In today's episode, I introduce a new endeavor I've been secretly burrowing away at. It's called ECOPIA and it's my ultimate dream project. ECOPIA's mission is to create child-centric properties that are built and designed for families to raise children together, as it's meant to be done, in groups (and with all the eco-friendly, zero-emissions, zero-waste features an apartment could need!)

Modern parenting is deeply broken. Parents are more burned out, lonely, and stressed than ever before. Childcare is painfully expensive. The systems for daycare, play-dates, maternal support, afterschool care, and activities are profoundly inefficient.

What should be the happiest moments of a parent's life are often steamrolled by stressful duties we could design around: near-constant death prevention (cars, falls, poisons, sharp things, running off etc) and being a daily taxi service.
Parenting is hard, largely, because the architecture is broken.

Suburban homes were made for a different time when housing was cheap, marriages were conventional, and women had an average of four children – all of whom could play together in a backyard. Alternatively, apartments are built cheaply for profit - not for kids or mothers.

By taking a child-centric lens to apartment buildings, we can create supportive communities that center around safe places for children to play in groups with the amenities that parents need.

They say "It takes a village" for a reason. It does. That's why I'm putting my best effort forward to build the village we've always needed.

Learn more about ECOPIA at https://ecopia.us and sign up to join the waitlist for future residents, building partners, and developers.

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How to Save the World is a podcast about the psychology of what gets people to do eco-behaviors and take climate action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to rapidly get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product.
Get inspired with positive eco futures art prints, organic t-shirts, hoodies, calendars, and all Katie's action design training at ⁠⁠⁠ecopiastore.com⁠⁠⁠
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