Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Apiyo Aloo has always been passionate about four things: Hospitality, Sustainability, Growth & Africa. With over 13 years of experience in the global market, Aloo has worked for Best Western hotels, Hilton Hotels, and one of the best 50 restaurants in the world, among other international brands. Based in Nairobi, Aloo is the Founder and Director of Development at Lustar Group REIT Ltd, a hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust in Africa that focuses on creating Unique and Innovative hotel Brand Concepts that connect with guests Emotionally.
Could you tell us a little about your professional background?
My first job was working at Lord Errol, a 5-star restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya, as a casual in the pot wash, right after high school, I was only 21 yrs old. I turned down an opportunity to go to Moi University to study something completely different from what I had a passion for. I simply wanted to be a hotelier, and my mind was set.
I was quite lucky to join Kenya Utalii College right after, the best hotel school in Africa, at the time, to study hotel management and I never looked back. This journey has exposed me to various positions both locally and abroad as I started my career in restaurants, having managed one of the 50 best restaurants in the world and later moved to the hotel space and worked for both Hilton Hotels and Best Western among other brands, focusing on F&B, Operations, Rebranding, Repositioning and later a Pre-Opening General Manager for a 5-star independent property in Tanzania. This experience introduced me to hotel development, which I found quite fascinating.
With an aim to learn more about hotel development, I started a journey that led me to some of the best hotel schools in the world, Cornell University and most recently, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Switzerland, where I pursued an MBA in Hospitality Management, an experience which changed my outlook of the hotel industry globally and shaped my life for a new journey.
Most recently, I have been involved with Alliance Hospitality as the Business Development Partner – Africa, focusing on hotel development projects across the continent, the Regional Director for a Hospitality Investment and Financial Advisory Firm, Advisory board member for Tourism Development Association in Africa, a Typsy Mentor and Coach and the Founder and Director of Development of Lustar Group REIT.
You have founded the Lustar Group REIT Ltd, when did you decide it was time to start your own company?
I have always been passionate about four things, Hotels, Development, Sustainability & Africa.
Africa has so much to offer, the culture, authentic experiences, and most importantly, the people. We are pre-disposed to hospitality as it’s always been taboo to visit a friend without a gift or turning away guests without offering them food or accommodation.
My decision to set up shop was driven by the challenges I saw Independent hotel owners/investors were experiencing. The lack of authentic, unique and emotional guests’ experiences that deliver indelible memories. In 2016, I wrapped up a project which was an eye-opener and Lustar Hospitality Group was born, first as a consultancy that focused on hotel development projects in Africa.
While doing my MBA at EHL, I met one of Hospitality’s greatest minds, Stephan Killinger, Martin Ehlers and Claudia Vivaldini, luxury hospitality gurus who took the time to advise and mentor me. This pushed me to realize my dream of developing a platform where unique boutique hotel concepts are brought to life from a mere idea to an operational going concern.
This experience led to the morphing of Lustar Hospitality Group (LHG) into a Hospitality REIT, which focusses on Hotel development projects in East and West Africa. With an aim to be the leading, African owned, Hospitality REIT, a daunting task that still puts me on toes to date, but the best experience in my life by far.
With a market place driven by unique guest experiences, a hotel with an individual character and unique tailor-made experience can be leveraged to surpass guest expectations and achieve the highest guest satisfaction and review score.We provide personalized hospitality management services, tailored to the individual requirements of each and every single property.
At LHG, we believe in offering an authentic African experience innovation, sustainability, wellbeing, and emotional connections with our guests, team members and stakeholder.
In the last years, you have created three hotel concepts, can you please walk us through each concept?
Ankara Collection is our flagship brand offering an Upper-upscale African Fashion Lifestyle brand experience, in remote tropical locations that merges the unique African sense of culture, adventure, fashion, sustainability and lifestyle, with an International touch of class and elegance, offering our guests a uniquely African experience, through the famous Ankara print that is widely known to represent our African identity, across the globe, simply elegant.
“The African Experience”
U-centric hotels is our economy brand that focuses on the discerning business traveler with a brand promise of an experience that is ‘guest-centric’ and for your basic needs – (limited service hotel), as you stay with us. A 4-star experience at 2-star prices
Embedding a quiet peaceful, comfortable, and state of the art guest room with innovative amenities to enhance your experience.
