How do humans live well — really live well — in a world changing this fast?
We (Euvie and Mike) met in Vancouver in our early 20s. We were freelancing in creative industries – Mike as a recording engineer and lighting technician on film sets, Euvie as a photographer and actress.
We were curious, restless, and painfully aware that modern life — despite convenience and comfort — was making people lonely, disconnected, stressed, and numb to each other and to nature.
So we started an online content creation service, and we left. Backpacks and one-way tickets with no plan beyond listening for what mattered.
That decision changed everything.
From Europe to Southeast Asia to South America, we lived in dozens of countries, launched the Future Thinkers Podcast, built online businesses, lived cheaply, learned freely, and connected with thinkers, artists, technologists, philosophers, and community builders from around the world.
We experienced the freedom many people dream of — but also discovered the limits of rootlessness.
Community matters. Stability matters. Shared culture matters.
A life in motion can be expansive, but not always grounding.
When we had children, we knew it was time for a deeper kind of home.
We returned to British Columbia and began building something we wished existed in the world:
A place where people could live closer to nature, raise families in community, create, learn, heal, build, and grow — not just vacation.
Not a utopia. Not escapism.
A living prototype for the future.
That vision became Portal.Place — and the first village took root on a 400-acre riverside property near Wells Gray Park.
Today it includes RV and tenting sites, bunk cabins, a geodesic dome, sauna and cold plunge, kids’ play areas, woodworking shop, maker-space, small gardens, horse corrals, event gazebos, private lake access, and acres of forest and water.
It’s early — but it’s real.
And growing.
We believe the world is entering a post-job era where automation, AI, loneliness, and rising costs are pressuring people to rethink how they live.
We see a future where:
Portal.Place isn’t just land.
It’s a pattern — one village leading to many.
We’re growing Wells Gray into a full-season Smart Village and preparing to expand into additional locations over time — connecting them into a single membership-based network.
This project is still being built — and we’re building it with others.
If this resonates, there are three ways to engage:
Join the founding community shaping this new way of living.
Experience it for yourself — nature, community, rhythm.
Help bring the next village online and support long-term regeneration.
