London-based startup The Collective is developing a new co-living residential typology in the city, which is a co-housing rental housing for young professionals aged 21 to 30, combining the features of a student residence and a hotel. The tiny size of the living units with a bathroom and a kitchenette is compensated by large common areas with all the necessary equipment, as well as hotel services: ubiquitous wireless Internet, weekly linen change and cleaning of rooms, concierge and 24-hour "support" of the administration. There are six such locations in London, in which a person does not need anything to live in except a suitcase of personal belongings: everything else is already included in the rent. The idea of the project is to create not only an alternative type of low-cost real estate, but also a lifestyle that fully meets the needs of the millennial generation.
PLP Architecture has designed a new facility for The Collective, similar in typology, but significantly different in scale: it is now a 30-storey mixed-function building with a height of 112 meters.
On 17,000 m2, there will be 223 single and double (with a common kitchenette) cells in five different layouts, as well as 214 rooms of the apart-hotel. Another 2000 sq. m are allocated for common areas - libraries, kitchens, canteens, laundry, gym, spa, cinema, game rooms - and spaces open to all citizens.
The authors tried to combine the maximum of different functions by building a well-coordinated sleep-work-creation-entertainment-socialization algorithm in a single building with a body depth of only 14 meters. Common and public spaces permeate the structure, forming a vertical street: for example, an art gallery is located at ground level, a garden is on the roof of the tenth floor, pop-up restaurants and retail are at the twentieth level.
The solution of the facades expresses a new typology with a laconic vertical grid, which slightly reveals the circulation in the interior to the outside view. Contrasted with the general severity of the lines, the floating upper volume overhangs the fully glazed inner street with shops and restaurants located on the 20th floor, becoming a beacon in the city sky in the evenings.
