Rethinking Society Through Gamified Cohousing

Gamified Cohousing Lappeenranta

On July 1st, 2025, I had the privilege of speaking to an international group of students at XAMK (South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences) in Kouvola. Students of the Post Graduation Degree in Entrepreneurship and Startups (Financial Plan).

The topic: Gamified Cohousing, a method I have been developing that turns abandoned buildings into communal micro-economies. But more importantly, it is a model that questions where we are headed as a society if we continue to overlook the fundamentals of human connection, shared purpose, and the teachings of thinkers like Epicurus.

The students listened intently as I described our five-step approach. It begins with minimal renovations and modular design, includes shared spaces, and culminates in a game-based management system. The idea is simple but radical: rather than managing houses through bureaucracy or landlords, we manage them like a living, breathing community. Through a game. A real-life version of The Sims, if you will, except here, good deeds and contributions are rewarded with lower rents, community perks, and a sense of belonging.

Since 2019, we have converted five buildings in Finland, former schools and railway stations, into living, working communities in Lohja, Oulu, Lappeenranta, Kajaani, and Kannus. These are spaces society had deemed obsolete. But instead of demolition, we chose transformation. Today, we manage 2,700m² of livable area, almost half of which is shared. In the dominant real estate logic, shared space is a liability. In our model, it’s the heartbeat of the entire system.

We discussed the two societal ailments our model aims to address: loneliness and resource misuse. Both are symptoms of a broader cultural condition. We live in cities surrounded by others, yet isolated. We demolish buildings that could be reborn, driven by profit rather than preservation or imagination.

As I told the students, our model is not merely architectural or economic, it is philosophical. Epicurus taught us that the key to happiness is simple living, friendship, and reflection. We’ve lost sight of these teachings in our hyperindividualized, hypermonetized world. As the economist Amartya Sen once observed, "The success of a society must be evaluated primarily by the freedoms that members of the society enjoy." This includes the freedom to live meaningfully within community, not merely to consume or compete.

Gamified Cohousing Kajaani event hall

The gamified app we use is not just a management tool. It’s a civic interface. Residents log tasks, earn points, and redeem them for rent reductions or other community perks. It is a way of translating goodwill into tangible outcomes, ensuring that contribution is seen, valued, and reciprocated.

The students, many from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Russia, asked pointed and thoughtful questions. They wanted to know about legal frameworks, incentive models, cultural adaptation, and how our system handles unfinished homes. We spoke about how unfinished spaces foster collective responsibility, transforming residents into co-creators. We spoke about how bureaucracies can be circumvented with trust and networks, and how we are currently expanding to Nepal, a challenging but promising step.

The conversation deepened with questions about ownership, market speculation, and the psychological effects of gamified management. I explained how the model adapts: tenants can become owners, communities can evolve governance rules, and the digital layer is always improving. What matters is not the final form, but the process. As Kate Raworth has argued in her Doughnut Economics framework, "A 21st-century economist must recognize that people thrive in community, not in isolation, and that regenerative, distributive systems are key to a just future."

When we forget Epicurus, when we ignore the social and spiritual hunger of people, we end up with polished apartments and empty lives. 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.

Pedro Aibéo, 02.07.2025