beyond the kitchen table.
Research. I’ve started looking into co-living as a central design concern for my submission for the brief ‘beyond the kitchen table’ for this year’s RSA student design awards. The way we live as a generation is changing and with it so are the needs of the home. Rising housing costs and paying dead money to landlords means that millennials are struggling to get a foot onto the property ladder, seeing a rise in those choosing to live a co-living lifestyle. Is communal living our future? How does this affect the kitchen?
“What is co-living?
Co-living is the term for a living arrangement in which three or more biologically unrelated people share a common residential structure.”
Housing prices are rising to the point at which those aged between 18-29 are stuck renting, most unable to save any money to put towards a house of their own. And even those who do manage to own their own properties are sacrificing more and more space as time goes on. The first room in which this space is sacrificed is the kitchen. These spaces are not encouraging these people to cook healthy, nutritious meals. In fact they are doing the opposite. The number of people choosing to eat out or order in is on the rise, posing the question of what the future of the kitchen is within a household of the future. Do people wish they had the space to cook? I am toying with the idea of designing a kitchen space that allows those with next to no space in their own homes to inhabit within a community. This would increase the interaction between neighbours, encourage people to share their knowledge, their cultures, the food that has been passed down for generations for it to live on into the future. Feelings of isolation and mental health issues surrounding loneliness would be improved by creating a safe space for a person who lives alone to go to to socialise and be around people who enrich their lives. Yet how does one design a space that works for any variety of people within a community? How do you design to encourage people to take ownership of a shared space and keep it clean and organised? Would a kitchen-less city create a fear around cooking and worsen the trend of those eating take out meals or would it bring people together in solidarity of a community that wants to cook, that wants to spend time with each other? I guess I will find out as my project progresses.