1. a communal building or settlement designed to house members of a utopian community based on the social theories of Charles Fourier
Usage: historical

Examples

• The 19th-century reformers established a phalanstery in rural New York.
• Fourier’s vision of the phalanstery included shared living spaces and cooperative work.
• The experimental phalanstery housed over 200 residents who shared resources and labor.
• Brook Farm was influenced by phalanstery principles of communal living.
• The phalanstery movement attracted intellectuals seeking alternatives to industrial society.
• Each phalanstery was designed to be self-sufficient with its own workshops and farms.