Coliving: A study of private room typologies

Rise of urban population in developed countries, has resulted problems such as inadequate housing stock, increase in cost of living, smaller living spaces, and un-controlled immigrations, which force individuals to look for alternative housing options. In line with this issue, coliving is one of the housing options emerged as an alternative and refers to individuals sharing the same living space with people whom they are not biologically related to, or familiar in any way. Interests in coliving residences has been increased in many countries worldwide. In Türkiye, this concept has not yet been familiarized and there is no proposed example. Like many other countries Türkiye is also struggling with the housing crisis. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore and describe the concept of coliving housing and develop a new design model for coliving architecture in order to develop a design guideline to adopt the concept of coliving in Türkiye. Within the coliving housing, the design and layout of private rooms are considered as the most crucial subject since rooms are served as a space for privacy and many other personal activities. The cultural differences, privacy norms, religious beliefs, and lifestyles of coliving occupants will significantly influence the layout of private rooms, and offering variety of alternatives for room layouts by coliving companies will enhance the quality of life for their occupants. Due to the critical role of rooms in coliving housing, this study has explored the historical and architectural development of coliving housing, specially by looking at best examples in Europe and establish a model including variety of room typologies that will provide a quality living environment for coliving occupants. As a result, six types of main room typology is established with a total number of 132.539 layout typologies. Each layout, with its different location for furnishings and circulation of the room, serve a different user's needs; therefore create a framework with multiple room design typologies that would support livable room spaces. Findings from current study contributes to develop and design coliving housing both theoretically and practically. Additionally, this study can be used as a design resource for firms and designers who are or would be involved with coliving housing.