RGB House

[nelsonic]

Our friend @jongold (Design Technologist @airbnb) lives in https://www.rgb-house.com 🌈 🏠 😍

https://www.rgb-house.com/hang-out

https://www.rgb-house.com/the-house

"Green Room"

"Red Room"

"Quiet Room":

Kitchen:

9 Bedrooms

What Makes it Great?

From the pictures it looks like they are living the dream!
But if we could distil it down to prioritised list of what makes it great, what would be in the "top ten"?

Ownership?

Is the house rented, co-owned or sole-owned by one of the house-mates?

From reading @PhilLevin's post on "handling finances in a large shared living situation (e.g. coliving)":
https://medium.com/@phillevin/handling-finances-in-a-large-shared-living-situation-e-g-coliving-2503592aff45
It appears that they are renting the house "from an external landlord".
If that is the case, who is "responsible" for communicating with and paying the Landlord?
presumably the landlord is "OK" with their conscious living situation ...
it's California, fairly "safe" they are.

What are their biggest issues?

Is everyone respectful of each other's sleep, nutrition & health needs or is it party/chaos all the time?

The existence of a "Quiet Room" suggests the RGB house-mates are keen on mindfulness & meditation. This is (often) a sign of (seeking) a higher awareness of themselves and others.

I wonder if they have a "cut-off time" for noise during the "working week" that everyone respects.

Does RGB-House use Loomio for participatory decision making or is this "too formal"?

What are the Biggest (or Most Difficult) Decisions that have been made?

For example, have they ever had to "evict" someone for being/becoming an asshole...?

How are new people selected? Is it subjective or is there a pre-defined criteria?
What is the basis for "rejection" of prospective applicants?

What are (or have been) the Biggest Disagreements?

Are there Rules or "Policies"?

e.g: can "my friend" stay over? (in the "Last Supper" photo, there are 15 people, how many are full-time?)
how long can "a friend" stay over before they are considered a de facto resident?

There 9 rooms and 11 people.

which means that there are two "couples".
How are bills divided?
Is it based on cost/people or is there an apportionment for a couple living in the same room?

Doocracy...?

The articles page https://www.rgb-house.com/articles has a few very interesting reads:

The first article in the list is Zarinah Agnew's "How to Nurture a Living and Evolving Doocracy":

https://medium.com/embassy-network/an-evolving-doocracy-3a6123f9b170

Failure modes of doocracy

Slack ...? 🙄

Good summary of "Doocracy": https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Do-ocracy

I'm really curious to do a more in-depth interview with people living in RGB-House (and similar).
And to find out if they think it would "work" if it were not in SF ...
It would be great to interview one (or more) of the "founders" and find out if they would change anything specific if they could "wave a magic wand" or had "unlimited budget".

Would it work if there were more people? or is there a "magic number"
(e.g: the size of a large-ish family) above which the thing "falls apart".

[jemgold]

👋 hi @nelsonic! happy to chat to you about it (and introduce you to more people in the SF commune scene - there are tons) — can we chat maybe mid-Sept though? super busy time right now

feel free to come and stay here whenever you're in town!

[nelsonic]

@jongold thanks both for replying and for the very kind offer! 🎉
We will totally take you up on it second half of Sept. 📆
Good luck with shipping your work until then. ✅