Talk:
Were you looking for the main page of Fractal NYC? Go to fractalnyc.com
What is a civic society (like Fractal)?
We use the term in a specific way for something that has two components:
Layer 1: Community-building that causes long-term bonds to form. This might include co-living, community-led classes, clubs or anything that gets people seeing one another frequently enough for relationships to form.
Layer 2: Institution-building – incubating projects and offerings which support the flourishing of the microsociety’s members or broader society.
Fractal is one such microsociety that got started in 2021 in Brooklyn’s McKibbin lofts.
Fractal
Fractal is building a replicable microsociety: a model for vibrant, relationship-driven community life that integrates housing, education, the arts, technological innovation, and economic development. Our goal is to address modern crises of loneliness and disconnection by creating enduring ecosystems of human flourishing. Fractal has been growing dramatically for the last year. Here's a current snapshot as of April 2025:
- Housing network: 75+ residents across 22 units (some are apartments, some are big townhouses that host events in their living rooms). This formed the main basis of our “layer 1.”
- Events: 100+ events per month with 1000+ attendees. During the month of February 2025 alone, we ran 144 events with names like Machine Learning Study Group, Tango Practica, Generative UX/UI Hackathon, Learn Martial Arts, Let’s Build a Family Friendly Community, & EdTech.
- University: Having recently celebrated its one year anniversary, FractalU hosts 30+ in-person classes with somewhere between 250-350 students per semester (3 semesters per year). Classes include computational biology, songwriting, advanced civics, quantitative trading and more.
- Third Spaces: 5 “third spaces” which host classes, bootcamps, residencies, film screenings, dances, hackathons, and hangouts.
- Fractal Tech: Founded in May 2024, our new technology hub trains engineers in three months and has a 100% job placement rate. It also acts as a coworking space for 40 full-time members and counting, with 5 startups and counting founded in the space.
Layer 1: Communities
Communities create belonging and mutual support. They also create the high-trust collaborations capable of building social institutions for layer 2. According to the research and our experience, it takes about 100 hours over frequent meetings to form a solid adult friendship. Relationships can also be accelerated through immersive shared experiences: weekend retreats, camping, hackathons, festivals, trips, intensive workshops, etc.
Layer 2: Institutions
Founders can form a symbiotic relationship with their scenes to launch new businesses, charities, membership societies, and civic initiatives. Scenes help founders in fragile phase of going from 0 to 1 in many ways: ideation, constructive criticism, cofounder-finding, advising, first hires, low-cost venues for events and coworking, housing, volunteer labor, beta-testing, early adoption, word-of-mouth promotion, shared professional services, emotional support, and sometimes even funding. In return, founders’ institutions can provide members of their scenes with jobs, services, opportunities for skill-growth, wealth, shared resources (equipment, software, office space), and the pride of collective effort.
Why build a microsociety?
Communities – on their own – are subject to modern forces of displacement. Supplementing them with an institutional layer can dramatically strengthen the community by creating economy, organizational structures, etc. It can also harness the ambitions of the community for positive ends.
Institutions – on their own – often lack warmth, fun, strong relational bonds, and mutual care. Combining the institutional layer with a community layer can lead to more human-friendly institutions.
But if you’re looking for a more ideological why here you go: With the decline of social fabric we are seeing the rise of the loneliness crisis, the meaning crisis, and declining social trust. As covered in the talk above, we believe it’s possible to rebuild “civic society” in order to create a more robust and healthy civilization.
Below is an example of Fractal’s burgeoning microsociety – a map of current and future modules. Watch the talk above for more of its history.
Map of community systems:
Interested in getting involved? See the interest form below
Greater depth:
Key:
- ❌ Red = no one’s on it yet; awaiting the efforts of a steward
- 🔁 Yellow = some people are on it, but it’s not yet up and running
- ✅ Green = the overall function is built!
Community care
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Housing
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