As populations grow, we’ll be increasingly challenged to live more communally, and in denser settings. But could this be a good thing?

As well as helping the housing crisis, could living closer together help with our overall well-being, combat concerns about loneliness in all age-ranges, and spread the care and support for those who need it?

Co-housing and co-living are current hot topics which our studio has explored in the design for a project called Family Commune.

After completion, there were articles in both the architectural and mainstream press, and we had an interesting set of responses. Most comments suggested that, though they liked the spaces, people felt they would not be able to live so closely with neighbours, and that this project could only work because the families were related.

These concerns contrast so much with the positive experiences described by our clients after a year of living there that we wanted to investigate further.

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