SOHOland
Description
Hypercube @ SOHOland as a working prototype of The Sharing Economy and the Commons
Choices are often framed as bipolar: yes or no, black or white, rich or poor, thesis or anti-thesis. However, very often the best choice is a mixture of both or in-between. For instance, Synthesis comes from Thesis and Anti-thesis. Likewise, Po is in-between of Yes and No. Gray is derived from Black and White. Color Green comes from Yellow and Blue.
What is the in-between or Synthesis of Rich and Poor? It is the synthesis of Capitalism and Communism / Socialism. It is the Sharing Economy / The Commons / Communalism / Solidarity Economy or Collaborative Consumption and Peer-to-Peer Production.
Hypercube @ SOHOland is an attempt to elaborate on this developing trend and to show case a working prototype and business model… in the form of a “Hypercube” --- a multi-purpose “Shared” property or real estate that illustrates the Sharing Economy and Generative Ownership that is also a “Social Business”…. “Do Good. Make Money. Have Fun”.
The networked community is crucial to the commons. It is this practice of the commons and commoning that brings a totally different perspective to our life, particularly in view of the emergence of alternative socio-economic systems replacing the prevailing paradigms (capitalism, socialism or communism).
The Hypercube initiative provides this “Own it. Live it.” advantage as well as the relevant ecosystem and facilities to enjoy it. It acts effectively as a transition to a new world where the triple bottom lines of profit, people and planet, or economy, equity and environment are at the core.
As a starter, it is interesting and revealing to study the demographic profiles of the world.
Members of the Baby Boomer generation (born between1946 to1964) enjoyed the benefits resulting from the economic development and growth after the Second World War. The socio-economic situations were relatively stable and conducive to growth and development and resulting prosperity. Being Middle Class / Rich / Super-rich became the aspiration (and hopefully the reality) for a substantial portion of the population. The resulting lifestyles and values system have become the dominant and prevailing socio-economic model… appropriately called Corporate Capitalism. This generation also saw the collapse of the other socio-economic system called Communism / Socialism.
However, members of the Generation-X (born between1965 to1984), Generation-Y (born between1985 to2000 and also called Millennials) and even Generation-Z (born after 2000) come to face quite a different socio-economic environment. There are more uncertainties and instabilities, yet coupled with advances in information and communication technologies. Collectively, members of these new generations have the tendency to adopt a different lifestyle and values system. They prefer freedom, independence and mobility, and seeking like-minded community, characterized by awareness of and concern with issues such as sustainability, personal development, business startup, disparity of wealth etc., appropriately called Community Capitalism which has the flavor of both Capitalism and Communalism / Socialism.
The other possible equivalent for Community Capitalism is Sharing Economy / Collaborative Consumption / Solidarity Economy / The Commons. This is the Third Choice facing humanity.
Hypercube @ SOHOland is a working exposition of the inner working of the Sharing Economy / Collaborative Consumption / Solidarity Economy / The Commons, particularly the following aspects: (1) The Great Socializer (curation of community of autonomous and mobile people) (2) The Great Equalizer (overcoming the disparity in wealth and property ownership), in the form of hybrid space (known as Hypercube) for co-working and co-living, incorporating Live-Work-Travel-Learn-Play aspects of modern and holistic living.
Most of our daily lives revolve around living, working, traveling, learning and playing, referred to as “LWTLP.” A Hypercube is designed to enhance the experience of personal space five-fold, by allowing its dwellers to explore each of these to the fullest. It’s a residence, office, guesthouse, educational space, and a playground — all in one.
The Hypercube is conceived for the LWTLP lifestyle, and its ecosystem is designed as a social business to promote the sharing economy. A co-working and co-housing space develops a social commons based on shared equity, environmental conservation, and open cooperativism.
The LWTLP lifestyle, as it is reflected in the Hypercube, can be summarized as follows:
Live: The Hypercube is a third place that can also function as a primary residence or second home or home-stay for travelers or digital nomads
Work: People can use the Hypercube for telework, as a business incubator and as an accelerator to grow a business.
Travel: The space can be used to host couchsurfers or for a holiday swap.
