Coliving Cocktail #27

Ladies and gentlemen,

For those who know me: consistency is not my biggest strength, which is why I've been absent for a while. As for every creative, the struggle is to bring structure in life - but the lack of structure is what allowed me to fill this Cocktail with coliving initiatives that I've co-created in the last months.

"Lord, grant that I might desire more than I can accomplish.” - Michelangelo

And with that, enjoy the coliving highlights ✨

‍1. Get the newest Coliving Insights edition.

We published last week the newest magazine entitled “Is Coliving Here To Stay”. In this 120+ page edition, we gathered insights from dozens of Co-Liv meetups, worked with another dozen thought leaders and gave a real deep perspective into where the coliving scene is heading amidst current industry turbulences. Spoiler alert: coliving is here to stay, but not as we know it.
Download Coliving Insights

‍2. Join Co-Liv.

Last month I became director of Co-Liv, the largest coliving non-profit association. Since then, I’ve had the honour to bring on a whole new executive team, including Cate Maiolini who onboarded 10 ambassadors globally, and we’ve been hosting 15+ events per month to educate, connect and future the coliving ecosystem.

What’s next: Co-Liv is going to relaunch its entire membership, topic-based masterminds, an entire coliving resource directory, and we’re already working on the next Co-Liv Summit.
Discover the association

‍3. Come live with me in Mallorca.

After being nomadic for the last three years, I decided to settle down in Sunshine Embassy, a rural coliving space built by one of my best friends Paula Bublay. I’ve personally visited tens of coliving spaces but never experienced something that reflects my true personality and desire for authentic community building as much as this project.

Moreover, I believe that this can be an example of the Coliving 3.0 space: integrated locally, focussing on sustainability, and having a genuine co-creative approach. Reach out if you’d like to live together.

‍4. Let’s think pods.

I’ve asked myself what the future of pod-living will be, as coliving struggles with one main problem: density. It turns out that pods are not only used in Japan, but for Mecca pilgrims, as temporary shelters, and recently my dear friend Jeremiah Adler (founder of UP(st)ART coliving) announced the release of negative pressure medical pods. The future of pods will have to tackle the sensation of space and privacy - tap into my brain when it came to pods.
Read the blogpost

‍5. Here are the articles, initiatives and reports that grabbed my attention in the last weeks:

• Richard Berridge calls out the lack of integrity within coliving concepts (most critical piece I’ve read)
• Alex Hillman explains how to build community (best blogpost I’ve read on community building approaches)
• The House Monk published the Rental Operators vs. Covid-19 report
• Coliving is going institutional with the COLIV fund raising a total of £170 mil and the launch of a $1bn Paris coliving investment venture
• AirBnb goes into long-term and sublets: welcome to the residential world!
• Ryan Fix (founder of Co-Liv) wrote the most profound human piece around meaning and connection
• KPMG released their Real Estate Innovations review (a big doc with stimulating perspectives)
• Jorge Fonseca shared how in his senior homes, all employees went into lockdown. While first creating frustration, it let to having zero coronavirus cases and turned out to be majoratively a positive experience. That’s been the most political, moral and multigenerational approach that stuck me during the crisis.
• And Osborne Clarke published their Transforming the way we live report. Jonathan Mills also wrote a summary of the report on Coliving Diaries, including legal tips for a variety of topics - highly recommended!

6. And a few more thoughts I’ve been having

• The future needs to be more holistic: how can we go from coliving to ecosystem living?
• Are landlords looking after their tenants? The Covid-19 situation showed the problem of lack of user-centricity within the real estate sector - may coliving be part of that answer.
• I traced back the first #coliving tweet (spoiler alert: 2007!)
• The future of value is in curation - or rather, in creating more aligned experiences between residents.
• The future of events will be #phygital: quoting this from my dear friend Matt Lesniak, the idea is that post-covid events will be a mix between physical (30-50 people) and digital (∞). We finally have a term for that.

7. Finally, get ready for three big publications coming up.

The first one will be the Community Facilitation Handbook - an entire guide on how to build culture and community within coliving spaces, created in partnership with my dear friends from Conscious Coliving.

The second one will be Art of Coliving, the book that I’ve been promising for so long and which will be in your hands in September.

And lastly, look out for the next Coliving Insights edition - we’re going to focus on social impact, sustainability and innovative projects which deserve to get visibility to push the coliving scene forward - reach out if you want to get involved.

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Carpe diem,

Gui

PS: If you have any thoughts on what you just read, please share them with me. And if someone forwarded you this email, you can subscribe to my newsletter here.