It’s all about U”
Colive focuses on the human basic need of interaction and sense of belonging, creating a communal sense of lifestyle in a hotel setup – mixed-used facility, targeting the increasing professional nomad’s millennials and generation Z. The rise of coworking is a natural predecessor for widespread coliving: the concept that guests can live in a shared space without recreating the feeling of living in a dorm room as co-living has become the newest disruption of surplus space to…
“Connect | Cowork | Coplay”
Which countries are you developing these properties? How many hotels do you have in the pipeline?
We are focusing on West African and East African Market with six properties through HMA and Joint ventures, both greenfield and brownfield projects with different investors. However, Covid has led to a temporary halt in our development strides as we now take a step back and re-strategize the way forward. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.lustarhospitality.com/
What do you feel will be the key issues and challenges affecting the development of the hospitality industry in Africa in the coming years?
Funding remains the biggest challenge across the continent as our industry is still not a regional priority and banking institutions require a lot of securities which can create complexity in structuring the right deal. Costs of financing are usually high and therefore an operational burden that can be carried on a project and its initial investment may quickly result in questioning the viability of pursuing it or not. A lot of individual investors are willing to walk through each step, but the lack of accessibility and of a large network of financial support often create further obstacles for a project to see its completion.
In addition, in order to ensure proper work, each project requires a professional design team and not every country across the continent has the local structure and this often requires foreign assistance which equally comes at a cost. Usually, costs of construction across Africa are the highest globally due to those factors but as we see hospitality becoming a national and regional priority for many African countries, we can expect the professionalization of the sector and the reduction of the associated costs over time.
What is the single most important thing that people should know about you, or your work?
I am a strong advocate for partnerships/collaborations, strategy, professionalism, transparency and sustainability. My love for the African continent and passion for hotels, fuels my drive to see the growth and development of the Hotel industry in Africa thrive. Coming from a humble background to interact with amazing people from all walks of life has taught me one thing, humility is key. Every hotel project is unique in it’s own way, and should be approached exactly that way…..uniquely. Guests are no longer looking for products, but experiences, hotel development should be guest-centric, not investor centric at the end of the day, a hotel is just a building.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done”. – Nelson Mandela
You have founded “Beneath My Smile” Foundation – can you please tell us more about the Foundation and its roles?
Mental health in the Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Industry has been a major issue for decades, more so in developing countries, but a silent one far too long. We serve our guests and colleagues with a smile but with a lot of pain underneath our smiles. Long working hours away from family and friends, Depression, poor social and psychological well being and even suicide cases are on the rise within the hospitality industry, worse of, post-Covid. I lost a close friend who was going through depression and this triggered my interest in focusing on improving mental health and awareness in the hospitality & tourism industry. At Beneath My Smile Foundation, we create a safe haven for individuals who feel lost, going through depression, alcohol, drugs & substance abuse, suicide survivors and victims & dependents, various mental health-related conditions and are in pain, all of who work in the hospitality & tourism industry.
For the past 5 years, we have managed to help give these individuals a shoulder and a support system through various partnerships and sponsors. Our main goal is to improve the mental well-being of professionals working in the industry, support families left behind due to suicide cases, advocate for mental health education in training institutions, and the workplace and eliminate alcohol, drugs and substance abuse among professionals in the hospitality & tourism industry. At Beneath My Smile Foundation, we aim to give you a sense of belonging and self-worth. We are your family, we also smile and we share your pain.
Last, what shall we wish you for the next 5 years?
My goal is to bring an authentic African boutique hotel brand experience to every continent across the globe to showcase who we are, our culture, our food, our fashion, our tradition with a touch of excellence and international standards, this can only happen if the hostel industry survives, if every small hotel owner/investor survives post-Covid, this can only happen if we all work together to reopen our hotels globally, support each other through meaningful cross-continent partnerships and collaboration.
My only wish is that we all make it through this hard time together and toast all the wins and losses we will have, 5 years down the line.
Ankara Collection Hotels – Victoria Falls
Ankara Collection Hotels – Serengeti
Ucentric Hotel – Nigeria
Ucentric Hotel – Nigeria
The fundamentals of interior design will never change as they are what brings the elements together into a cohesive, definable, and aesthetically pleasing visual medium.
Some people do have that innate talent of transforming a room into a jaw-dropping interior space. Bringing in mixes and matches of great finds from thrift stores and even from bargain home depot shops, these talented people can bring together the elements into a stunning and tasteful interior.