Learn: Since people with a variety of backgrounds use the Hypercube, it has potential for skills exchanges and workshops.
Play: It can be a space for recreation and relaxation and transcendental moments with different people.
A transition to the sharing economy is done through space sharing, tool sharing and skill sharing.etc. A collaborative second home — with its LWTLP components — is designed to reflect this emerging global trend. The principle behind it is based on collaborative consumption, a practical way of sharing resources for both consumption and production.
The Hypercube initiative is designed to bring about the convergence, interaction and interdependence of the live, work, travel and learn elements to yield the “play” moment – either individually or in different combinations – when we make the best and full use of the personal space created.
“Play” could be considered the “sweet spot” of the Hypercube initiative, as the ultimate purpose is to achieve a state of flow or ecstasy. The freedom, fun and fulfillment we experience is the result of the convergence of living, working, traveling and learning in our daily lives. Life is then free, active and meaningful.
The Hypercube initiative is also a living experimentation of systems thinking, systems feeling, systems being and systems living.
The systems thinking behind the Hypercube project can be gleaned from the SOHO taxonomy. SOHO-1 (small office/home office) represents the local quality of work, SOHO-2 (Solar Heliospheric Observatory) represents the global quality of living, SOHO-3 (self-organizing holarchic open system) represents the cosmic quality of life, and SOHO-4 (sociable home) represents the physical construct and the integration of local-global-cosmic perspective that leads to holistic well-being, happiness and meaningfulness.
This feeling of holistic well-being, happiness and meaningfulness is the systems feeling. It’s the play and flow moment and the very “sweet spot” that we are all pursuing all our life.
From that moment on, we become a systems being, fully aware and appreciative of belonging to the whole. We become truly and fully human.
To continue to have this wonderful feeling, we only have to do one thing: our daily lifestyle should be systems living, living a lifestyle that supports and sustains the very systems that we are a part of (rather than living apart from it).
This is, of course, very similar to living a lifestyle that integrates our body, mind and spirit. Why and how is this so? We could again trace the systemic connections, or connectomes — a term popularized in the study of the brain and mind.
The connectomes could be of three types: one acting through our body (DNA, genome, or genes), one acting through our mind (memories, cultural imprint, or memes), and one acting through our spirit (meditation, like Zen practice, including karmic acts and social networking, or zenes). Therefore, the body, mind and spirit is equivalent to the gene, meme and zene, which can actually give a more illuminating picture of what is happening when we say our well-being is conditioned by our body, mind and spirit. It is the action and reaction of our gene, meme and zene. You are your gene, meme and zene systems.
We could then possibly have a perfect systemic theory for human behavior, captured in just three words: gene, meme and zene.
Therefore, through the SOHO taxonomy, the Hypercube initiative brings about the systemic integration of the local, global and cosmic as well as the body, mind and spirit into our daily lives via the elements of live, work, travel, learn, play.
All these is achieved through the vehicle of the Sharing Economy / Collaborative Consumption / Solidarity Economy / The Commons
Investment in properties is vital for our financial security and well-being, and there are many ways we can do it:
direct individual investment
property investment holding companies
cooperative societies or unions
real estate investment trust (REIT)
The Hypercube initiative
What is the main difference between the Hypercube initiative and all the others? It is the essential combination of owning it and living it.
All the other forms of property investment involve direct or indirect ownership. But they all lack the element of living in the truest sense of the word. They lack the holistic lifestyle of live, work, travel, learn, play — which is so essential for our own well-being. It’s how we find meaning, happiness and freedom in a connected community.
It is this combination of means (way or mechanism), modes (the physical form) and meanings (purpose or why) that makes the Hypercube initiative unique.
The networked community is crucial to the commons. It is this practice of the commons and commoning that brings a totally different perspective to our life, particularly in view of the emergence of alternative socio-economic systems replacing the prevailing paradigms (capitalism, socialism or communism).
The Hypercube initiative provides this “Own it. Live it.” advantage as well as the relevant ecosystem and facilities to enjoy it. It acts effectively as a transition to a new world where the triple bottom lines of profit, people and planet, or economy, equity and environment are at the core.