A network, not a product.
Kont is a cooperative settlement network of 300–450 residents
per settlement, designed around the conviction that human
beings can build places they actually want to live in. The
vehicle is a member-owned cooperative; the program is
open-source; the first settlement is under formation on the
Aegean coast of Türkiye.
We are not asking for donations. Institutional support funds
specific phases of the work with specific deliverables and a
public reporting cadence. Every document produced lives in
the open archive at kontproject.com/docs; every
decision lands in the quarterly journal.
§ 01 · What the money does
- Research
- Site walks, cooperative-law consultations, water modelling, climate-adapted spatial program.
- Legal
- Cooperative registration (TR Law 1163), member agreements, bylaws drafting.
- Land
- Phase 1 down-payment; bridge capital between cohort commitments and bank financing.
- Documentation
- The open archive + quarterly journal — the product of the project while the settlement is being built.
- Not for
- Operational overhead that should be cooperatively funded; individual salaries above market; marketing; proprietary IP.
§ 02 · Who we are
- Founder
- Ahmet Turetmis · hello@kontproject.com
- Legal vehicle
- Turkish cooperative · Law 1163 · in formation (Q3 2026)
- Governance
- Sociocratic consent · rotating facilitation · member veto by principle
- Cohort
- 28 committed households · writing bylaws draft 1 together
- Precedent
- Draws from Turkish kooperatif tradition, Mondragón governance, kibbutz industrial experience, contemporary cooperative housing practice (CH, DE, DK) — belongs to none of them.
§ 03 · The two active studies
- Aegean · TR
- Phase 0 → 1 · $1.2–1.9M institutional ask (full Phase 1 envelope $1.5–3M incl. member capital) · first residents target 2029
- UAE · desert
- Pre-Phase 0 · feasibility · 2027 decision gate · separate capital stack
Institutional support lands against a specific phase. Each
phase names its deliverables, its decision gate, and the
reporting artefacts that land at the end of it. A phase
cannot be quietly skipped; the public journal documents
whether each gate was passed.
§ 01 · The phases
| Ph. | When | Ask | Deliverables |
|---|
| Ph. 0 | 2026 · Q2 → Q3 | $80–120k | Legal vehicle registered. Bylaws draft 1 co-authored with the cohort. Site shortlist closed to a final 2. Reporting: registration cert, bylaws pdf, site comparison matrix, journal Issue I. |
| Ph. 1a | 2026 · Q4 | $600k–1M | Land acquisition down-payment + option period. Geotech, water, land-use review. Reporting: deed, geotech report, water-budget model, journal Issue II. |
| Ph. 1b | 2027 · Q1 – Q2 | $500–800k | Full land acquisition closed. Member capital first tranche landed. Reporting: full deed, capital stack report, first cohort list. |
| Ph. 2 | 2027 · 2028 | $3–5M | Design + permitting · first neighborhood (~150 residents) · utilities · hayat-house cluster. Reporting: masterplan v1, building permits, annual audited accounts. |
| Ph. 3 | 2029 | member capital | First residents on site. Phase 1 active. Cooperative transitions to operational funding. Institutional support closes unless named for a new research cycle. |
Ph. 0–1b are the institutional ask — $1.2–1.9M, the
sum of the three asks above. The $1.5–3M Phase 1 envelope on
page 1 is larger because it also carries the member-equity
tranche and contingency landed at Ph. 1b; member capital is
raised from the cohort, not requested here. Phase 2 onward runs
on a separate capital stack. Figures trace to KONT-FIN-003.
§ 02 · Decision gates
- Between Ph. 0 and Ph. 1a — cohort of 20+ households confirmed, legal vehicle registered, site narrowed to final 2.
- Between Ph. 1a and Ph. 1b — geotech clean, water model closes at 300-resident scale, cohort capital commitments signed.
- Between Ph. 1b and Ph. 2 — land title clean, member capital tranche 1 landed, governance process stress-tested.
- Between Ph. 2 and Ph. 3 — permits in hand, cost variance under 15%, audited accounts published.
A failed gate does not end the project — it pauses it and
opens a public re-plan in the journal. A gate that fails
twice ends that phase's institutional ask; remaining capital
is returned to funders pro-rata less spent cost, per the
cooperative's refund policy.
§ 01 · Reporting cadence
- Quarterly
- Kont Journal — field notes, essays, decisions log, open questions. Published at kontproject.com/journal.
- Semi-annual
- Budget actuals vs. plan. Variance explained line-by-line. Published at kontproject.com/support.
- Annual
- Audited accounts + an institutional brief addressed directly to funders (public after embargo).
- On decision gate
- Gate report within 30 days — whether it passed, what the evidence was, what happens next.
§ 02 · Named support
Naming rights are considered case-by-case and decided through
the cooperative's consent process. A named gift is documented
in the public decisions log with the rationale on both sides
(why the institution wants the naming, why the cooperative
accepts or declines).
- Phase-level naming — e.g. "Clinic · Phase 2, supported by [Foundation]". Considered at $500k+.
- Research-cycle naming — e.g. a 12-month water-modelling cycle named for the funder. Considered at $100k+.
- Building naming — only for buildings funded ≥50% by a single institution, with member consent.
- Anonymous support welcome at any level; confidentiality is structurally respected.
§ 03 · What we will not do
- Accept funds contingent on the cooperative making a specific governance decision.
- Grant exclusive rights to any document or design — everything is CC-BY-SA 4.0 by default.
- Accept funds from sources whose underlying work is incompatible with the seven pillars — weapons, surveillance, extractive resource projects.
- Re-announce the same deliverable to multiple funders — each phase is funded against a specific ask with transparent tranching.
§ 04 · Contact
- Institutional
- press@kontproject.com — read daily; typical response within 1 business day.
- Founder direct
- hello@kontproject.com
- Research partnership
- research@kontproject.com
- Archive
- kontproject.com/docs — every document behind this prospectus is public.