Co-Living
Description
Space 10:
""Consider how the tectonic plates have started to move. With ordinary people struggling to find affordable accommodation, co-living spaces have grown in popularity — particularly in cities such as London and New York, where the housing crisis is especially acute.
For example, London boasts the Collective, an 11-storey block whose 500-plus residents pay up to £1,000 for a room containing a bed and a bathroom, plus access to a host of shared amenities such as a gym, a spa, a restaurant and a cinema. New York has Common, which describes co-living as “city living done right” and seeks residents “looking for a convenient, flexible and affordable way to enjoy life in a vibrant urban community”. As well as having their own bedroom, residents share amenities such as a high-end kitchen and on-site laundry, while the space is appointed with furniture from trendy outlets like West Elm.
Little wonder that the Economist reckons “co-living is for hipsters not hippies”. Its witty observation is rather apt. After all, shared living has long been associated with radical experiments in co-living such as retirement homes, communes and kibbutzim. (The idea of several people who aren’t biologically related living together isn’t new either, of course.)
Still, from London to Los Angeles, San Francisco to Stockholm, today’s co-living spaces have a thoroughly modern appeal. As Common’s founder, Brad Hargreaves, told the Guardian, though people have lived with roommates for a long time, “what we are doing is just taking this way of living and making it better, designing an experience for what people are already doing.”"