A sustainable student housing project in Varvsstaden, Malmö, Sweden, that promotes a circular way of living. By upcycling materials from the former shipyard, the project creates new housing, public spaces and utilizing existing resources. Efficient use of built surfaces, support for community needs, and accessible housing options are key aspects of Varvet. The project also aims to contribute to cultural sustainability by encouraging social interactions among residents. Varvet recognizes the importance of community living as an affordable and accessible option for promoting sustainability. By sharing resources, and facilitating new social interactions, co-living can contribute to a safer and more culturally sustainable society. The project offers not only a home for 90 students but also diverse experiences and activities, such as purchasing locally grown food, sport activities and enjoying live music. Sustainable development requires considering both environmental and social aspects. Varvet - Circular Co-Living embodies this approach, advocating for more sustainable living practices that prioritize the needs of both present and future generations.

Cada vez más jóvenes desean independizarse y vivir solos o con amigos en departamentos alquilados. Varios están dispuestos a dejar la casa de sus padres para estar cerca de sus centros laborales, comerciales y sociales. El 39% de los limeños, buscan viviendas cercanas a centros comerciales y no están dispuestos a sacrificar su estilo de vida social. En este sentido, la propuesta está orientada a ofrecer un tipo de vivienda en comunidad, manteniendo la privacidad en viviendas ubicadas estratégicamente, cerca de centros financieros de alto movimiento económico y social, dirigido a profesionales de los niveles socioeconómicos A y B, profesionales expatriados (extranjeros), que no desean adquirir una vivienda en el mediano ni largo plazo, pero que tienen la necesidad de acceder a servicios de vivienda confortable y pertenecer a una comunidad/red, y que no desean invertir tiempo en la administración de una vivienda. El valor monetario destinado a estas viviendas será competitivo y les permitirá destinar parte de sus ingresos a objetivos personales. / Nowadays, young people want to become independent and live alone or with friends in rented apartments. Most of them are willing to leave their parents' house to live closer to work, business areas and social centers. In Lima, 39% of residents would like to live close to shopping centers and social areas and they are not willing to sacrifice their social lifestyle (living sorrounding schools, restaurants, cinemas, etc). In this sense, this proposal is aimed to offer a new type of housing, including a community style of living, maintaining each individual privacy. The type of housing must be located strategically near to financial centers of high economic and social movement and it is focussed to young professionals, from A and B socioeconomic levels, expatriate professionals ( foreigners); in both cases: (i) they do not want to acquire a house for the next years (medium or long term), (ii) they request comfortable housing services and also, (iii) to belong to a community / network. , and (iv) they do not wish to waste time in logistic issues of home administration. The monetary value of renting these kind of houses will be competitive and will allow them to save money for other personal preferences. / Trabajo de Investigación

Contemporary co-living, as an accommodation alternative, is in a unique position to provide social fulfilment and sustainable development through sharing and community generation. However, it is increasingly clear that there is a lack of understanding of the realities of these spaces, and that this limiting the commercial application of the co-living model. Existing architecture, artefacts, and services are failing to accommodate the needs and objectives of collective users. Therefore, to experience the full ecological, social, and economic benefits of co-living, research must be performed to understand how residents share, experience, and inhabit space. This project responds by applying design thinking and collaborative exploration methods to produce case studies for two contrasting co-living developments in London, UK. Workshops, observations, literature research, and interviews build a foundation of contemporary knowledge. This inspires the design of an exploratory, pedagogical tool, in the form of a modular furniture collection. On top of its physical functionality, it offers developers the opportunity to learn and experiment towards a better understanding of how residents utilise space and resources. A prototype is built and tested with both case study sites acting as Living Labs. The design intervention produces a positive increase in resident well-being and confidence in interacting with the space around them. Moreover, developers confirm an increased understanding of the resident's needs and actions. The success of the project shows the role design can play in contemporary research, positive change, and sustainable development. The results have implications for co-living providers, researchers, and designers supporting sustainable lifestyle alternatives.

Honorable mention, degree project in architecture 2022 Beginning with the adjustment of a single room and culminating through an addition to the dwelling itself, this thesis describes the incremental development of a residential point-block in Hökarängen, a southern suburb of Stockholm. With a careful approach to alteration and addition, the project aims to build on the richness and social ambition of the neighbourhood’s original 1944 urban plan. Striving to reinstate as well as update those ideals of democracy, community and diversity by working in a way that sits outside the current ‘marketized’ mode of production of our cities. Striving towards a kind of symbiosis, the proposed ‘extension’ to the tower is an exploration in both typology at the building scale as well as living conditions at the scale of the apartment.

