Modern communes: Why millennials choose houses with a common kitchen
In 2011, the New York Hotel Chelsea was permanently closed.where Stanley Kubrick created Space Odyssey, Mark Twain worked on novels, and Andy Warhol invented pop art. In the house of the late nineteenth century with forged balconies, artists, artists and writers have been renting rooms for years - without a kitchen, with a bathroom and a toilet on the floor, at the end of a common corridor. Spartan conditions were compensated by the opportunity to live in the very center of Manhattan, by the atmosphere of creativity and by the lack of time in life, but gradually the hotel decayed and fell into neglect. The building is sold and closed for renovation - it is planned to accommodate a five-star hotel.
The idea of communal housing seems to be a thing of the past. In the mass consciousness, it is connected either with the Soviet way of life, in which one could only dream of one’s own apartment, or with the life of hippies or very creative people - but not those who pursue more traditional values like career or family. Nevertheless, in the American cities the whole networks of communal housing appear again. We tell who and why we need modern communes.
Text: Katerina Sultanova
Why do you need it
The WeLive communal housing project page describes the “new life style”, “based on community, flexibility and fundamental confidence that we are only as good as the people around us.” It is assumed that a communal kitchen, an open veranda and a jacuzzi for everyone will help rethink the understanding of the house and strengthen relations with neighbors. For a person from the Soviet Union, these slogans may seem familiar. Most Soviet families passed through communal apartments, and some lived in real communes like the house of Narkomfin.
Architects Moses Ginzburg and Ignatius Milinis conceived the building of the workers of the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR as a transition from a traditional home to a socialist commune. It consisted of a residential complex (with apartments for families, including small kitchens, and rooms for idlers on the upper floors) and a common center with a dining room, gymnasium, library, laundry room and garage. The children's building and nursery were not built and subsequently partially occupied the building of the dining room and library. But the concept could not be fully implemented - the residents of the house were simply not psychologically ready for it. The architectural project was called utopian.
The problems pushing architects to rethink the house have not changed - this is the overcrowding of cities and the overpriced cost of housing. But if in the Soviet past such houses also served as a reminder of the rejection of materialistic ideals (the Soviet people should not have thought about money or things), now the idea of a commune implies the possibility to live comfortably and enjoy terraces, gymnasiums and swimming pools in exchange for the condition share these pleasures with others.
What it looks like
The first two buildings of the project WeLive appeared in New York and Washington - and the project was coined by the company WeWork, which deals with co-working. In New York, an office building of twenty-seven floors was converted into a commune house, six of which were left for work. On the ground floor, a cafe was opened for tenants, the basement combines the functions of a nightclub, where you can have a party after work, and a warehouse of parcels. In the house you can rent a studio with a microscopic kitchen, bathroom and a folding bed - furnished with furniture and fully ready for life, up to bed linen. Housing spaces are combined in clusters of three floors with shared communal kitchens, living rooms and bars - you can watch football together or have breakfast. There is a fitness studio with free yoga classes and a rooftop barbecue and jacuzzi.
In San Francisco, the housing market has also long ceased to be accessible, and now something like a student dormitory for adults has emerged. The project is called Starcity and for $ 2000 per month (including utilities and the Internet) offers a bedroom of 20 square meters with one bathroom and toilet for two or three rooms and a common kitchen on the floor. At the same time, the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is now about $ 3,300 per month, and the project enjoys decent popularity. Three buildings with 36 rooms are now open, and there are already 8,000 people on the waiting list.
Roam, a company that owns five communal houses in Tokyo, Miami, San Francisco, London and Bali, describes itself as a co-working, co-living community. The idea of their complexes is the opportunity to live and work in the same room, which can be located anywhere in the world. In Bali, you can rent a room for $ 74 per day (minimum for a week) - the price includes a room with a bathroom, cleaning, a private place for yoga and a workplace in coworking.
How does this relate to a career
Millennials, according to sociologists, are self-confident and self-sufficient generation. Gene Twenge in his book "Generation I" notes that 98% of university graduates agreed with the statement "I am sure that I will one day achieve what I want in life." There are opportunities for freelancing, the rapid enrichment of successful startups or downshifting; people want, without delaying pleasure for later, to combine work with travel and study. The labor market is changing - and no longer employees must compete for a place in an office block, but companies are competing for young professionals.
Companies began to introduce flexible work hours and annual employee transfers to different cities of the world; living rooms, libraries and even sleeping areas began to appear in the offices. At a certain level of income, it becomes more important for people not to increase salaries, but additional bonuses, including comfort and the ability to engage in their own projects. Most of the inhabitants of modern communes are the so-called neo-nomads, who easily caught the wave of globalization and ride the world with a laptop under their arms.
Modern communes repeat the medieval scheme (when there was, for example, both a dwelling and a workshop), but with an amendment to globalization. Many residents of WeLive houses say that they moved there for networking, because of the desire to get to know their own kind - the founders of startups or writers - to find clients, partners, teachers, to expand the circle of contacts. Of course, the cost of housing plays a significant role.
What about family and children
Owners of holdings are trying to predict the prospects of communal housing - and although some believe that the Millennials will soon start families and go to country houses, others are optimistic. WeLive plans to open 18 more buildings, and Roam launches luxury communes for families with children.
According to the Urban Institute, only 70% of millennials will marry before the age of 40 - by comparison, 82% of generation X has already been married in forty years. A quarter of the millennials are planning to abandon marriage altogether, many deliberately refuse to have children. The birth rate in the United States has become unprecedentedly low - and the number of first births after 40 years from 1990 to 2012 has doubled. Women prefer to first achieve stability in their careers and only then have children. At the same time, grandparents often remain active and continue to work and travel - that is, they cannot attend to their grandchildren.
As a result, when a child is born, the mother often just quits or takes a long vacation at her own expense - which means that a high-class specialist leaves with a long career. Goldman Sachs London office costs 30,000 pounds to lose an employee - and the company opened a nursery on the premises so that parents could combine work and communication with the child. And all the same creators of coworking and communal houses have now come up with the project WeGrow - a network of schools around the world with the option of global membership, which allows children to travel with their parents without interrupting the school curriculum.
Photo: Starcity
