Would YOU live w ith complete strangers?
THE idea of ‘student halls for adults’ might not strike everyone as a great idea, but in a world where rents are rising and stable employment is more the exception than the rule, co-living could well be a concept bordering on genius. And one global company specialising in co-living — essentially, living in a building with plenty of common spaces and access to communal living — is making a big splash in the Irish housing market.
Node Living, which already has similar developments in New York, Los Angeles and London, has just opened up in Dublin’s city centre for up to 51 people in a mix of apartment spaces. The properties, located in a renovated Georgian house off Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin 2, are as high-tech and high-spec as you can get: think Smeg fridges, Sonos sound systems, hygge accents, statement art deco fixtures, en-suite bedrooms and unlimited Wi-Fi.
But that’s not all. As with every other Node property, the Dublin compound will have its own ‘curator’ — marketing graduate Ava Kilmartin will be the first — who organises get-togethers on the site and social events beyond.
Residents needn’t be cooped up in their apartments all day or night either: there are communal lounges and dining areas as well as a rooftop terrace.
Node is the brainchild of Canadian developer Anil Khera. ‘Our communities are comprised of smart creatives who are shaping the world we live in and who live globally mobile lives,’ he said, commenting on Node Dublin’s opening. ‘We feel Dublin is a perfect city for Node given its openness, creative and entrepreneurial heart and we are very excited for what is possible here in the long-term.’
This vogueish lifestyle, as one might guess, comes at a cost. Rents range between €1,200 and €1,500 a month per bedroom, depending on whether you are in a two or three-bedroom apartment. Yet given that Node is intent on creating a close-knit community, would-be residents are handpicked.
Ava Kilmartin, 22, from Goatstown in Dublin, landed the coveted role of Node Dublin curator thanks to her marketing and events experience at House on Leeson Street. Among her plans for social events at Node are gin tastings, cheese and wine nights, yoga classes and guided walks.
‘It took me a while to get my head around the concept but the more I’m seeing how the company works, the cooler it seems,’ she enthuses. ‘The whole idea is to create a community where everyone will connect with each other and hopefully become a little family.
‘We don’t want residents to feel like they’ll have to do anything, but I’ll know what residents like and don’t like, and will be on hand if a resident needs something.’
Part of the beauty of Node, says Ava, is that the setup provides professional networking opportunities as well as personal ones.
‘If someone in the building needs help with a website, or needs a graphic designer, chances are there will be a person around to help with that,’ she explains.
‘These days you don’t tend to go to anyone’s house, and I don’t know any of my neighbours. A lot of people who live in apartment blocks don’t know the person living next door. Here, there’s a bigger opportunity to get to know each other.’
Node, predictably, has enjoyed lots of demand and expects the apartments to be full by the time the building opens next month.
As for the potential new residents, Ava adds: ‘It’s a big mix at the moment. Age-wise, it’s ranging from 25 to early 40s. There are non-nationals coming to work for the big corporate tech companies, and Irish people living in town who want to get involved in a more creative way of living. There are lawyers, bankers and accountants.
‘Convenience is a big thing for many of them. If you’ve moved to a new country, picking a bed, couch or flatmate can be very daunting. Everything here is already handpicked to a tee.’
Asked whether co-living will be less the exception and more the rule in the future, she says: ‘I think it very much will. People are having kids and getting married later. They have fewer ties. This set-up allows you that freedom but also allows you to have a home.’
In some ways, co-housing has already been a small but visible part of Ireland’s housing landscape. The Ecovillage in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary, comprises a cluster of houses off Main Street. Many of the residents share their homes with others, and there are several common spaces in the village.
McAuley Place in Naas, Co. Kildare, is a similar gathering of people who want to create a tight-knit community (in addition to residences, the unit also boasts tea rooms, a community centre and an arts centre).
Elsewhere, the Ó Cualann Housing Alliance’s first project in Poppintree, Dublin 11, has created a co-housing scheme for a cross-section of private renters, social renters, elderly and disabled residents (subject to eligibility criteria). The project has plenty of communal areas, including a common house where residents can share a meal together.
Ó Cualann is just one of several cohousing communities with a similar inclusive ideology: Camphill Communities, founded in Britain in 1939 to help Second World War refugees, has 14 communities here and four in the North (the first was set up on a Gorey farm in 1972). Its modus operandi is simple; to set up a community for people interested in a shared living situation with adults living with a disability.
Several other co-housing projects are reportedly at various stages of development in Ireland. Architect Dominic Stevens, influenced by five years working in Berlin, is embarking on a social housing project in Dublin driven by the needs of people, as opposed to the market. A site in Ringsend, formerly the home of Irish Glass, is mooted as the new location for 3,000 homes.
Dublin City Architect Ali Grehan has created the Dublin House project, securing a site on Fishamble Street, Dublin 8, where a number of families can access sites for around €150,000. To be eligible to buy a site and build their own family-sized homes, these ‘citizen developers’ will need to band with other households to form a single unit, like a co-op.
