But what if the products themselves were designed and built specifically for the sharing economy instead of re-purposed and "hacked" to make them sharable? That's the idea with Collaborative Housing Group LLC, a new startup that is seeking to build housing specifically designed for the sharing or collaborative economy.
The startup plans to build rental housing that has smaller private spaces for residents than typical apartments but much larger shared public space that renters share. The company aims to make the housing cheaper than traditional market rate housing. These will not be what some call "micro-apartments" however, which have drawn some criticism, because the developments would have a community and social aspect that those do not, says Jay Standish cofounder of Collaborative Housing.
The idea, while still very preliminary, could be the next wave of the sharing economy. In the future, more products, particularly big-ticket items that are most easily shared, could be designed with the sharing economy in mind. For example, cars could be designed with hardware and software to make them easier to share, whereas now startups often add hardware in the after-market to make sharable. But the biggest potential for the sharing economy so far is housing, and not just for travel, but for everyday living. Airbnb showed that this can work for travel. But everday housing hasn't been addressed by startups because it's much more challenging to change people's everyday homes than to change their travel plans.
The collaborative housing concept also could have a real impact on the design of cities and how people live in them. The sharing economy is already changing cities, through the use of car sharing and ride sharing with Lyft, Sidecar, UberX, RelayRides, Getaround and FlightCar, which have changed how people get around in cities. Airbnb has brought new income to residents in many parts of cities and brought travelers to new neighborhoods. But collaborative housing could have a bigger impact.
While it's still essentially in the idea stage now and could take years to be realized, this could help address issues like traffic and congestion, transportation systems, urban density, availability of housing and environmental standards. If 100 buildings were built with this concept, many cars could be taken off the roads, many more people could live closer to public transit and more space could be freed up for other uses, Standish says. The idea may be radically different from traditional apartment buildings but these are not hippie communes, Standish says, but rather new ways of designing urban space more efficiently in dense cities where more housing is needed and people are increasingly used to sharing spaces.
To emphasize the sharing economy concept, the collaborative housing developments would have limited parking spaces and those that are included would be for car sharing. The developments would also be located near public transit so that residents would not have to own cars.
Commercial space would also be included, and open to the public as well as to residents. Besides traditional businesses such as restaurants, cafes, or health clubs, buildings would include collaborative work spaces such as co-working spaces and makers spaces. The idea is to include collaborative work spaces to complement the collaborative housing. There's also the potential to integrate things like Airbnb as a regular component of the space in the building.
The social and community aspects of the developments are key to making it work, Standish says. The common spaces would include larger shared spaces such as living rooms, kitchens, laundry and office space. The idea is that residents will share more space with each other. Amenities include car sharing, "maker's spaces," and even art or music studios and community gardens. Organizing the buildings in this way should also save costs even with the amenities, says Standish.
"If you look at the square footage of the private units (we) have, it will be more expensive per square foot of private space," Standish says. "But there will be common space that's spread across for everyone. That's one of the main ways to achieve affordability while achieving access to more amenities."
But will people be willing to sacrifice private space to get more shared space and more amenities, even at a lower cost? Standish is betting that a new generation that's well-versed in home sharing on Airbnb, ride-sharing on Lyft or UberX and car-sharing through
"A lot of people in the Bay Area make a lot of money but may have unique or alternative views on community and culture," Standish says. "For example, a guy who makes plenty of money at a tech company could have his own beautiful place but instead wants to live in a smaller space in a shared house. Not to save money but because he's minimalist and doesn't care about having a fancy apartment. And he really likes having people around when he comes home he likes to socialize."
Collaborative Housing is the brainchild of recent Bainbridge Graduate Institute MBA grads Standish and Ben Provan and architect Todd Jersey. They've been testing the idea with a house they rented called Sandbox in Berkeley. The house runs on some of the same principles as the housing that they hope to build: collaborative consumption, car sharing, even some shared food. But they didn't build the house, they just rented it. Standish and his two partners sought applicants and now have 8 people living in the house. What they learned: having leadership in the house is important, and the mix of personalities is also important. While the residents aren't roommates per se, many of the same dynamics apply.
To make this concept a reality, Standish needs to work with developers who are willing to build it. That's the biggest challenge. But he has had meetings with several developers and has had "strong interest" in the concept, he says.
