Values Manifesto
These principles guide how we live together at Nodar. They're not rules to enforce, but shared expectations that help the community thrive.
Purpose
We counteract the loneliness and monotony of isolated nuclear-family life through structured proximity: a stable core plus a rotating outer ring.
A core resident hosts a weekly open workshop hour where visitors join casually—no obligation, just structured social texture. You send to the WhatsApp group - fancy going fishing? You go fishing with some of the residents.
Expecting everyone to attend social events "for cohesion." 21st of March is fishing day - everyone is expected to go fishing.
Scientific Stewardship
Six houses on fourteen acres require active, evidence-based land management.
Remove an invasive eucalyptus cluster using fire-risk modeling; replant natives.
Ignoring wild-boar overpopulation because "nature should self-correct," despite clear ecological damage.
Experimental Mindset
High tolerance for technical and scientific experimentation.
Running a micro-lab trial for engineered fungi with basic controls and logs.
Blocking experiments because someone claims experiments "disturb the land's energy."
Competent Cooperation
Adults coordinating cleanly; collaboration optional but respected. We follow through.
Two residents coordinate a trench repair via a quick, efficient task list. Three residents decide they want to repair a dry stone wall. Over a few weeks of casual labour, they finish. Other residents organise a bbq to celebrate.
Guilt-tripping someone for not joining a project they never volunteered for. You agree to be there on Saturday to meet the concrete truck, you don't show up.
Shared Aesthetic With Space for Experimentation
Unifying look for visible structures but full creative freedom inside units and workshop zones.
Matching roofs and facades while someone builds a weird, brilliant bioreactor in their workshop.
Painting a communal-facing exterior neon colors "because personal expression."
5b. Sustainable Natural Materials
An emphasis on sustainable natural materials in the external built environment. Houses and other construction should not drift too far from local construction norms, be built to last. Construction should blend in with the landscape and conform with local laws.
Stone houses, slate roofs, wood/adobe details, but with a hypermodern aesthetic and full air con internally.
Attempting to spray paint a mural on the side of your building, that spends most summers peeling off.
Medium Order and Predictable Norms
Shared spaces clean and stable; noise, tools, and routines predictable but not oppressive.
Quiet hours after 10 p.m.; shared tools returned to the rack each evening.
Blasting music at midnight or leaving power tools scattered for days.
Boundaries and Autonomy
No dietary evangelism, lifestyle coercion, or pressured emotional disclosure.
Someone cooks vegan, someone cooks carnivore, and neither comments on the other. Fishing from the river is permitted if done respectfully.
Pressuring residents to "eat cleaner" or to "open up emotionally for the group." Skinning and butchering a wild boar in a common area (even outside).
Civic Participation Without Enforced Intimacy
Discussions focus on land, infrastructure, governance—not personal revelation.
A meeting debates irrigation strategy and caretaker hours.
A meeting derails into people being asked to share childhood trauma to "clear blockages."
Medium Interdependence
Shared tools, shared infrastructure funds, sovereign private units.
Everyone uses the shared chipper; each household maintains its own finances. 3 people collectively buy a pizza oven, one person decides not to. This is fine.
Expecting residents to pool groceries or justify private purchases.
High Permeability
Visitors, collaborators, seasonal tenants welcomed; novelty flows around a stable core.
Hosting a two-week workshop on soil regeneration without disrupting core routines.
Closing the community to outsiders because "too many new faces feel unsafe." Inviting 20 people to camp and have a music festival on the shared terrace.
Public Identity: Factual and Practical
We are not a cult. We don't think this is the best way of living and we are not part of an ideological movement. We share our foundational documents to help others form communities, not to preach.
Sharing this document, an overview of our legal structures, and our building plan.
Claiming the modern world is broken and a return to nature is the only way to find happiness. In a 3000 word missive written by Moon Peacebird (formerly called Bob). Sharing detailed day-to-day documents like the caretaker plan and/or meeting minutes.
Medium Professionalization Using Digital Tools
Clear roles, caretaker contract, written norms; low bureaucracy.
Caretaker logs weekly tasks; residents use a simple system for shared decisions.
Creating committees for everything, or having zero defined responsibilities.
Stability Over Churn
Core residents commit to multi-year arcs. Houses need to be lived in. By signing up to this project you commit to be resident at least a few months a year.
A resident commits to a five-year stay with periodic travel.
You agree to be there in the rainy months (i.e. Dec, Jan) but you don't turn up without organising a caretaker from the local community.
Medium Economic Integration
Separate household finances with a shared infrastructure fund.
Each household pays into a maintenance/caretaker fund annually.
Requiring income pooling or pressuring residents to justify their earning patterns.