SPACE10, the future-living lab created by IKEA, announced this week a "playful research project" to investigate the future of co-living. One Shared House 2030, a website created in collaboration with New York-based designers Anton & Irene, asks members of the public to "apply" for acceptance to an imagined co-living community in the year 2030, outlining their preferences for the types of people they would like to live with, the way they would like the community to be organized, and the things they would be willing to share with others. SPACE10 hopes that the research project will provide information on whether co-living could offer potential solutions to issues such as rapid urbanization, loneliness, and the growing global affordable housing crisis.
Text description provided by SPACE10. Humans across the world are moving to cities in numbers we haven't experienced before. By 2030 almost 70 percent of the global population will live in cities, and some experts estimate that almost two billion people—a fifth of the world’s population—will lack access to adequate and affordable housing.
“Our cities have never been more attractive to so many people. Yet in the context of booming urbanization, rocketing housing prices, shrinking living spaces and increasing social disconnects, ‘sharing’ will be ‘caring’—more than ever," said Guillaume Charny-Brunet of SPACE10. "Co-living isn’t new, but as both space and time are increasingly becoming a luxury, the concept needs a revamp. SPACE10 is going on a journey to explore the potential of co-living to better the lives of city dwellers across the planet."
To launch its new field of exploration, SPACE10 has partnered with the New York-based design duo Anton & Irene on One Shared House 2030—a playful research project designed as an application form for a potential co-living space to open in 2030. The form asks people which household goods and services—including kitchens, workspaces, smart devices, childcare and self-driving cars—they would be willing to share, and what kind of co-living space would be uniquely suited to them.
"One Shared House 2030 is a playful research project that aims to get insights on the future of co-living through a collaborative survey. The viewer goes through a process where they pretend to sign-up for a co-living facility in the year 2030 by letting us know about their preferences in their immediate living environment. The goal is to be able to better understand what specific demographics prefer what type of co-living. The information we collect is open-source, free for anyone to use, and completely anonymous," says Irene Pereyra from the design duo Anton & Irene.
“IKEA is a curious company, and we’re always exploring new ways of pushing our overall vision of creating a better everyday life for the many people. The company was founded with the aim of enabling people to have a well-designed home—including the many people who couldn’t afford designer furniture," mentioned Göran Nilsson, Manager of IKEA Concept Innovation. "Today we want to experiment how to introduce our democratic design principles of combining form, function, quality and sustainability—all at a low price—in new areas. In that respect, one opportunity we find interesting lies in the home itself.”
To learn more about One Shared House 2030, click here.
