The Home for Building Living Systems
Some systems thrive. Others just survive. The difference is rarely technology — it's design. If you've always sensed that the best organizations, communities, and ecosystems grow more like gardens than machines, you've found your place.
How It Works
A continuous loop from understanding to action — and back again.
Context
Understand your unique situation. Identify the forces, tensions, and opportunities at play.
Capture Context →Pattern
Find proven, reusable solutions from a living library. Curated collections guide the way.
Explore Patterns →Build
Bring patterns to life. Create real, observable systems. Become a Lighthouse for others.
Build Lighthouses →The world is full of systems designed for control and predictability. But the world itself is neither controllable nor predictable. When a system can't adapt, it becomes brittle — it loses its best people, misses vital signals, and slowly decays. We keep optimizing the parts, forgetting that the health of the whole is what matters.
Commons Engineering is a different approach. It's the discipline of designing and stewarding systems that are alive, adaptive, and resilient. Not a rigid methodology, but a shared language and a growing body of knowledge for seeing, understanding, and cultivating the forces that give a system its vitality.
Where Living Systems Matter
Commons Engineering applies wherever complex systems need to thrive — from organizations to cities to ecosystems.
Business
Organizations, governance, value streams, and the people who make them work.
Urban
Cities, neighborhoods, public spaces, and the infrastructure of daily life.
Ecology
Regenerative ecosystems, bioregional economies, and our relationship with the living world.
Life
The core patterns of living systems that underpin all other domains.
What You'll Find Here
An open-source commons of knowledge, tended by a community of practitioners.
A Living Pattern Library
Over 80 patterns across two curated collections — the Commons Blueprint and the Commons Engineer — with more being cultivated across domains.
ExploreContext-Aware Guidance
The Commons Suit helps you articulate your situation and find patterns that fit.
Try ItReal-World Lighthouses
Organizations and communities that have brought these patterns to life.
Coming SoonA Community of Practice
Connect with fellow systems thinkers who share your way of seeing the world.
JoinReady to Begin?
Whether you're transforming an organization, designing a community, or simply curious about a more vital way to build — there's a path for you.