly been in the "figure things out" phase but we've made some progress and changes during all that time. In any case, construction can only really begin once enough of us have an income and that's surely once I graduate from college and find work.

Now for the idea behind it. It struck me as I was thinking about the household my mother grew up in. While I don't know exactly how many of her siblings, 11 including the half-siblings, lived in my grandmother's house as they grew up, what struck me was how my house is actually a little bigger than my grandmother's house. The pros and cons will be explained later so it's the realization that matters right now; they lived much more efficiently than we are doing.

To really understand what's going on here, you need to look at us not as families or as parents and children but as consumers. In theory, this would not change an individual consumer's requirement for nourishment but if we're talking about land occupation, electricity usage, water usage for anything other than bathing and food preparation and occupation of materials, the entire picture changes.

You see, my grandmother's house housed about as many people as me and my neighbor's family combined. Indeed, me and my neighbor's family take up twice if not more space and materials as individuals. No matter how few people live inside a house, it's still going to need one living room, one kitchen, at least one bathroom, at least one bedroom, one car, etc. Would a house built for eight people really need two kitchens? Would a house built for eight people really need two living rooms? Would a house built for eight people really need two washing machines and two dryers? Would a house built for eight people really need to be as big as two houses built for four people? If you answered "no" to all the previous questions then it's a good indication that you're understanding the benefits of living in multiples under one roof.

Alright, we understand that it'll be critical that we get along. What might fall under idealism before are now what success or failure hinge upon.

So... that sounds nice and all but don't think we're just going to assume that being nice to each other is going to meet all the challenges. See, there's this thing called reality and having a good understanding of it will get us off to a good start. What's been proven time and again is that no matter how idealist people are, they are all going to fall apart if those people were to find themselves in an environment that does not support or make room for those ideals. The most obvious example being the question of what "thou shalt not steal" really means to a starving person desperate to get food somehow. The point to be taken here is that if there is deprivation, be it physical or psychological (more on that soon), people will do whatever it takes to try and fill those voids and no colorful mantra is going to stop that.

So, on to the topic about human needs as I currently understand them. We all know the physical needs that include healthy food, water, shelter, sleep and exercise. Not to be neglected are the psychological and social needs for companionship, to be loved, to be seen, to be received for who we are. Living in the first world will still not guarantee fulfillment of even all of the physical needs where the modern epidemic of obesity as well as the emerging epidemic of sleep disorders makes evident. Western culture actively goes against our psychological wellbeing because through advertisement it keeps telling us that we are not worthy or wanted as we are or for who we are because we don't have enough stuff. We're aware of all this so it gets us thinking about how we're going to secure our needs to maintain a peaceful environment as well as the perspectives we need to take on to ensure we don't feel threatened over something we shouldn't feel threatened over.

Well, that gives you an idea what it's about as well as a generalized line of thought for how is it we plan to live together under one roof as well as how we might plan to meet the challenges that come with them.

I'll be posting more blog entries about how development has been and is going.