We are building a community of families who move to the same village
Imagine an online community of families working with a declining village to create a new life for the families and transform the village.
Super affordable housing
Shared community spaces
a new model for rural revitalization
Our dream explained
For many years we have had this dream, that we didn’t really think was possible. To live with a lot of like-minded family in a beautiful mountain village. A place where we are more connected to nature, where the kids can play wild and free and where community is always outside the door.
We are dreaming about an intentional community, but with a lot of freedom so everyone can do what is right for them.
A big part of the dream is to make this happen in a village that already exists. There are so many beautiful, but declining villages and we would love to spark new life into one. We don’t want to be new colonizers who create a community disconnected from the local people. We dream about traveling around talking with people and actually getting permission and working with local people.
Before having kids we ran a travel agency for entrepreneurs, where we were lucky to travel with over 500 entrepreneurs from over 40 different countries. We learned about the value of in-real-life communities and we met some of our best friends through the project.
In 2023, now with two kids, we launched Traveling Village and in 2024 we took of on a 4-month experiment with 18 other families traveling in Asia. We saw how beautiful a community of families can be, where everyone helps out and the kids have a lot of freedom to play. When we arrived home we were sure: We wanted that kinda of community, just more permanent.
We think there are other families out there with different variations of the same dream. A more affordable life, that makes it easier spend more time with your family. A life where community is just outside the door and there is always something interesting happening.
This is a dream with many unknowns and we have a lot of things we need to figure out, so we really want to talk to families and villages that find this interesting. Maybe Revillage could even be a sustainable model for rural revitalization that we could implement around the World. Now we are taking the first step, to make our dream happen and our approach is "what is the best that could happen?".
Best wishes,
Iris, Kai, Michelle and Nikolaj (3,6,35,38).
Why we are building Revillage
Follow the progress
The Revillage Plan
Revillage is an idea and a dream. It's important for us to note that we don't have all the solutions ready. This is an experiment and it will very likely change form someway or another.
We are confident we can find families who share this kind of dream and we know villages around the world are doing a lot to attract new people. It must be possible to merge those two worlds and create a new solution.
The first step is just getting this out there and start spreading the world. To make this project happen we need build a community of maybe 1000 people who sign up to our newsletter. With that we should be able to get enough families in the end, but it could also be a way to connect with other people who work in relevant fields or even getting this to some relevant villages who will contact us.
Another part is starting to do more content on this website, about how it could all look like. We have a lot of ideas and experiences that we need to communicate out. In the end with goal to help attract the right people.
In this first phase we will also share the journey behind the scenes. We are building this with a startup mindset, because we hope this can be a sustainable model that could be used in more than one village. But who knows how it will turn out? That journey we want to share openly.
Community spaces
Our dream is that Revillage home is spread out across the village to integrate better. Our dream is also to create some community spaces that makes it easier for the community. One of those would by default be open to also the original local residents (the community garden), where the other two would be more similar to the shared facilities you see in a cohousing project.
The steps forward and how to get involved
Build a MVC (minimum viable community)
There are so many unknowns in this project, so to get it moving we will start with creating what we call a minimum viable community. By sharing the process, we hope to get build an email list of 1,000 highly interested families. We also want build a CRM 100 key stakeholders—village representatives, real estate experts, and potential partners. This will start in January 2025.
Deciding on our model
With time and by talking more with interested families, local representatives and experts, we will probably be more sure about our exact model. We have a lot of ideas now that need to be more specific. By this time and by working on all these things in public and sharing what we learn, we hope to have a more specific offering and a shortlist of relevant villages.
Deciding on the first Revillage
As we see it the third step is actually taking the decision about a specific village, which also means getting the community together that will move there. This phase also include a lot of practical work with local representatives. An idea would be to create a popup Revillage, a month, where we go to the village as a community and work on these things. This could be the last half of 2026.
Moving to the village
At this point we have a village, great local partnerships and a community of families who are committed to making the move. Now it's time to actually move, settle in, get the community up and running and work with the locals on integrating well. This phase will likely also include a lot of work with our community house. Our goal is to make this happen in 2027.
If you have any questions please reach out to nikolaj@revillage.com
