Dorm living

Dorms: The Ultimate Shared Living Experience

Think back to your college years: late nights roaming the dorm, raiding each other’s closets and refrigerators, gathering in common areas to study or talk. Sounds an awful lot like “shared living” to me. Today, developer Macro Sea is creating the modern day co-living experience in a series of dorms in New York and Europe.

Fast Company says “[David] Belt is launching a new subsidiary of his development firm, Macro Sea, that will operate a network of five connected dorms in New York and Europe under a brand that has yet to be named. […] Belt will need to partner with local universities in New York. Similarly to WeLive, student residents of all five buildings will be connected via an app, and they can book rooms in other buildings in the network when they travel.”

Macro Sea’s first foray into creative student housing is a 200-bed converted radio car button factory for the CIEE Global Institute in Berlin, Germany. Co.Design says the European “vertical campus” contains sleeping rooms, classrooms, studio and event space under the same roof, complete with communal kitchens and a reception area.

Modern co-living experiences for student housing isn’t new in NYC either. Meet Common, a company that facilitates co-living by screening roommates, paying utilities, setting up a kitchen, and providing shared supplies like paper towels and coffee. Residents at its 19-room apartment building in Brooklyn – primarily students at General Assembly, a global educational company focused on relevant and in-demand skills across data, design, business and technology – pay for rooms on a month-to-month basis without a long-term lease.

What do you see as the future of student housing? Will dorms turn into micro-living units with extensive common areas? How will technology contribute to – or disrupt – student shared living? Sound off in the comments and share your thoughts.

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