Architecture is not like other artforms. All art, from cave paintings to modern dance, can be described as interpretations of human culture. Paint-ings and sculptures are attempts to freeze moments in time, and songs and poems are essentially a form of communication. Architecture, on the other hand, is the true physical manifestation of culture; it is the structure of our daily lives, the environment in which we live. In short: Architecture is the habitat of man. The Harmonic House is a small-scale collective villa based on human nature. I am investigating what living conditions can be if you design architecture from the psychological needs and wants of humans instead of strict functional needs of modern society. The project is based on a manifesto stating five points of good human living conditions. How would we live if we focused on inner development instead of economic prosperity?

Concrete panel system is a common way of developing housing. From the beginning of its history, it was a good solution for a pressing need for efficient, affordable, and mass-produced housing to accommodate the growing population and address the shortage of dwellings. However, some of them also faced typical problems of limited flexibility and a lack of architectural diversity and uniqueness within the housing development. Today’s more and more housing projects try to develop a diversified apartment types within, to meet different housing needs allowing for a more inclusive and accessible housing market. My project try to fulfill the need of diversified apartment type on a residential area and based on mature developed concrete panel construction systems that have many advantages, with co-living and private living mode coexisting. In order to make this project more practical, the idea is firstly try to systematically develop different apartments by repetitive units and prefabricated components, using as less as them, then try to applied this to a real site with practical limitations and real needs.

93% of young people feel live in London under great pressure and they are facing a serious mental health problem crisis - 'silent disaster'. The proposal of Nine Elms, which is a ghost town with a vacancy rate of 60%, we will alleviate the living pressure of youth by introducing a shared affordable housing system, a multi-inclusive community environment, and a stress-free community culture. This proposal is a challenge to the traditional definition and norm of "perfect" and "success", which put too much pressure on young people, and brings a new definition of stress-free urban life.

How can we as design professionals contribute to increase the use of less carbon-intensive materials to build our growing cities? Cities are experiencing a resurgence in population growth and therefore the building industry ought to attend this demand with sustainable solutions. One way of responding to the growing urban population and increase demand for housing as well as to make efficient use of our limited resources is to increase the density in our cities. Since steel and concrete have high material strengths, we currently use either steel, concrete or composites of them to build skyscrapers. Unfortunately, both of these materials have a large carbon footprint. The design community has the challenge to achieve net-zero emissions buildings by the year 2030, and the efforts now should be focused on using less carbon intensive materials, such as timber. While cultures around the world have built with wood for centuries, recent technological innovations, such as Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), is allowing for new applications of wood as the main structural material and the potential to use it for large-scale projects. However, as expected with a new building material some constrains have still to be overcome. For my thesis, I desired to explore this issue through the design of a tall building using mass timber as its main structural material. Engineered timber is here, the future is bright! / Master of Architecture

