Co-living — millennial trend or real solution for the housing crisis?

Is this new upcoming industry in the right direction?

Yoav Goldwein

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3 min read

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Mar 15, 2019

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Tens of thousands of years ago, we were living in tribes and basically all living was communal. Nowadays, we might think it natural to live alone or in a family house.

But this shift is very recent. The most common single-family one-unit home became popular only in the 20th century, and it was driven by the advent of family values. And communal living never quite disappeared. In the last 200 years we have seen new ways of co-housing emerging continuously, from the 19th-century American and English boarding houses to the Kibbutz movement. A more recent form of co-housing emerged in the 1960s and the 70’s as people experimented with community.

Today, a co-living movement has emerged, with examples of urban co-habitation that are partly driven by rising housing costs in cities but are also thought to be based around the notion that more sociable living will create better, happier communities.

Cities in the 21st century are facing great challenges. As more people move to urban areas in search of better lives, our cities are growing like never before.

Urban populations are predicted to almost double by 2050. Yet with space becoming scarcer and the cost of housing rising, billions of people could struggle to find an adequate and affordable place to live.

As important as it is to build more homes, we also need to think hard about potential ways of living, so we can use today’s challenges as an opportunity to re-imagine how we might live tomorrow.

Co-living spaces today are varied in size and character. Some host up to 500 people in one building like ‘The Collective’ in London. Some focus on conscious living like ‘Tech Farm’ in Stockholm or the integration of disabled individuals into the community like ‘Simon de Cyrène’ in France. And some take you out of the city to relax and balance your workaholic routine like ‘Coconat’ in Germany. These spaces seem to benefit both cities and residents by offering better services and amenities in less space, and on the way there, impact socially on our individualistic society.

So, perhaps shared living isn’t just a trendy throwback to a utopian idea from the past. In fact, it may well be the answer to some of our biggest contemporary challenges. Like the lack of affordable housing, loneliness, our ageing populations, and enabling a better and more sustainable way of life for many people, as their needs, aspirations and lifestyles change.

This is a highly interesting and hopeful space to watch — for urban planners, builders, platform providers within areas such as IOT, social collaboration, sharing solutions of cars, bikes and the like — and maybe even for you. It is a definitely an experience worth exploring. Could your next living will be part of the solution for cities?