Foundations · Citadela

I · The new map of real estate investment

Ten principles every citadela follows.

Each citadela adapts them to its land; all ten remain. Every decision is checked against them: a business, a plan, a figure.

01Resilient investmentAssets prepared for a world of limited resources and volatile supply chains, that stay valuable, operational and profitable for decades.
02Operational intelligence and eco-technologySoftware, smart construction and eco-techniques that orchestrate community life and profitability, in a self-sufficient habitat integrated with nature.
03Flow-based designThe architecture follows the natural flows of energy and water, and captures them to raise the value per square meter and lower the cost of operating.
04Hyper-local, circular economyRetail, an origin market and curated food that attract, retain and recirculate capital within the ecosystem itself.
05Universal, active mobilityWalking as the way to get around: paths for bikes, skates, wheelchairs and strollers that draw foot traffic and well-being.
06A multispecies ecosystemAnimals as a central part of family life, integrated into the landscape and the life of the community.
07Everyday life as the anchorInhabitants who bring people every day, like a high-performance coworking space or a Montessori school: a daily flow that sustains every other business.
08Strategic porosityAn open, porous and safe setting where residents and visitors feed commerce and the life of the place.
09Dunbar-based social designHomes for up to 60 families: the scale at which people sustain stable relationships, belonging and mutual care.
10Organic appreciation and safetyA connected community looks after its surroundings, keeps its people and speeds up the appreciation of the land.

II · What we believe

Back to the essentials with today's technology.

The land has a vocationFirst we listen to the place —its water, its slope, its history— and then we design. What the land already is shapes what it can become.
On a human scaleA community works when its people know each other. The right size is the one that lets them care for one another.
When you do well, the land does wellRent follows sales. The owner, the inhabitant and the visitor win together.
Curated and porousCareful about what arrives and open to whoever arrives. Diversity is what makes it resilient.
How towns have always evolvedThis is how people have always lived together: square, market, trade and community. What is new is how it is done.
Belonging before believingFirst you arrive, live alongside others and become part of it. Shared ideas grow from there.
An infinite gameThe goal is to keep the game going and let more people play it. It is played for the long term, thinking seven generations ahead.
The third placeNeither home nor work: the place where a community meets every day. A citadela is designed so there are many of them.
The human projectWe hold immense tools; our task is a maturity to match them: seeing the whole system and integrating perspectives. Tribalism comes built in; humanism is a choice.
Relational sovereigntyThe freedom that matters grows from healthy bonds: a web of deep roots, not an isolated tower.

III · Shared authors

What shapes our thinking and points to what comes next.

Ideas from different disciplines that shape how we think and point toward what comes next to build: the human project. If one of them moves you, we already have something to talk about.

AnthropologyRobin DunbarThe biological number: the human brain can sustain about 150 stable relationships. Hence the 60 families. At that scale everyone knows each other, decisions are quick and processes stay simple: a private place with a single Citadela Manager who looks after the rules, and central, cashless payments that drive active appreciation.
EducationMaria MontessoriCosmic education: a curriculum that connects science, history and language into one story —the universe, the Earth, life, humanity— so each child finds their place and their contribution. Children learn by doing, in a prepared environment, from preschool through middle school. Hence the life campus, multigenerational: children, parents and grandparents in the same place.
Deep ecology and cosmologyJoanna Macy and Thomas BerryThe Great Turning and the Great Work: the shift to a life-sustaining society in which people and the Earth thrive together. Hence the land first and a regenerative landscape.
Systems thinkingNate Hagens and Daniel SchmachtenbergerEnergy drives the economy, and today's challenges are connected: they call for designing whole systems. Hence flow-based design and resilient investment.
EconomicsCharles EisensteinSacred Economics: an exchange that circulates and strengthens bonds. Hence the hyper-local, circular economy.
PsychologyClare Graves, Don Beck and Christopher CowanSpiral dynamics: systems that integrate different perspectives and choose what works.
MeaningJamie WhealRecapture the Rapture: in the face of the meaning crisis, awe, repair and communitas —feeling part of something with others. Hence the gathering place in every citadela, its rites and its communities of practice.
PhilosophyJames CarseFinite and Infinite Games: some games are played to win; others, to keep the game going. Hence the long term.
Philosophy of evolutionThich Nhat Hanh and Pierre Teilhard de ChardinEvolution tends toward greater complexity, integration and consciousness, and the next awakening will come from a community that practices. Hence a humanity that grows up and the communities of practice.
Political scienceErica Chenoweth and Maria StephanThe 3.5%: a committed minority is enough to move a whole society. Hence starting with one citadela.
Integral organizations developmentRaúl Romero and Frédéric LalouxRe-evolución Personal and Reinventing Organizations: a higher purpose that emerges and guides like the North Star, self-management and wholeness. A good business creates value for everyone involved. Hence how it is run.
Integral theoryKen WilberFour dimensions to look at any reality: the personal, the cultural, the measurable and the systemic.