Irish architect Tom O’Donnell has been researching alternative approaches to housing in Germany, where co-housing has already moved into the mainstream thanks to gentrification and rising property prices.
‘Co-housing came from people realising that by coming together and creating a larger entity, there would be certain advantages for themselves in terms of quality of life,’ he explains.
‘If you eliminate the developer, have no profit to pay to whoever develops the project, and you can pool your resources, you can build bigger and
‘The whole idea is to create a community’
better for cheaper. And if you have common living facilities, people really see the value in their neighbours.’
Still, Node is the first co-living project aimed specifically at Generation Rent. And there are many who say it couldn’t come at a better time.
Ireland is in the grip of a housing crisis. Wave after wave of rental increase has put the idea of living alone, or buying, out to pasture for many. And it stands to reason that sharing accommodation, once a last resort for the young and cashstrapped, has had a serious makeover.
According to a report by the Housing Agency, published last April, the co-living trend is being acknowledged.
‘It was noted that in England there is an emerging trend towards the provision of student type/ shared living arrangements for adults,’ says the report.
‘These arrangements are also emerging in Sweden and in Florida. It was noted that there is no allowance for this type of accommodation in the guidelines.
‘There is a growing requirement for shared apartment accommodation and that this needs to be considered when designing apartments.’
Data from Eurostat shows that in 2014, 9.2% of Irish households had three or more adults living in them (a rise from 7.7% in 2013). And according to Daft.ie data, sharing ad listings have increased 2% year on year.
In Britain, data by Spareroom showed that the number of flatsharers aged 45-53 increased by 300% in the past five years, and by 186% for the 35-44 age bracket.
The question is, are the Irish really built for co-living spaces? Perhaps as a throwback to feudal times and a history of landlessness, we have a national obsession with owning our own front door, and being able to close it and keep the larger world at bay. Yet for a new generation of renters, the national obsession with property ownership, whether by necessity or not, has had to take a back seat.
Besides, it stands to reason that looser and more fluid living arrangements might also suit a workforce that has become increasingly nomadic and transient.
Elsewhere in the world, co-living spaces similar to Node’s Fitzwilliam Square have been a blazing success.
In the main, the owners have been at pains to create a harmonious, functional communal living arrangement.
In San Francisco, Open Door is a co-living company that runs three homes (one is home to 12 housemates, another to 16 and another to 10 residents).
The Common co-living initiative has a project in Brooklyn that consists of four five-story buildings connected to create a 51-bedroom space. Proving that there’s money aplenty in the co-living game, Common raised $7.35m (€6.59m) from developers and investors last summer.
Co-living brands such as WeLive in New York and The Collective in London offer the young and not so young (the average age of a Common member is 30, although some are in their forties) a membership that gets them a private room, bathroom and kitchenette as well as access to shared facilities such as a large kitchen, laundry room, lounges and outside space.
The fee to live in the Collective facility at Old Oak Common in North London, which houses 564 people, is £199 to £290 (€236 to £345) a week.
The membership fee might be more expensive than rent for a studio flat in the same area as the coliving building, but crucially, the facilities are fully furnished to a high standard and the membership fee includes bills, gym, cinema, spa, Wi-Fi, security taxes and a cleaning service. There is also a social element, with organised activities to help members socialise.
‘The community aspect is the main pull,’ Collective’s Stephanie Cornell said in an interview last year. ‘You go through school and university within these communities, but then you graduate and often move to a new city, and many people feel quite alone.
‘With the technology epidemic worsening, it’s difficult to meet new people. Here, there’s access to a ready-made community with people at similar life stages.’
According to Cornell, co-living suits a generation geared more towards buying experiences, not material goods.
‘Previous generations had bookshelves heaving with books and DVDs, but now we have a Kindle, Netflix, or Spotify,’ she explained.
‘We are becoming more serviceoriented and moving away from the idea of having to own things, including a home. We’re more will- ing to invest in going to Glastonbury than buying material goods. Rather than save up for the unattainable ideal of buying property, we’d rather live life in the present and invest in experiences that can be shared.’
Co-living has become an almost aspirational experience. Other coliving projects across the world boast enough luxury to appeal to the Insta generation.
With enviable views of rice fields, a tiki treehouse-style set-up and organic cafe cooking up healthy treats, it’s not hard for digital nomads to feel creative and completely comfortable at Hubud in Ubud, Bali.
Over in Thailand, meanwhile, The Hive mixes working and living space in one ultra-modern building (and boasts a rooftop bar and spa).
Roam Co-living, with spaces in Miami, Bali, Madrid and Buenos Aires, has taken the concept to another level. Roam allows its residents to sign one lease and live in any of their co-living spaces around the world. Freedom comes at a rather reasonable €400 a week. For that, there’s a swimming pool, a lawn for pop-up events and classes, and you never have to worry about doing the cleaning or handling the electricity bill because all that is included.
Which, when you think about it, certainly beats your typical rental experience in Ireland in the current housing climate.
The number of flat sharers over 45 has increased ‘We’d rather invest in experiences’