Co-living is a new modern tenure form that has emerged due to the current critical state of the Swedish residential housing market in larger cities, such as Stockholm. Moreover, the climate crisis has called for more sustainable solutions. The concept of sharing space is aligned with this ambition and is perceived as a sustainable way of living. The benefits and drawbacks of co-living from a resident’s point of view has been discussed in journal publications. However, there is a lack of research regarding this sub-category of real estate as a potential investment opportunity. Therefore, the aim of this academic report is to collect and analyze information from knowledgeable stakeholders, and systemize the findings regarding a co-living project. Vital core investment characteristics and factors are identified to create structure regarding investments in the development of this ambiguous product. Furthermore, the advantages and drawbacks of investing in co-living will be investigated and compared with conventional rental real estate investments. Moreover, the study will try to answer two research questions: - Are there any differences between investing in the development of conventional rental real estate and co-living spaces? - How are the key factors associated with investment analysis adjusted for this type of investment? The report aspires to: (1) fill the gap of knowledge in the research field, (2) study the prospective future, and (3) assess the possibilities and uncertainties associated with this potential investment asset. Given that this new field of research is only now unfolding, deductive qualitative methodology is adopted in order to uncover interesting material. Another reason is the lack of transactional data. It was found that the investment in co-living developments entails several differences compared to investments in conventional rental real estate. However, it is concluded that the co-living product is a valuable addition to real estate portfolios and generates several economic, societal and environmental benefits. / Co-living är en ny och modern boendeform som har blivit alltmer aktuell i och med den bostadsbrist som råder i storstäderna, framförallt i Stockholm. Aktuella hållbarhetsstrategier och trender går också väl i linje med den nya boendeformen. För- och nackdelarna med att leva i ett co-living-boende har diskuterats i flertalet tidskrifter, framförallt från ett hyresgästperspektiv. Däremot saknas det studier gällande de potentiella möjligheterna och riskerna ur ett investeringsperspektiv. Därför är målet med uppsatsen att samla och analysera information från kunniga aktörer inom fastighetsbranschen och från ett pågående co-living projekt. Uppsatsen identifierar avgörande investeringsfaktorer för att skapa klarhet och vägledning vid investeringsbeslut för nya co-living-projekt. Dessutom undersöks för- och nackdelarna med att investera i produkten i jämförelse med den vanliga hyresrätten. Studien försöker besvara två frågeställningar: - Vad är skillnaderna mellan att investera i ordinära hyresfastighetsprojekt och i coliving-projekt? - Hur är nyckeltalen i en investeringskalkyl justerade för denna typ av fastighetsinvestering? Uppsatsen strävar efter att: (1) bidra med mer kunskap till detta relativt outforskade område, (2) bedöma dess framtida utsikter och (3) undersöka de potentiella möjligheterna och riskerna som förknippas med co-living. En kvalitativ studie tillämpas då detta bedöms vara det mest givande sättet att studera ett område där begränsad transaktionsdata finns tillgänglig. Studien avslöjar att det finns flera skillnader mellan att investera i co-living-projekt och konventionella hyresrätter. Slutsatsen är att produkten co-living är ett värdefullt komplement till en fastighetsportfölj och produkten genererar flertalet fördelar, både från ett ekonomiskt, socialt och miljöperspektiv.

ABSTRACT Concurrent issues of social isolation and loneliness have long been recognized as problems that affect seniors but it is also being proven to affect young people as well, specifically with the rise of new technologies and a perception of connectedness. Co-living provides one alternative design solution to traditional housing models which can unlock a range of social benefits. MOTIVATION Loneliness is an unfortunate reality of modern life and it is something that most people experience at least once in their life (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008). A study carried out by Berguno, Leroux McAinsh, Shaikh (2004), showed that 80% of young people and over 40% of adults over the age of 65 experienced loneliness in the course of life. Good housing plays an important role in building community and strengthening social interaction and bonding. Co-living is a residential structure that accommodates three or more biologically unrelated people (Bothell, 2015; Tummers, 2015). It is commonly contained within a single dwelling, sub-divided into a combination of public and private spaces (Scott-Hanson & Scott-Hanson, 2005). Co-housing, community living, or co-living in particular may be one possible solution for the endemic loneliness and social isolation challenges that we face. PROBLEM In many American cities, traditional housing forms are not meeting those needs and as our population increases, it is crucial to find replicable and sustainable methods of creating an inclusive urban fabric that meets the social and physical needs of all inhabitants (Darling, 2017). It is increasingly clear that there is a lack of understanding of the realities of co-living spaces and that this limits the application of the co-living model. While co-housing has traditionally been established in rural or suburban contexts, there are benefits to urban co-living (Kim, 2017). To experience the full ecological, economical and most importantly social benefits of urban co-living, research must be performed to understand how residents share, experience, and inhabit space. METHODS This project will respond by applying design thinking, a human centered design approach, and collaborative exploration methods to produce case studies for an urban co-living development in the US. Workshops, observations, literature reviews, and interviews will build a foundation of contemporary knowledge. Key themes identified in the literature on social isolation and loneliness will be used to inform a discussion on the potential for housing to help alleviate these problems. There will also be a rigorous case study analysis of recent precedents emerging in the field of collective housing. PRELIMINARY RESULTS The design of a flexible living space that explores isolation and connection at the scale of the individual and the collective in an existing building is an overarching goal of the design. It offers future users and designers the opportunity to learn and experiment towards a better understanding of how residents use space as well as examining loneliness and isolation as it relates to a design solution. CONCLUSION The success of the project, and its theoretical outcome, will show the role design can play in contemporary research, positive change, and sustainable development. The result will have implications for co-living providers, researchers, and designers supporting sustainable lifestyle alternatives.