One of my favorite ecovillages is in Sankt Gallen, in Switzerland, where a group of people have taken early retirement or quit very well-paid jobs to live together and rebuild a 19th-century Benedictine monastery in the middle of nature.
And why does he like it?
They're reclaiming it by using local resources, traditional crafts that are almost extinct, and inventing really cool ways to use modern technology, like solar computers.
A utopian community?
We are all children of people who dreamed of a different way of living. The history of the world is the result of utopian dreamers.
Marked by adventure.
At some point in the past a few decided to leave East Africa and do something totally different from what their parents and grandparents had done.
2,500 years ago Pythagoras founded a commune in southern Italy.
Yes, it is a very early example of a group of people who were not satisfied with the way life was organized in ancient Greece, and Pythagoras and his followers had this foolish idea.
On are they going to install?
In Crete, with the idea of living together in harmony and studying the mysteries of mathematics and the universe by sharing properties and establishing equality between men and women, things that at that time were very far from Greek society.
How was the experiment?
He was so influential in Greece that Plato was inspired by Pythagoras' lifestyle to write The Republic, one of the foundational texts of Western philosophy.
What do 2,500 years of those attempts to create utopian societies teach us?
The Greeks created the concept of family, the classic dad, mom and kids living in their apartment with their private belongings. This model of life was adopted by the Romans and then extended by the Church.
Model that continues dominant.
The vast majority of humanity has the bias of the status quo, they do not want to change anything, but the history of human progress responds to that minority of utopian dreamers who fought, for example, against slavery, and in favor of free education or divorce.
Which social utopias succeed today?
There is a movement in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands of communities of women of a certain age who decide to live together.
And how are you doing?
Scientific studies show how people who live in cohousing have higher levels of happiness, lower rates of unwanted loneliness and a more satisfactory use of their time.
Coexistence is not simple.
Cohousing is a beautiful balance between private space and shared spaces with a series of rules and regulations within each community. The pandemic showed us how lonely it is to be locked in our flats; we want to be connected to others and cohousing is a successful model.
When the children have flown.
Yes, it's very fascinating because we see these social alternatives in people under 35 and over 60, all of us in the middle continue to cling to the model of the nuclear family in a single-family home, and it's very ironic.
Because?
Because parenting is when we would benefit most from living in more collective and collaborative ways, but it is when we isolate ourselves. Younger people and older people choose this path which allows them to reduce their expenses and to be able to enjoy, for example, gardens and community gardens.
Who bets on cohousing?
At the moment, well-positioned people who want to live collectively in a desirable place, and it seems very positive to me.
What else do studies say about this alternative lifestyle?
People are happier and report higher levels of well-being, consuming less and having a smaller ecological footprint. Many people think that more is the key to living better, but studies like the one from Harvard - a study that has been going on for 70 years - emphasize that satisfaction is in relationships with other people.
...
It has been studied how children grow up, and the fact of having more interaction with different people suits them very well; children are ready to bond with multiple adults, not just one or two. As they say in Africa, it takes a tribe to raise a child.
What do failed utopias teach us?
Utopia is always on the horizon, always in development. They must be flexible and participatory, the moment they become rigid and dogmatic they fail.
