Community living, or ‘coliving’, is simply a group of people living together in the same place. 

The community often also works and spends their free time together. 

If you travel and work, living in an individual apartment can get lonely, while hostels can have too many distractions and parties going on.

If you're looking for a like-minded community who also works while travelling, a coliving space might give you just that!

The reason people live in coliving spaces is to quickly make new friends in new places. Because everyone works, you can expect a calmer Monday to Friday, and more activities during the weekend. Coliving spaces that are organised around a specific shared interest, like surfing, create a like-minded community of people. 

Coliving spaces have different degrees of social intensity. In some places, you only share the living room, kitchen or garden. In other places you also share rooms. 

Many professional coliving spaces also have a coworking space attached.

Coliving spaces range from shared houses with three rooms, to fully managed camps or apartment buildings with 100+ people.

Some guests need 100% focus to get their work done or grow their business. They connect with the community for surfs and dinners a few times a week, during work breaks and weekends. 

Other guests want 'as much fun as they can', while being able to maintain their work, and are up for a cheeky Tuesday party. As a host, you decide to which kind of guest you cater to, and can set house rules to make sure everyone is happy.

Both guests need excellent wifi. Wifi is considered fast from 25mbps and higher. You can check your internet speed on https://www.speedtest.net/.

Coliving is great for the long term travelling ‘slowmad’, because you get to make friends in new places easily. Since people are not moving every few days, you build better relationships. What better way to get to know someone than to live with them?

In our places, people even found love and started businesses together. (Ourselves included!)

A well hosted coliving space can be more pricey than standard accommodation. A host can usually make more money renting their place out to short-term guests, but prefer to host remote workers. Because remote workers stay for an average of one month, hosts have more time for side projects or other things they want to do. 

Even though a coliving space might cost a little more, for many guests the experience has been life-changing, and allowed them to meet people that stay with them for the rest of their life.

If coliving opens up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities for you, and helps you see life in a different, more rounded and exciting way, we believe it’s one of the most valuable experiences you can have, and that money can buy.

'I'm still confused about coliving, can you literally live there like a normal hostel?'

Yes! It’s really great to have a “home” away from home. I’ve lived abroad for 5 years and sometimes it can get lonely. It’s really nice to have a built-in community when you’re first landing in a new country. And we all work remotely, so we have the same lifestyle. Highly recommend trying it out. :)

For a full tour of a coliving space, check out this video by our friends John and Britnee!

What is Coliving?

Coworksurf

6 million years, since our first great ape ancestors. (And 

We can't run fast, have big teeth, sharp claws, or a poisonous sting. Instead, we rely on social cooperation to survive. We live in tribes of 100 to 150 people that are semi-nomadic. If our tribe grows to 200 people, it splits into two tribes. We worked an average of 15 hours per week. All generations live and work together.

Agriculture needs us to stop moving to grow our food and protect our harvest. Settlements grow bigger. The first cities and individual housing developed. People start specialising and trade increases. 

First, we barter. Then we use items to make trade easier, like rocks, shells, gold. People don't want to carry their life savings in gold. Too risky. The goldsmith has a safe, so they give the gold they don't need to him. The goldsmith gives them an official piece of paper with the amount of gold he owes them. People start trading pieces of paper. 

To trade more easily, people make the pieces of paper of smaller value, and they remove any ownership names. Now we all trade pieces of paper that promise their value in gold. We believe we can exchange the pieces of paper back for gold with the goldsmith if we want to. 

Nice! Now I don't need to first trade my grain for bricks, to trade my bricks for a new axe. I can sell my grain for pieces of paper, get a new axe, and anything else I need, without having to make any more barter trades.

You live on a king's land and pay 90% tax for the army to have your back. Generations upon generations work on the land in a neverending loop of static hierarchy. Nice.

We introduce capitalism. Capitalism means that everyone can now create and own their own businesses, instead of everything being owned by the state.  Capitalism makes trade and the distribution of work even more effective because of specialisation. 

If I focus on making hammers all day, you focus on turning trees into planks, our friend makes sails, and another friend puts all of these together into the form of a ship, we can create more and better ships faster.

We evolved doing different things in a day. You would forage fruits, nuts and mushrooms, hunt, fish, cook together by the fire, play with family members. Now you just make hammers - day in, day out.

Capitalism, industrialisation, automation and larger companies structures created many jobs around single tasks to be repeatedly performed all day. It works, but it's boring at first, and demoralising after a decade. 

Our modern world offers a life that our ancestors would dream of as heaven; any food you crave is delivered at your doorstep with the press of a button. You are safe, have access to good healthcare, are connected with the rest of the world, and can learn anything from anyone for free on the Internet.

The only reason why we humans still exist today is because of each other. Let's keep bringing back the new things we create to the core of our being: a deep connection with ourselves, each other, and the natural world that is us.

A Brief History of Coliving

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Wijnand Karsens

Jonatan Ailert

Writer Wijnand

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