300–450
Residents
per settlement, in 2–3 neighborhoods
Issue No. 01 Spring · 2026 Doc KONT-VIS-001 · v1.0
Founding phase · open Aegean · Türkiye
Where the warmth
of the village
& the ambition
of the city.
Something broke in the way we live.
We grow food in factories and ship it across oceans.
We educate children for jobs that may not exist.
This is not a complaint. It is a diagnosis.
Kont is the response.
§ 00 · The Fracture · Plate I
§ 01 · Manifesto
Something broke in the way we live.
This is not a complaint.
It is a diagnosis.
We feel the fracture in cities that grow taller but not kinder. In suburbs designed for cars, not conversations. In rural communities hollowed out by economies never built for them.
We produce more than any generation before us, yet we are lonelier, sicker, and less certain about our futures than our grandparents ever were.
The diagnosis, in full
We have chosen efficiency over meaning, scale over care, growth over sustenance. And we are paying the price — not only as a planet, but as people.
We grow food in industrial factories and ship it across oceans while the soil beneath our feet lies barren. We build homes optimized for resale value, not for the lives lived inside them.
We educate our children for jobs that may not exist, in systems designed for a world that already does not. We have convinced ourselves this is progress.
Kont is what happens when you refuse to accept any of this as permanent.
§ 02 · The name
Two words, one place.
The Turkish language already had the answer. We just borrowed the hyphen.
Köy
n. · village
Warmth. Names you know. Food you grew. Neighbours who are not a metaphor.
+
Kent
n. · city
Ambition. Knowledge. Infrastructure. A clinic, a school, a library, a FabLab.
= Kont · a settlement that is both, refusing to choose
§ 03 · Seven pillars
The non-negotiable commitments.
Every Kont upholds these seven pillars. They are the public-facing form of the longer 17 operational principles — the test for whether a decision is on-principle or off-principle.
01
Cooperative Economy
Community-owned, cooperatively managed. No landlords, no extractive shareholders. Surplus reinvested, not extracted.
VIS-002 §2.1 · §2.16
02
Sustainability & self-sufficiency
Food, energy, water, waste as closed-loop systems. The gap to full self-sufficiency is measured and actively narrowed.
VIS-002 §2.2 · §2.9
03
Direct democracy
Governed by its members. Sociocratic consent, rotating facilitation, no permanent hierarchy, full audit trail.
VIS-002 §2.3 · §2.8 · §2.15
04
Inclusive, mixed-use
Genuine diversity — age, ability, background, household. Living, working, learning, leisure interwoven, not zoned apart.
VIS-002 §2.4 · §2.10 · §2.13
05
Innovation & living knowledge
Maker spaces, open workshops, a school that teaches people to think. Pro-intentionality, not anti-technology.
VIS-002 §2.5 · §2.14
06
Preventive healthcare
A community clinic focused on keeping people well. Health is collective infrastructure, not a private transaction.
VIS-002 §2.6
07
Human- & nature-centered
Permaculture-led land use, passive-climate architecture, walkable interiors, vehicles at the periphery. Zones 0 through 5.
VIS-002 §2.7 · §2.17
§ 04 · The model
Village-scale warmth.
City-level infrastructure.
Each Kont is 2–3 neighborhoods of 100–150 residents around a shared services core. The 150-person neighborhood preserves face-to-face governance; the shared core makes a clinic, school and FabLab economically real.
150
Dunbar ceiling
The maximum group size where every member can maintain a meaningful relationship with every other. Each neighborhood stops here.
300+
Service floor
A clinic with one GP needs 250–400 patients. A K–8 school needs 40–60 children. A FabLab needs 40+ makers. This is why we share.
25 : 75
Built to open
One quarter built environment. Three quarters productive or natural landscape. Village character regardless of population.
29 docs
Everything, open-source
Every canonical document is a markdown file in the public repository. Version history = idea history. See /docs.
Permaculture zones · core → edge
Z0
DwellingZ1
Kitchen gardenZ2
GreenhouseZ3
Field cropZ4
Managed forestZ5
Wild reserve§ 05 · What Kont is not
We draw from many traditions.
We belong to none of them.
Every utopian community ever built taught us something. Some taught us what not to repeat. Here is what Kont refuses to be.
Not a
Kibbutz
Respect for the legacy, but the kibbutz was a national-ideological project built on total collective ownership and homogeneity of purpose. Kont values private space alongside communal life.
Not an
Auroville
We admire the ambition. But we don't organise around a spiritual or philosophical doctrine. Our organising principle is structural — democratic, cooperative, self-sufficient — not ideological.
Not a
Smart city
Top-down, technology-first, funded by agendas that rarely include the agency of residents. We use technology enthusiastically but as a tool, not as a brand.
Not a
Gated community
Gated communities are built on exclusion. Kont is built on layered inclusion — five membership tiers from core residents to short-term guests. Isolation is not safety; it is stagnation.
So what is it?
A synthesis, not a replica.
§ 06 · The network
One settlement is an experiment.
A network is a movement.
Each Kont is locally autonomous but structurally connected — by shared principles, mutual aid, knowledge exchange, and the right of every member to live, work, and contribute at another settlement.
Settlement 01
Aegean · Türkiye
Aegean hills. Mediterranean climate. Hot-dry summer, wet-mild winter. Hayat-house vernacular, limestone walls, vines for shade. 1,000+ mm/yr rainfall — meaningful food self-sufficiency is on the table.
Legal vehicle is a Turkish cooperative under Law 1163 (Kooperatifler Kanunu). Phase 1 capital $1.5–3M. First residents target 2029.
Follow this region →Settlement 02 · under study
Ras Al Khaimah · UAE
Desert fringe. 40°C+ summers, coastal humidity. Compact medina form, barjeel wind towers, mashrabiya screens. Water is the binding constraint — greywater and reclaimed water do almost all the work.
Hybrid RAK ICC foundation + mainland LLC. Higher capital cost (~2× Türkiye) but significant solar and a real appetite for cooperative experimentation.
Follow this region →FIG. 02 · Kont network
Q2 2026 — provisional
0 built · 2 in formation · 12 aligned
§ 07 · Come closer
Five ways in.
No one becomes a resident overnight. Membership is layered — from a day visit to a trial residency to full equity. You choose your depth, we hold the door open.
Next in the calendar
Come visit us.
Open-doors events this quarter. No commitment, no sales pitch — you spend a day on site, eat a meal with us, ask difficult questions, and decide for yourself.
Sat04 May2026
Open house · site walk & communal lunchAegean pilot site · 6 hours · limit 24 guests
Reserve
Sat18 May2026
Founding assembly · observer seatsOnline + Izmir meeting room · 3 hours
Reserve
Thu06 Jun2026
Cooperative law & membership Q&AOnline · 90 min · EN / TR
Reserve
Five membership tiers
Core Member full equity · governance
12–24 mo path
Resident fixed-term housing · advisory vote
application
Researcher 3–12 mo residency · network commons
application
Volunteer 2–12 weeks · farm, kitchen, build
rolling
Guest 1–7 nights · open-doors cap
booking
The invitation