We’ll be doing a Build Week in Puerto Rico this fall. Ready to meet your Cabin community IRL? Read on.

Build weeks are Cabin’s version of a community barn raising. During Build Weeks, we head over to one of our favorite Cabin properties to help them make a special place even more special. For our first one last fall, we built a pergola and a fire pit at Neighborhood Zero in the Texas Hill Country. At our last one, we built a sauna.

This fall, we’re looking for 5 people to join for a fun week of building at the Mana Retreat Center in Puerto Rico. They’ll be building an art garden and a coworking room. No specific experience is required. We are looking for anyone who wants to hang in the Puerto Rican rainforest, meet a fun group of people, and learn some new skills.

We’ll let Cabin member and Mana’s caretaker, Sam Albertsen tell you more.

Ready to apply? Here’s the form. Want to learn more? Keep reading.

After hosting a pilot coliving community in Puerto Rico in 2020, Sam fell in love with the area and knew he wanted to go back some day. In late 2021, he bought property with three other friends, and Mana Retreat Center was born. Mana had previously been a farming estate, but after sitting abandoned, the buildings had fallen into disrepair.

Over the past 6 months, Sam and his friends have been renovating the main house. They have now begun to work on the outdoor areas. Sitting on 5 acres of lush rainforest, Mana offers an incredible opportunity for Cabin to help build a creative lattice of outdoor spaces while also being sustainable stewards of the land.

Each day contributors will plant clippings and other seedlings in a makeshift nursery. They’ll transplant these to a new section the Mana team is working on, then they’ll join a crew working on their build week project for the week.

• From September 3 – 10, contributors will be building an art garden at Mana.
• From September 11 – 18, contributors will be building a coworking room for the property.

The art garden is designed to weave together the indoor spaces, outdoor lounges, and the surrounding forest trails. Cabin builders hand-build outdoor furniture and bench seats, a canvas pergola, and a greenwall that features lots of native plants.

The coworking room is meant to be the ultimate remote work space for folks who stay at Mana. The Cabin community will help design and kickstart the build for the ultimate communal setting for collaborative and deep work in Puerto Rico.

If you join, expect to build for about 30 hours per week. Pricing is based on how you want to contribute to the project.

• If you come as a builder and contributor, Sam and his crew are eager to put you up for free.
• If you don’t want to build but want to come to vibe and hang (i.e. go on a Puerto Rico vacation), the cost will be $250 per week.

Applications are now open

If you’ve been itching to hang out with Cabin folks IRL but didn’t want to do it in North America (where all our experiences have happened up to this point), then this Puerto Rico pilot might be for you!

Ready to sign up? Apply for Puerto Rico Build Week here.

TL;DR

• What: Puerto Rico Build Week
• When:
  • September 3 – 10 (art garden build)
  • September 11 – 18 (coworking room build)
  • Come to one or both!
• Who: 5 people who are ready to get their hands dirty and their hearts full
• Where: The Mana Retreat Center in Puerto Rico

Sam Albertson’s been working to build a network of purpose-built coliving houses. For the past few years, he’s been at the intersection of spatial design, urbanism, community building, sustainability, and finance. Today, he’s leveraging his experience working for Culdesac to help Cabin expand our decentralized city.

Sam envisions Mana as a central communal lodge for working, sharing meals, and hanging out, coupled with private dwelling units. On a vibe level, he wants to create a space for hosting a variety of groups, facilitate deep work and interpersonal relationships, as well as a deep connection with the natural world.

Along those lines, Cabin has always been about IRL and digital interaction. After a busy summer launching our Montaia neighborhood with “Summer in the Sierras”, this build week is part of our pilot program to test out the fit between the Cabin community and Mana as a potential new neighborhood.

Ready to sign up? Apply for Puerto Rico Build Week here.

Not interested in Puerto Rico? We do multiple experiences each season and this is just one of them. Get on our newsletter to make sure you get notified of the next one!