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Alana Semuels writes in The Atlantic that Millennials want the chance to be alone in their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens, but they also want to be social and never lonely.That's why real estate developer Troy Evans is starting construction on a new space in Syracuse called Commonspace that he envisions as a dorm for Millennials that will feature 21 microunits, each packed with a tiny kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living space into 300-square-feet. The microunits surround shared common areas including a chef's kitchen, a game room, and a TV room. "We're trying to combine an affordable apartment with this community style of living, rather than living by yourself in a one-bedroom in the suburbs," says Evans. The apartments will be fully furnished to appeal to potential residents who don't own much (the units will have very limited storage space). The bedrooms are built into the big windows of the office building—one window per unit—and the rest of the apartment can be traversed in three big leaps. The units will cost between $700 and $900 a month. "If your normal rent is $1,500, we're coming in way under that," says John Talarico. "You can spend that money elsewhere, living, not just sustaining."
Co-living has also gained traction in a Brooklyn apartment building that creates a networking and social community for its residents and where prospective residents answer probing questions like "What are your passions?" and "Tell us your story (Excite us!)." If accepted, tenants live in what the company's promotional materials describe as a "highly curated community of like-minded individuals." Millennials are staying single longer than previous generations have, creating a glut of people still living on their own in apartments, rather than marrying and buying homes. But the generation is also notoriously social, having been raised on the Internet and the constant communication it provides. This is a generation that has grown accustomed to college campuses with climbing walls, infinity pools, and of course, their own bathrooms. Commonspace gives these Milliennials the benefits of living with roommates—they can save money and stay up late watching Gilmore Girls—with the privacy and style an entitled generation might expect. "It's the best of both worlds," says Michelle Kingman. "You have roommates, but they're not roommates."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:05AM
This is an old idea - and it is TERRIBLE. (Oregon Experiment [wikipedia.org]) I lived in one for a while, and viewed many others, as they were the cheapest thing on the market in that area. Horrible, horrible places.
Imagine a shared apartment where you can't chose your roommates. You can't kick out a roommate who is abusive, noisy, or just a slob. Very high rates of depression amongst the inhabitants - the only ones that weren't, were never there (which is the only way to cope in that kind of space) The sane ones basically hibernate in their private unit (hence increased depression from isolation, which these.units claim to be a solution for). There really isn't any real privacy either. The worst of both worlds.
It's a shame, because as an architecture student at the time, I had heard about this and thought it sounded great (the other two books in the series are great). It only slightly works for student-age population where everyone is flexible enough to cope at least somewhat, but unless everyone has some sort of shared 'communal' ideology, it is an absolute nightmare for everyone - especially once people are adults launching careers (or even just working a day job - or worse yet, a night shift), or are old folks who should be in a retirement home, or are single parents, or meth-heads or junkies...
This is all hype to sell undersized units in a crashing economy.
(Score: 1) by VitalMoss on Wednesday November 11 2015, @12:22AM
How many junkies do you know make 500 a month *minimum*?
(Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Wednesday November 11 2015, @07:03AM
Lots of functional junkies out there, just don't hear much about them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @08:03AM
In Eugene, Oregon (where this was), the units were dirt cheap (this was also in the 1990's when I was there), and of course when it comes to junkies they don't mind sleeping 5 to a room, and sometimes more because they don't care or notice who crashes there, or don't know who has or hasn't paid, or who is just couch surfing friend-of-a-friend, no matter how long they're there. Besides, junkies/alcoholics/meth-addicts aren't the only people you don't want as roommates. Plenty of assholes, creeps and other unpleasant people need places to live too. What was saddest were the old people with no family living on social security. Depressing as hell.
Additionally you get people making a mess or break something in the common area, nobody will fess up to it, it never gets cleaned and just gets filthier until some meth-head goes on a cleaning spree.
Not to mention security sucks, because it's just hollow-core door that opens into the common areas with just a bathroom-style doorknob lock. Theft was rampant. I lost alot of stuff.
There are ways to do bottom-income housing that works. This is not it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2015, @05:33PM
Looks irrelevant
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @12:27AM
The book describes the theory behind the dorm-style housing described in TFA. Surprisingly Wikipedia doesn't have a better description, since it won awards from people who never had to live in them. The style was reproduced prolifically (off-campus, for the general public) in the area. Great in theory, dismal failure in practice.