The questions of our time

Resilience in the polycrisisEnergy, climate, the economy and supply move together. A citadela answers with the essentials close at hand: water, sun, food and community.
Meaning 3.0The question of our time is what for. Meaning 1.0 came from myth and ritual; 2.0, from science and the individual. 3.0 integrates both: rituals, belonging and a shared purpose in everyday life.
Humans 2.0Body, mind and relationships at their best. Tuning the antenna: less noise and more earth, with daily movement, nature and lifelong learning, from children to grandparents.

This framework is brought together by Joseadrián, Citadela Founder, from his training in integral development with Raúl Romero and Integralis, and in flow and meaning with Jamie Wheal. See his background ↗

IV · How we work

Shared methodologies

01Read the vocation of the landTopography, water, natural flows, surroundings and history before any plan.
02TropicalizeEco-techniques, anthropological research and the local as a pillar: each place brings its land and its materials; the why and the how remain.
03Curate the businessesWhat arrives and how it fits, so inhabitants send customers to one another.
04The same numbers in plain sightThe Negotiator puts one screen in front of the owner and each inhabitant so they decide together.
05One digital checkoutEverything is collected in one account and each inhabitant receives their share, with the common costs in plain sight.
06Run by a Citadela ManagerA single administration sets and keeps the rules: agile decisions and a place always in order.
07A purpose that emergesPurpose is not drafted in a boardroom: it emerges with everyone involved in the room —owner, inhabitants, neighbors and suppliers— using the Future Search method of Integralis Consulting Group.
08Awe, repair and communityRites of passage for young people, solstice and equinox celebrations, and a shared table for the conversations that matter.
09The obvious, firstGood sleep, movement, sunlight, real food, cold and hot water, music and gratitude: the daily life the place makes easy.

Communities of practice

Every citadela grows communities of practice: groups who share a craft or a passion —the garden, the kitchen, parenting, cycling, building with earth— and learn together by doing it. They work with Raúl Romero's Re-evolución Personal method: each person finds their purpose, chooses their life roles, sets goals for each role and moves forward in cells that support one another. Knowledge stays in the place and grows with its people.

V · Who lives here and who comes

A citadela is counted in two: those who live there and those who come.

We count residents, who sleep there, separately from non-residents, who come and go. That mix creates the flow that sustains the market, the shops, the kitchen and hospitality.

Residents ≈ 210 per night

Short stayNights, Airbnb-styleThe hospitality line: about 40 keys and close to 7,700 guests a year.
Mid stayMonths, for digital nomadsAbout 25 studios that fill the week with people who work from there.
Long stayThe permanent community60 families, Dunbar's number. It stays at 60; what grows is the short and mid-stay offer.

Non-residents ≈ 1,460 per day

CaptiveTheir routine is thereStudents, teachers, parents and the people who work in the businesses: about 850 on weekdays.
EverydayNeighbors who come backMarket, coworking, sports and workshops: about 460 on weekdays and 665 on weekends.
DestinationThey come on purposeOutings, the weekend market, events and retreats: about 800 on weekends.

Open and porous Together, we know everything

A citadela is an open population: it brings in the outside world and shares what it has with it. People, students and teachers, languages and cultures, solutions, eco-techniques and processes cross-pollinate between citadelas. What one learns, all of them use.

≈ 1,670people on site per day
1 : 7one resident for every seven non-residents
≈ 1,320food and coffee purchases per day

Estimate based on La Citadela de Zavaleta, with a school of about 400 students. It is recalculated with what is measured on site.

Why a citadela works, at its core.