Coliving Academy: Concept and Design

Mayank Pokharna · Founder, Everything Coliving

13 years in coliving · Reviewed by the Everything Coliving team

What this module covers

Turning a building or a brief into a workable coliving concept, unit mix and layout.

Concept is where a building or a brief becomes a coliving product. Drawing on the sixteen design principles of the Art of Coliving, this module teaches you to translate a target resident into a concept, cluster structure, and space mix that people will pay for and that you can still operate profitably. You will move in order: first who you serve, then how many share, then how they flow and meet, then how the building runs, and finally how all of that becomes a brief an architect can build. Each step feeds the next, so decide them in sequence and resist designing the lounge before you know who sits in it.

Learning outcomes

• ✓Translate a target resident into a concept and unit mix
• ✓Balance private space against shared amenity
• ✓Avoid the layout mistakes that hurt occupancy and operations
• ✓Brief an architect with the operating model in mind

Lessons in this module

Core level · 5 lessons · about 3 hours. Lessons open to Academy members.

1. 1
   Who you are designing for25 min

   Translate a target resident into concrete design decisions.

2. 2
   Cluster size and private versus shared30 min

   Set cluster sizes and a private-to-shared mix your resident values and you can afford.

3. 3
   Circulation, kitchens and the social heart25 min

   Place the kitchen and circulation so community happens by default.

4. 4
   Designing for operations and maintenance25 min

   Bake operational reality into the concept before it is built.

5. 5
   From concept to a brief20 min

   Turn your concept into an architect brief that keeps the operating logic.

Sample lesson