After years of positive press, Pedro Aibéo speaks out against recent media distortions and aggressive actions by city officials in Finland. This reflective piece explores how grassroots architectural projects like Gamified Cohousing are being undermined, and why defending democratic, community-led development matters now more than ever.

Gamified Cohousing’s renovation of the Kanavansuu school in Lappeenranta has been misrepresented in recent press. Despite safety upgrades, transparent contracts, and community engagement, city officials and media portrayals have forced the project to a halt. In this blog, Pedro Aibéo sets the record straight, shares facts, and challenges all parties to embrace full transparency.

What Gamified Cohousing proposes is not a utopia, it’s a reminder. That joy and meaning arise when we live with others, not just next to them. That architecture is not about steel and stone, but about the rituals and relationships it hosts.

The term circular economy has become a buzzword in sustainability discourse, praised as a catch-all solution to environmental degradation and overconsumption. But beneath the surface of optimism lies a more complex reality