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1. Efficient utilization of space
In a coliving house, the tenants share communal areas like the living room or kitchen and bathroom. Usually there is one shared kitchen and depending on the number of tenants, one or two bathrooms that guarantee a comfortable lifestyle while using less space which would have been taken by individual apartments where the land has to be cleared and new infrastructure to be built. Moreover tenants often get additional outdoor areas, like a balcony or garden where they can plant their own herbs or vegetables.
2. Shared resources
Coliving doesn’t only mean a shared usage of the apartment. A central concept of coliving is to create a small community amont the flatmates. Usually, this means also sharing food or maintenance costs in the flat as well as sharing a car (if available) or a dryer and an iron that can be swapped among the flatmates and does not have to be bought. As a result, these small but important steps lead to less waste and a more economic use of resources.
3. Sharing food
Speaking of sharing foods, it is not unusual to buy in bulk and share the most common products like eggs, flour or milk which are less likely to go bad if shared between several tenants. Moreover, if anything risks to go off, there is always also the possibility of preparing a meal for the whole community. Buying in bulk itself is a more sustainable choice – using less packaging and therefore also creating less waste.
4. Reducing energy consumption
One of the main advantages of coliving is indeed the shared use of spaces like the kitchen, living room or common balcony. This means that instead of having one oven per person in a studio, an apartment of four will need only one such appliance for everyone. The same goes for a dishwasher or a washing machine, a TV and so on, which can all be used by several people. There is no need to buy the same appliance several times and in turn also here a coliving space is more economical.
This concept is particularly relevant in relation to the utility cost as the heating of the communal spaces is less energy consuming since more people profit from these.
Taking into consideration the aforementioned examples, it is no wonder that coliving has advantages not only for its inherent social and financial benefits but also due to its reduced environmental impact. It provides an attractive solution to look to in terms of the environmental impact : it is cheaper, saves resources and is therefore also more sustainable. In many ways, coliving offers an answer to the numerous challenges faced by urban centers.