Although there’s no magic when it comes to interior design, instead, it’s how one makes use of these basic principles. Much like professional designers, where following these fundamentals are paramount in creating aesthetically pleasing and functional spaces.
But, note that creating harmony doesn’t mean designing without variety. There should be a balance between the two to create a vibrant and cohesive interior design.
A worth-mentioning type of harmony in interior design is color: Color Harmony. A room’s color or hue is probably the first thing we notice in a room and as a universal language that can convey a myriad of emotions and meanings. As an essential and fundamental principle and the element of interior design, it can affect the overall look of a room. As bright and neutral colors bounce off light, it can make a room look seem larger while dark hues, on the other hand, can make a room cozier and smaller.
Ways to Create Balance: Symmetrical Balance. Usually has a focal point. It is where assigning a central point where elements are used similarly to each side. This is demonstrated on one-point perspectives in painting and visual graphics. Asymmetrical Balance. Unlike symmetrical, the form, color, and other basic elements may not be duplicated, but instead, use different elements but still have the same perceived weight or intensity. This still achieves balance from the center point.
For instance, for a Savanah themed interior, you can use leaf-patterned wallpaper with green shades. Taking a cue from this pattern, you can choose to have similar leaf prints on your throw rugs or even on your sofa covers. Add sculptural vases with avocado green hues on reddish wood oak center tables and embellish the ceiling with black chrome-plated drop pendants to finish the look.
Contrast is an essential aspect of creating designed spaces. In an interior designer’s book, contrast is an effective way to emphasize a focal point or how to showcase, say sculptural furniture. Repetition and similarity can be blunt, and with contrast, it can make elements pop.
Even the best successful designers do break the rules when it comes to principles of design. But, if ever they do so, typically, a commendable quality is at stake. Unless you have gained extensive experience in interior design, it is still best to follow these fundamentals. If you’re ready, then you may bend a rule or two!
Designing your rental property is more than just bean bags and wallpapers, you’ll need to pull together all the elements to work harmoniously into your living space. Creating a cohesive design should not only be aesthetically pleasing but even more so, offers a comfortable, functional, and unforgettable experience for your clients.
Great design means better opportunities. The look and feel of your rental property can either upscale or stale your investment. Know more about what you can out of your efforts for a strategically designed rental space with the following benefits.
Most property managers and homeowners will try every trick in the book and incorporating a sound design that guarantees to attract more clients, get more bookings, generate excellent reviews, and increase your property value. Whether you are listing for short-term furnished apartments or modern vacation homes, there are many ways to transform your rental property into a high-class and enthralling home-away-from-home asset.
Plan and invest in a good lighting scheme that’s adaptable to your location and features of your Air BnB. Make sure you have enough lights outdoors to guide your clients when finding the place. Check your street lights and entry porch lights during the night.
If you have a beautiful garden to feature, you can choose solar LED illumination to highlight landscape features such as waterfalls, trees, flower beds, or sculptures.
Just like your outdoors, your lighting temperature for your interiors depends on your location, current time of the year, and existing color scheme. For adaptable lighting, you can choose adjustable ambient lighting to change the desired mood for your interiors. Don’t forget to add accent lighting and bedside lamps.
Neutral and earth-tone colors are safe choices when it comes to the color scheme, but splashing unusual and vibrant colors can also make an impressive statement to your rental property.
Though, always match your hues with the current season and location. If you live in a gloomy area, bright and light Scandinavian-inspired elements can uplift the mood of your property. On the other hand, if you have a hotter climate, deep cool gray or marine tones can make your interior more relaxed and refreshing.
When doing a staging or renovation of your rental property, be sure to take before and after pictures of your property. Documenting the transformation is not only reliving the satisfaction of your achievement but can be an invaluable record you can show to potential clients or an appraisal officer.
With 40 award categories in the living section and 24 categories in the eating section, LIV is one of the most comprehensive design competitions dedicated to hospitality.
Selected by an esteemed jury of architects, designers, hoteliers, developers, and leaders in interior design and architectural fields, eight winning titles are granted to professionals and students per year for The Best of International Hospitality Design, Architecture, and Guest Experience. The jury will be specifically looking for new concepts, innovations, sustainability, impacts, designs, shapes, and stories.
Lighting, in general, has a profound effect in spaces, invoking emotions to its spectators and helping architecture and interior design achieve its true purpose.
