How do our spaces respond to a changing world?

Meanwhile’s Planning Director, Charles Moran, and Chief Development Officer, Adam Brockley, discuss the urgent need for new housing typologies that cater to our contemporary way of life – and Meanwhile’s quest to provide them

Over the past half a century, how we live has changed, and is changing, at a startling rate. Most notable, perhaps, is the way in which technology now dictates so much of our daily lives – for better and worse. Today, working from home, or anywhere in fact, is not only possible but, in many cases, encouraged, commuting no longer something that all of us have to endure. Likewise, we can shop, connect to friends and access knowledge without moving a muscle. The flip side of this, however, is that many of us are now leading a much more sedentary, isolated and unhealthy existence, with plenty of unprecedented stressors to contend with, from the 24-hour news cycle to the fact that our phones render us constantly contactable.

Simultaneously, the global population is increasing at a rapid pace, with more people than ever opting to live in the city (by 2050, it’s predicted that 7 in 10 people across the world will do so). Urban housing is in huge demand, and, as a result, buying and rental prices are soaring, while housing standards are falling. Add the burgeoning climate crisis into the mix, and the urgent need for us to rethink every element of our consumerist lifestyles, and you’ll see that our ever-changing world is drastically in need of new kinds of living spaces that cater to our current and future realities.

The thing that’s strange, notes Charles Moran, Meanwhile’s Planning Director, is that very little about the UK housing market has changed since the Second World War. “Every other thing we use has changed almost beyond recognition in the last 50 years, or even the last 10 or 20 – our phones, our cars, our computers – but, interestingly, housing typologies haven’t evolved,” he expands. “Despite the fact that the way people live has fundamentally changed, we are still, ostensibly, giving them the same options, defined by whether it’s a house or flat, rented or bought, and by the number of bedrooms. No one's really put forward a new product.” The fact that we are in the midst of a housing crisis, he says, renders this all the more confusing. “Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, which is what’s happening here!”

It is for this reason, Charles Moran says, that Meanwhile, and in particular its innovative shared living model, Morro – which combines private, fully furnished apartments with an enriching array of communal amenities – feels so pioneering. Adam Brockley, Meanwhile’s Chief Development Officer, agrees. “We are very much in the vanguard of the shared living realm; it’s been a thrilling opportunity for us, because we’re quite literally creating a market and a product for that market.”

Charles Moran, Adam Brockley and the Meanwhile team deliberately avoid the term co-living, the duo explain, because it denotes a different kind of space for collective dwelling. “The first generation of co-living was at the hospitality end of the spectrum; you were almost told when to have fun, when to have a cocktail, when to go to the gym. We’re trying to come at it from the other end of the telescope: creating good quality spaces that people want to live in, where they can decide how they use their communal spaces. We wanted the residents’ personal spaces to feel very much like a home, and the communal spaces are there for when they choose to interact with them.”