Making cities and human settlements safer and more inclusive, resilient and sustainable is at the core of Goal n.11 of the UN-Habitat. Nowadays the residential market is dominated by economic interest, and most cities in different areas of the globe face the problem of the lack of affordable rental apartments for low-income households.

The French architect Christelle Gautreau argues that new form of housing emerge to answer to new needs of the population and that “coliving has begun to transform our notions of ownership and habitat” Responding to the need to address jointly issues of sustainable housing and urban development, the Community Studio aims to speculate about architecture’s role in shaping the urban environment by conceptualising alternative typologies of collective living.

How to design affordable, sustainable and healthy housing? How will the communities inhabit the new coliving spaces? How can communal life and social activities take place? How will the boundary between private and communal space be defined in the future? How do residents shape a community? What is the role of the community in designing co-living spaces?

These are some of the critical questions that the students have to address during their architectural exploration. The four sections of the studio will explore how collective living concepts could be adapted to different social contest and urban conditions. The students will focus especially on the relationship between collective spaces and living units as well as to explore how to generate meaningful interactions between the resident and the rest of the city. Combining hybrid programs with shared and collective facilities, students have to accommodate the diverse needs of the community.