For the external lighting of heritage buildings, illumination aims for a lasting impression from its viewers. In night illumination as well as daylight, lighting highlights the architectural aspects of the structure, exposing details through casting light and shadow. This dramatic play of lights will need strategic lighting engineering and architectural design solutions.
Night illumination in Heritage Buildings
Outdoors require less light intensity compared to indoors, emphasizing a theatrical appeal, and less focused on task illumination.
Before designing, considerations should be kept in mind. These involve aesthetics, mood lighting, technical, economic, and conservation aspects. UNESCO guidelines and recommendations should also be put into an account.
UNESCO Guidelines and Concerns
UNESCO recommends that monuments should not be illuminated from the bottom up except for historic buildings. Lights should be intercepted by the building façade to prevent light from straying away. Use luminous flux reducers that have an automated or self-timing mechanism that can switch off automatically during the day.
Lighting intensities and mechanisms should be studied as not to disrupt biodiversity and nightscape, especially in natural and rural areas.
Other smart lighting solutions are intelligent lighting systems, adaptive lighting, wireless sensor fusion, and smart solar-powered LED lighting systems.
To achieve aesthetically-pleasing lighting, luminaires equipped with white light sources such as metal halide, compact fluorescent, or LED is recommended. These luminaires have excellent color rendering properties that allow the color to be seen naturally, setting a more comfortable visual environment. During the night our eye adapts to the sensitive blue end spectrum, which means we see better with white light sources.
At night, eye sensitivity changes to the ‘dark-adapted eye,’ which is more sensitive to the blue end of the spectrum, meaning we can see better under white light sources.
Temperature sets an ambiance and impressions, 3000K temperature level is warm and creates a softer and comfortable setting, while the 4200K has a cooler temperature level, provides a crisper atmosphere.
Keeping the running costs down is one of the major concerns of the museum and heritage sectors. Most tungsten-halogen lighting is now replaced with LED lights to save on energy and replacement costs.
With technology and its efficient performance and long life span, provide consistent lighting effects and minimal maintenance worries.
As concerns in the effects of night illumination to surrounding nature, it is recommended to use flat-glass light distributions. This eliminates direct upward lighting, a major contributor to sky glow. Minimal column heights to reduce light over spilling.
Reflection, glare, and unwanted light can also be caused by the luminaire finish, positioning, and fixing methods during the daytime. Proper planning and design are needed to provide visual comfort from viewers and the surrounding nature.
Landscape and surrounding elements can also be utilized to mitigate the negative effects of night illumination. Plant trees on the site that can screen off and block away unwanted light to the surrounding environment.
One type of pollution we don’t hear often is light pollution, which has a damaging effect on the environment, especially for migratory birds and even insects.
To minimize the damaging effect of excessive lighting, there must be a collaborative effort to switch to advanced lighting technologies that are designed for efficiency and reducing light pollution. Applying this type of technology to heritage sites allows public visibility for heritage sites in the evening by practicing proper planning on how to light up a site in such a way that it can attract visitors.
All the while, proper design, and implementation must ensure that these new lighting technologies will not have much of an impact on the site in terms of aesthetics. By only installing the necessary number of light fixtures, in the right areas, energy savings are achieved. Thankfully, such advanced luminaires exist today.
(Los Angeles, Calif.)
A new international awards program has just launched, celebrating the highest quality of architecture and interior design in the hospitality industry. The Farmani Group’s LIV Hospitality Design Awards is open to architects and interior designers around the world who have created incredible projects, including all kinds of housing accommodations and food & beverage outlets. LIV is an inclusive platform, pursuing exceptional projects within the living and eating spaces, from co-living to beach resorts, from fine dining restaurants to pop-up bars.
“We believe in the power of architecture and interior design to shape our lives, and that’s why celebrating these achievements in the hospitality space is so important,” explained Hossein Farmani, Founder of LIV Hospitality Design Awards and President of Farmani Group. “It was important for this awards program to be incredibly inclusive, since today’s accommodations have never been more diverse – from short-term rentals to private housing, beach resorts, boutique hotels, campervans and co-living. From cocktail bars to food courts, Michelin-starred establishments, food trucks and private clubs, the food & beverage scene has also never been more exciting as it is today.”
With 40 award categories in the living section and 24 categories in the eating section, LIV is one of the most comprehensive design competitions dedicated to hospitality. Selected by an esteemed jury of architects, designers, hoteliers, developers and leaders in interior design and architectural fields, eight winning titles are granted to professionals and students per year for The Best of International Hospitality Design, Architecture and Guest Experience. The jury will be specifically looking for new concepts, innovations, sustainability, impacts, designs, shapes and stories.
