Until recently, young people dreamed of leaving their parents’ home and moving into their own apartment. Having their own home was synonymous with emancipation and entry into adult life. Today, many people, young and old, are turning to a different type of housing: shared accommodation, which may or may not be participative. For young people, coliving is the successor to apartment-sharing. What are these new types of housing, and how can they transform the living environment?
Definitions
A shared habitat is one in which everyone has their own independent apartment, but can also take advantage of shared spaces such as a garden, a guest room, a terrace, a DIY workshop… These common spaces are self-managed.
A participative habitat is a shared habitat that has been designed from the ground up by its inhabitants and financed by them. So it’s exactly what people want, with common spaces planned and built from the outset.
Coliving is a form of shared living that offers an all-inclusive package including a number of services. The tenant has a private space with at least one bedroom and one bathroom, and benefits from shared areas: living room, kitchen and sometimes garden, gym, laundry room, etc. Everything is included: rent, but also electricity, water, heating, internet and cleaning of shared areas. Services such as shopping, sports lessons and car-sharing can also be provided. The owner, or the company that owns the property, manages everything.
Habitat: new challenges
The covid has revealed needs that existed before, but in a less striking way:
- Green spaces, gardens, balconies
- Need to socialize, not be isolated at home
- Need for work spaces
Climate change and the ecological emergency also make us think about the relevance of living in individual houses, which consume much more energy than collective housing.
The real estate market has gone into overdrive in many regions. It’s becoming impossible for many people to buy a home, and even renting is difficult.
One answer: shared housing
Shared living avoids isolation. Neighbors are no longer strangers, but associates whom we meet at meetings or sometimes during joint activities. Everyone has his or her own private life, but also the opportunity to share moments with others. A sense of solidarity is quickly established, often on a daily basis.
Shared housing also offers the possibility of sharing an outdoor space, which would be difficult to obtain in a private dwelling for financial reasons.
Some shared habitats, often participative, serve a more specific purpose: bringing together senior citizens, people interested in permaculture or mixing generations so that each can look after the other, for example.
Coliving meets today’s needs
Coliving more precisely meets all these needs, as there are even more shared spaces. It is undoubtedly better suited to single people or couples without children. It brings together people who are happy not to be isolated and to have a home in which they can forge social links. Young professionals, recently separated people, people with a one-off job to do in one place – the profiles are quite varied.
Coliving enables many people to enjoy a quality of life they wouldn’t have if they lived alone, while living in a way that is more respectful of the planet (savings on energy, building materials, household appliances, etc.).
Older homes and buildings are being renovated to suit this new lifestyle. More and more programs are being created to cater for this new way of life. The layout and size of rooms are designed to facilitate communal living while respecting individual privacy.
So it’s not just the way existing homes are used, but also the very design of these homes that is changing.