I never planned to be interested in a real estate trend. In fact, if you’d have asked me a few years back, I wouldn’t believe my own words that my passion turned out to be promoting a housing trend that is to shape the twenty-first century.
But truth is, for me, it’s not about coliving.
A few years back, after opening a civic tech incubator and coworking space in Paris, I suffered from a breakdown and so-called quarter-life-crisis. This was the time that I decided to make a vow - namely to prioritize my own mental and physical health above my desire for contribution, while at the same time living in order to contribute to others’ happiness.
After becoming minimalistic, getting rid of my apartment, selling my belongings, becoming a nomad, traveling through endless countries, people and experiences, trying to become a coach (and failing to do so), opening a marketing agency, and deeply reconnecting with myself on a journey called life, I realized that I’ve been creating magic.
For two years, I had opened pop-up coliving spaces, three months at a time, starting with Barcelona and moving over to Mexico, Tallinn and Indonesia. The reason for creating those coliving spaces was selfish in nature: I desired to live with people that inspired me, that made me a more conscious and self-aware human being, that pushed me to my boundaries and made me grow in both personal and professional spheres. In addition, I wanted to find a sense of belonging, live with the people I loved, enjoy a lifestyle that I would have never been able to afford by myself, and share that lifestyle with my so-called chosen family.
But for me, coliving was never created with the intention to turn it into a scalable business or to identify my professional activities with it. It was just a means to a lifestyle end, fueled with growth and belonging, that came from a desire to live life to its fullest potential.
What I didn’t realize across that journey was that it didn’t only transform me. Hearing statements such as “I found purpose in my life again” or “Gui, this has been the most intense, depth-filled month of my life” didn’t make it click.
Until it did.
The day I realized that coliving was a means to personal growth through collective trigger points, based on the fact that most sensations of growth and belonging came from interactions with other people, was the day I decided to commit all my activities to bring coliving to its human blossoming.
Of course, it’s easier said than done. In my case, I didn’t run 50 coliving spaces - I only ran one at a time. I didn’t deal with anti-discrimination regulations that prohibited rejecting residents based on personalities or personal activities - rather, I was vetting residents based on their level of engagement and integrity. And I didn’t have to make it a highly profitable business, as my income sources were guaranteed from my other income streams.
Yet, creating transformative coliving experiences at scale can be done, and I’ve set my own journey to explore how.
This book is the result of 12 months of research, interviewing and visiting 100+ coliving spaces across the world, with the purpose to answer one fundamental question: how can a coliving operator create a life-enhancing culture and scale it up?
The pages you’re about to read are not my thoughts. My purpose was to give those thoughts a structure, to figure out the fundamental principles that lie behind the science of coliving, added with different ways to enable them. The difference between the science of coliving and its art is the level of individuality you give to your space, and creating real magic is when you apply those principles to your own mission.
More than just tackling the subjects of community and culture building, scaling and managing, interior design and business models, this book is meant to influence the future of housing. It is the building that we’re creating today that will influence the way we live for the next two hundred years at least, and hence our responsibilities to offer a structure that will allow current and future generations to fully express themselves.
Moreover, this book sets a challenge around integrity in real estate: upholding the promises that we claim to deliver, from offering a feeling of community to inclusive neighborhoods and affordable housing. Nothing in coliving is intrinsically good, it’s a constant field in motion, and what makes a true leader stand out is the ability to create consensus between its players to create solutions that are life-enhancing.
What is awaiting you is a manual to understand how to think and act coliving: how to think a concept inside-out; how to design spaces that fulfill residents’ needs; how to create a culture and feeling of connection; and how to offer those notions at scale.
Today, we are witnessing history in the making. Cultural notions are changing. Humans are willing to invest financial resources in exchange for quality time. Perception of self, family structure, cultural identity and the purpose of one’s existence are shifting. The question is whether we, the real estate industry, the coliving operators, the life-enablers, the decision-makers and leaders of this field, are going to listen to it.
I invite you to be part of a movement of intentionality - one that has the potential to redefine hospitality, humanize the real estate industry and create a housing stock adapted to emotionally connected shared living.
While we can’t escape the growing trend of coliving, we can make it worthwhile. The future now lies in our hands. Let’s make wise use of it.