If you’re interested in the benefits of winning an award, which includes brand differentiation and winner marketing package, visit the LIV Hospitality Design Awards website at livawards.com.
The LIV Hospitality Design Awards 2020 will close on March 31, 2021. Receive a 20% early bird discount when you submit your application before December 1, 2021.
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About The Farmani Group: The Farmani Group, established in 1985, is responsible for many successful awards around the globe. Farmani Group organizes the International Design Awards (IDA), Architecture Masterprize, DNA, Paris Design Awards, London International Creative Awards, Prix de la Photographie in Paris, and the Annual Lucie Awards for Photography, which has emerged as one of the world’s most prestigious awards. To learn more, visit their website.
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Building a home with sustainability in mind offers an array of benefits that primarily covers environmental responsibility and our overall wellness.
Firstly, what is a sustainable building? According to a HAC (Housing Assistance Council) Report by Mark Kudlowitz, creating a sustainable building is a process wherein houses, buildings, and auxiliary infrastructures are built to reduce resource consumption, decrease environmental impacts, and creating a healthier living environment.
Therefore, sustainable housing entails sustainable building methodologies, materials, and operation. For an effective and impactful eco-friendly home, the structure should have integrated sustainable concepts early on from the planning stage.
Key Elements of Sustainable Housing
Approaches of Sustainable Housing
Site Planning and Design
Sustainability should start during the inception of your planning process so it is easier to oversee concerns and provide solutions while your house plan is still on paper. This reduces risks in the building construction process itself and unnecessary expenses.
When planning to build your home, select a location where it is near to amenities, and have access to sidewalks and roadways. It also helps if you have a site that was previously owned or that it is within an urban neighborhood. This reduces disturbances and less impact on the environment such as native landscaping and light pollution.
Reduce heat absorption and increase natural ventilation and daylighting through the building’s thermal mass. Houses with excellent orientation and thermal massing can reduce the need for air conditioning and artificial lighting, maintaining a comfortable internal environment.
Materials and Building Systems:
During the planning stage, sustainable materials and building systems should already be considered. When an architect draws up the plans enhancing energy efficiency, such as using natural insulation products, specifying LED lights, bamboo paneling, and locally sourced materials contribute to a sustainable project.
During Construction:
When talking about sustainable houses, we seldom think of the construction process, and yet a large contributor of waste and energy usage is from the building process itself.
For a smaller project such as a residential home, the concept can be similarly applied. Provide segregation bins that can be collected by local or community waste management facilities. Where daily housekeeping on the part of the contractor should be implemented on-site.
Sustainability is not just a trend but a need for all types of building occupations. Commercial and industrial sectors have also responded positively to making sustainable efforts on their products and built-environments. As sustainable housing has increased over the years, more affordable and efficient design solutions are now being implemented. These sustainable efforts will surely pave to way to continue in the coming years.
A hotel lobby with tastefully picked and laid out furniture can create an impressive first glimpse of excellent service.
What makes great hotel furniture? Stunning, ergonomically designed, and in-tune with the times are primary qualities that make guests feel that every moment of their stay is worthwhile.
Hotel furniture is vital for the success of the hospitality enterprise, where about 3 to 6 years is the range of hotel renovation cycles. Hotels with high star ratings and if revenues allow, hotels can change their furnishings as often as annually.
The trends on hotel furniture are everchanging, and with a variant of modern options, there’s only one goal of their designs, and that is the invigorate the senses.
The Design Themes to Look Out For
Recently, we can see two themes dominating the current hospitality interiors, and these are the Scandinavian-inspired interiors and Moroccan with a vibe of the Boho-chic. Both are the opposites where Scandinavian interiors are more of the use of light hues and almost pastel color tones with natural textures and organic forms. While the Moroccan themes create an indulgence and air of drama with a base palette of soft blacks and earth muted tones as well as suede and velvets.
A showcase of the North European-inspired interior style, the Scandinavian furniture is an opportunity to acquire furniture that shows craftsmanship and simple accents. To complement the light-filled interior most Scandinavian furniture is made from light wood such as pine, beech, and ash.
Be it an urban, boutique, resort, budget, or deluxe hotel, you’ll see the trend-setting furniture adorn all types of accommodations.
