Citadela · Life, on a human scale

From the shopping mall to the gathering place

Shops, work, food, sports and nature in a place where people come to be together and spend the day. It starts by understanding the land and gives its owner active appreciation.

What a citadela is Meet the citadelas

Plaza under pergolas with bougainvillea, a fountain and terraces with people

Curated businessesthat send each other customers
Cashlessone single digital checkout
Rent follows salesthe landlord grows with each business

The concept

The shopping mall brought us together to buy. A citadela brings us together to live the day.

Working, eating, moving, learning, being with animals and with nature, and being together. The school, the coworking space, the restaurants and the lodging are businesses that arrive as inhabitants; the project is the place that brings them together.

And part of being together is staying: housing is one more business in that diversity, for a small, multigenerational community.

The landownerActive appreciationThe land stays theirs: it brings in rent and grows in value.
VisitorsA place to be togetherThey come for one thing and stay the day.
The inhabitantsFoot traffic every dayBusinesses that complement each other, Monday through Sunday.

Open plaza with yoga, horses and food terraces

Come for a coffee and stay the day.

Children playing basketball in a courtyard among arches at sunset

Why

The city families are looking for

Getting through the day in one place, sharing life across generations and living close to nature. And places that care for their water, generate their own energy and source from what is nearby.

WalkablePaths for bikes, skates, wheelchairs and strollers: short trips and people along the way.
With the animalsThey are part of family life, woven into the landscape and the community.
A regenerative landscapeIt follows the vocation of the place —species, seasons, rain— and draws birds and pollinators. Children tend the vegetable garden.

The origin market

An origin market as the anchor

For decades the anchor of the shopping mall was the supermarket. In a citadela it is the origin market, woven into daily life: after dropping the kids off at school and the yoga class, the household shopping gets done.

Suppliers sell their own goods directly, with certified origin: local producers, in-house entrepreneurs, students with their garden, neighbors with their greenhouse. Everything is paid in one place and each supplier receives what they sold.

An amenity for those who live there, supply for those who work there and a destination for those who come from outside.

Open-air shopping plaza under pergolas with bougainvillea

Ceremony in the garden in front of a hacienda's granary

Community gathering center

The place where the community comes together

Next to the plaza and the bandstand, towns always had a place for life's rites. Every citadela has one: a secular space, open to all beliefs, for births, weddings, farewells and graduations, neighborhood assemblies, silence and music.

The anthropologist Victor Turner called it communitas: feeling part of something with others. A community that knows itself cares for its surroundings and keeps its people.

The ceremony here and, afterwards, the party in the hall next door.

Inhabitants

More than tenants: inhabitants

Whoever arrives with their business is more than a tenant who pays rent. A school or a coworking space brings people every day, and that daily flow sustains the other businesses. The restaurant, the event hall and the market anchor complement each other and send each other customers; each one brings its own community.

By bringing their business to life, they bring the land to life.

The flow they generate is what raises its value. That is active appreciation, and its inhabitants create it.

School courtyard among arches with families at sunset

Stone courtyard with balconies, arches and bougainvillea

Staying

Up to 60 families: a tribe across generations

Dunbar's number is the biological scale at which people know each other, look after each other and build community. That is why it is up to 60 families: lofts, cottages and houses for young people, families and older adults. The variety of sizes and generations is what makes it profitable.

Rented, never soldShort, medium or long stays: a line of income for the owner and their investors, and the land stays theirs.
Curated residentsThose who come to live are chosen the way the businesses are, so the community complements itself.
One company, one set of rulesA single management sets and looks after the rules: quick decisions and a place that is always in order.

The owner looks after and sustains the value, and so do those who use it.

How

Three levels to plan a citadela

1
The land
The place comes first: topography, water and natural flows, surroundings, history and the value of the area, whether urban, remote or natural. It starts at 6 hectares (15 acres) or more.
2
Localization
The concept adapts through eco-techniques, anthropological research and the local as a pillar. Each place brings its land, its materials and its return; the why and the how stay the same.
3
Active appreciation
The land always belongs to the owner: it is rented, and its inhabitants bring it to life. Food, coworking, a life campus, event halls, sports, animals, a market and lodging: every business adds flow, and flow raises value.

The model

One checkout and a clear split

Everything sold inside is charged to a single account, with digital payment. The landlord pays each inhabitant their share, after setting aside what belongs to everyone: maintenance, services, marketing, water and energy. When the inhabitant does well, the land does well.

Back to the essentials —water, sun, land, community— with today's technology.

Central checkoutAll digitalEach inhabitant receives what they sold, with shared costs in plain view.
WaterThe water staysIt is captured, used and recirculated on site.
EnergyThe sun at workPanels, batteries and meters in place of the electric bill.

Watercolor of a reflecting pool with a pavilion and greenery

Why it works

A business with value today and decades from now

The numbers come from the Negotiator: the same screen in front of the landowner and in front of each inhabitant, to decide together the share of sales, the terms and the business mix.

01People come to be togetherVisits last longer, repeat and fill every business.
02Several lines of incomeRent from many businesses, events, services, memberships and lodging.
03Curated and porousCareful in its businesses and open to everyone: residents and visitors mix and sustain the shops.
04Ready for the futureArchitecture follows the flows of water and sun; eco-techniques and software bring together services, payments and access.

Implementation

This is how towns have always lived together. What is new is how it is done.

A citadela is the natural evolution of the way people have always settled together, brought up to date with a market sense. Each one is an inspiration for more places to bring their housing together with their work and their community: curated and at the same time open and porous, with diversity and economic resilience.

What Citadela brings to each place

Business curationWhich businesses arrive and how they complement each other to send each other customers.
Rent follows salesA consolidated financial model built on total sales: the land does well when its inhabitants do well.
CashlessOne single digital checkout and each inhabitant's share paid out, with shared costs in plain view.
The integrated life campusA school from preschool through middle school, with an afterschool program open in the afternoons.
The NegotiatorArranges businesses, storefronts and rents, with the same numbers in view for owners and inhabitants.

Joseadrián implements it as Citadela Founder, with his team, and trains the Citadela Manager who stays on to run each citadela.

Citadelas

Meet the citadelas

Contact

Have land? Let's discover its vocation

If you have 6 hectares (15 acres) or more, let's talk about how a citadela would look on your land: what vocation it has, which businesses would make it a gathering place and how its value would grow.

Citadela Founder

Joseadrián

Implements each citadela: business curation, the financial model and the Negotiator. Today he is opening La Citadela de Zavaleta.

joseadrian.life ↗WhatsApp ↗