It's Sunday morning. You wake up, stretch, walk down the hall, knock on the door of your friends' apartment, and ask, "You going to the brunch downstairs?" They say, "Of course, we're bringing homemade jam."

You all go together. When you enter the apartment – whose living room now doubles as your community's third space – the sound of piano, clinking cutlery, and laughter is in the air.

On the big dining table, you see a stack of steaming hot pancakes alongside a jar of maple syrup, a plate of scrambled eggs, and a big bowl of fruit. You put down the pastries you brought and eat some food with a friend who happens to be visiting town (they're staying in another apartment in the building).

Someone quiets the room so that the lightning talks can begin: there's one on physics, another on singing technique, and one on how to have a successful marriage. When the talks end, you play with your friend's baby while they go to another apartment in the building to teach their local politics class.

After the potluck brunch, you and a crew spontaneously get together to go climbing in the afternoon and then you all grab dinner at a jazz club in the evening. In between songs, you make plans for the work day tomorrow with your fellow dinner goers: goal-setting in the morning, followed by co-working with dance & walk breaks. Since you have an important interview that afternoon, your friend volunteers to do a practice interview with you beforehand.

Believe it or not, this is what an average Sunday is like at Fractal – the distributed neighborhood campus that we (Priya and Tyler) are continuing to build in New York City. We'd like to show you how to build one for yourself.