Cobalt hues and scale tiles are fast becoming a fav in interior design which uses bold and vibrant colors and incorporate
With its rising popularity of cobalt blue hues and fish scale tiles, the Moroccan style is also a design style to watch out for.
With its Bohemian vibe, the Moroccan theme uses to build and vibrant colors with their furniture. Wicker furniture is also making a comeback into the design. Textured sofas with eye-popping colors and use of faux fur and the revival of corduroys.
Current and Future Trends to Look Out For
Nostalgic and Immersive with an Integration of Smart Features
Since visitors come from different backgrounds and nationalities, most hotel guests will expect to walk through an interior reflecting the country and local culture. Dubai hotels, for instance, incorporate modern elements to the local Moorish-inspired interiors.
67 percent of high-income individuals prefer to spend their money on culturally immersive activities than an upscale hotel room.
In recent years, hotels have been opting furniture that has that personal touch instead of generic and neutral design elements. Bold patterns and vibrant colors make the room feel more personalized and inviting.
You’ll see more texture and splashes of color in sofas, beds, and other plush items. Faux fur, woven garments, and velvet fabrics are favorite textures for layering.
Millennials and Gen Z has the largest market share when it comes to traveling and hotels bookings. With young, tech-oriented clients, we’ll see more furniture integrated with automation and mobile syncing features in the coming years.
Resin tables with USB ports and LED lighting will be a common sight in hotels as well as beds with built-in lamp lights, and an adjustable laptop desk will be essential for traveling young professionals.
Instagrammable worthy furniture is inviting features of hotels that want to tap on techy guests. With a stunning backdrop of accent furniture, it can be a free marketing strategy for the hotel when it ends up on Instagram or other social media accounts.
Eco-living has been increasingly popular through the years and most hospitality industries embrace these sustainable initiatives and make their prime features attracting the sustainable conscious generation.
Furniture is made from organic and locally sourced products such as rattan or bamboo loungers and recycled plastic furniture.
Today’s furniture trends are eclectic yet have the hints of modern forms with an emphasis on craftsmanship. For instance, we see barrel, egg, and Adirondack chairs sprucing up a lot of hotels lately as these are great stand-alone décors for any modern interior or outdoor space. A newer challenge for furniture designers is the integration of technology into their creations. Automated and personalized are primary features that the younger hotel goers are looking forward to. We’ll surely see much of these hi-tech furniture designs dominating the hospitality interiors in the coming years.
Convenient, flexible, and allowing you to have your own social circle, co-living might the best option! With features that are not found from any other living space concept, co-living apartments have gained much attraction to entrepreneurs and developers.
Newly-built co-living apartments are now springing up in cities across the globe where innovative and smart features are integrated into stunning modern interiors. Who wouldn’t want to live in a fully-furnished and newly built home complete with all the amenities you need?
Aside from the rising cost of housing and changes in the work structures, co-living is an attractive avenue for the young. People in their 20’s to 30’s are more likely to thrive more in a social circle and this is what co-living has tapped on making it an attractive option for the young workers. And, because of these societal and technological shifts, there is a change in the perception of what is ownership and habitat from the present youth’s viewpoint is construed.
At present, developers and the business minds are now raising to capitalize on the new trend as the rise of co-living spaces continuous to soar. Making the modern co-living both an opportunity and challenge for space planners, architects, and interior designers to probe on how to create a shared space different from the traditional co-living.
Understanding the Modern Co-living
The concept of communal space where members are not from the same family but have similar interests is not a novel living system. In fact, “hacker houses” or “communes” have been existing in the heart of North Capitol Hill since the early 2000s. But today’s modern co-living spaces are a far cry from the insufficient co-living space in Silicon Valley.
Most marketed shared spaces offer stunning interiors complete with all the amenities and automated features. Smart and energy-efficient appliances, free Wifi, refilled soaps, and other essentials, community apps, and even having more than three variations of coffee makers are valuable features than no other habitat living can offer.
Open spaces may be hard to come by, especially for cities with limited spaces. With proper planning and consultation, these free spaces are possible to achieve.
The Firsts of Co-living
Before the “hacker houses” the “Isokon” by Wells Coats was designed in north London around 1933 to 1934 as a part of an advanced modernist discourse in Britain spearheaded by Modern Architectural Research Group. The “Kensal House” is another attempt for the design of shared living spaces, conceptualized in 1937 by Maxwell Fry and Elizabeth Denby.
Large companies like WeWork and other property developers have started to integrate co-living with their business ventures, and one of the largest co-living spaces is the Vanke Port Apartment in China that has 60,000 units.
Continued support from major cities such as New York has offered co-living companies to build affordable housing in the city.
Rising Popularity of Co-living
The rise of co-living continues to attract the young both from commuting and remote workers as it mainly offers a cheaper alternative than the typical apartment living. Even moving-in seems breezier as most co-living companies offer hassle-free and online booking. Mobile applications of the co-living companies also provide conveniences and other perks such as news on upcoming social events in your community. These extra services help create a well-connected community.
Opportunities and Challenges for Space Designers
As millennials (born 1980 – 2000) are the main driving forces that continuously boost the thriving co-living community, yet, is there a possibility that these modern habitats can cater to the older generation?
The challenge now is how planners, interior designers, and architects can create a communal space where this time intergeneration and international races can come together.
The Importance of Space Designing
Now, the challenge for space planners is how to strike a balance between the private and public spaces while creating a flexible and innovative habitat.
A lot of space designers have taken interest in this new trend and commissions from developers are starting to pour in.
Being the forefront in providing solutions to designing shared spaces, professionals and entrepreneurs are now at the forefront in providing efficient solutions on how to sustain this growing need.
Takeaway:
Co-living is the future of housing, but for now, the present market for shared living has always targeted young people, most especially those who are in the freelancing sectors. Telecommuters, digital nomads, artists, musicians, and interns make up the patrons of most co-living spaces. The technologically dependent generation will continue to require these kinds of living spaces.
An architect’s craft is more than just creating built environments, instead, these built spaces of interaction are venues for communication and inception of new ideas. Architecture has a great impact on how its occupants live and think. At the same time, a designed space affects its surroundings and the whole community as well.
Public spaces, places of commerce, transportation, and even our humble abodes influence people in the way they live, perceive and think. Built spaces are about people and by their people.
When people are put together, they can behave in many surprising ways. When placed in a space, people will tend to communicate and collaborate just as when observing people in a crowd. While designed spaces can never fully control people, they can encourage or discourage movement and behavior. The unpredictability of human interaction makes designing social spaces the most challenging work an architect can partake.
Architecture is known as the marriage of art and science, and, arguably an embodiment of different fields in humanities and social sciences.
Beginnings
The role of built spaces as an interactive space can be seen at the very onset of human civilizations. In 2011, a review by Wil Roebroeks and Paola Villa state that fire is used in Europe around 400,000 years ago as ancient humans expanded into colder climates. For the cave dwellers, they gather around a firepit were eating, sleeping, making tools and, other daily activities take place.
Roman and Greek architecture are great examples of how architecture influences people in their interactions with society. Thermae, stoa, temples, and theaters are a few examples of communal spaces during ancient times.
Architecture and Social Interactions:
A Common Ground for the diverse building that is intended for public use can be a common ground for people with different philosophies or cultures to come together and express openly. It is a stage where people can openly express, work, and share ideas comfortably.
Public parks, for instance, are designed with the community in mind. Amenities such as picnic grounds, bike lanes, and cycling create activities that individuals and families can enjoy.
This is key to building vibrant neighborhoods and lively communities. With a community space where shops, groceries, residences, and others that bring different families together to a single communal space. A neighborhood with multiple nodes of destinations create a layered multiplicity of experiences. This structure fosters connection and communication while creating culture from the daily routines that interplays within the community.
As architecture values human experiences, it creates spaces where social connections are created among different cultures. Museums, galleries, and monuments can provide a glimpse if not tell stories of the past for generations to see.
Architecture educates us making us closer and understanding of different philosophies and cultures.
Probably the best example of how a place creates a new culture is our learning environments. Where a school houses students with different backgrounds congregate and build new social circles and networks.
Let’s not forget that architecture brings families together. Homes are designed in the context of their owners’ preferences and their ways of living. The residential building is the perfect example of how architecture can bring a balance between aesthetics and function. With a common space that both serves individual and communal needs of the family.
With the advent of technology, the concept of space may obscure as traditional social interactions through physical spaces are challenged by online and remote communication. But as social beings, our sense of belongingness and need for social connections to a personal level is still innate within us. And, there’s a sense of authenticity and deeper connection when it comes to the traditional social interaction compared to the online version.
As a conceived design can either unite or isolate us, the architecture will definitely stay as a powerful force that the society will have in the many years to come.
