In this article, we explore a few highlights from the 2023 edition of Coliving Awards.
This year Conscious Coliving was the winner of the Content & Media category award for our Coliving Conversations podcast series!
The Coliving Awards 2023 was hosted in Amsterdam during the first edition of the Coliving Conference. Our co-founders Naima and Matt were both moderators during the conference and all four co-founders (including other co-founders Juan and Penny) were present there as a team.
Read on to explore insights from the panels we moderated as well as highlights from the award winners, finalists and honorable mentions.
Coliving Conference 2023 highlights
The first edition of the Coliving Conference was held at in Amsterdam on Septemeber 21 & 22, 2023. It was an immersive two-day event hosted by Coliving Ventures.
Participants were able to connect with coliving and shared living enthusiasts, forward-thinking entrepreneurs, seasoned investors and esteemed sector leaders as we shape the future of shared living.
The event included interactive sessions, product showcases, panel discussions, and tons of great insights. Our co-founders Matt and Naima moderated two different panels, one on ESG and the other on experience-driven shared living. You can read more about the panels below:
Experience-Driven Shared Living: Coliving as Lifestyle & Life Stage
This panel dived into the multifaceted aspects of community in coliving, exploring the intersection of streamlined operations, sustainable design and community-building and uncover how these elements contribute to thriving communities. The panel was moderated by our Head of Community & Wellbeing Naima Ritter Figueres and speakers included Samuel Toribio from Homelike, Tim Chapman-Cavanagh from Assael Architecture, Ruben Petri of Commune Coliving, and José Llanos of CIVIT. The session covered the following:
- The intricacies of fostering communities within coliving spaces, understanding how streamlined operations, sustainable design and thoughtful curation contribute to creating vibrant, connected living environments.
- The versatility of coliving as a lifestyle choice adaptable to various life stages, from young professionals seeking social connections to seniors seeking shared experiences and support.
- The key elements that contribute to the success and resilience of coliving communities, as we highlight best practices and innovative approaches to create flourishing shared living environments.
Driving Change: Coliving's Role in ESG & Social Impact
This panel uncovered how coliving can serve as a catalyst for change, embracing ESG principles and social impact to shape communities, drive investment decisions and foster a more sustainable future. The panel was moderated by our Head of Impact & Innovation Matt Lesniak and speakers included Christophe Vercarre of Coloc Housing, Tjeerd Haccou of Space & Matter and Willem Jan Landman of Circular Floating Districts. The session covered:
- The integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles in the coliving sector, understanding how these values drive positive change and contribute to sustainability.
- The role of coliving in shaping vibrant communities and fostering social impact, as industry leaders showcase initiatives that empower residents to contribute to the greater good.
- Valuable insights into how ESG considerations impact investment decisions in the coliving space, revealing the growing importance of responsible investing and its influence on the industry’s future trajectory.
Other great sessions from the Coliving Conference
The conference also included insights about senior coliving with the like of Embassies, Gropiuswohnen and NUUage; hybrid hospitality insights from Cutwork, Zoku, Hyve and Ariv; learnings from PBSA with Amro, The Class Foundation, Milestone, Nido and The Property Marketing Strategists; a look into the nomad coliving market with Coconat, Coliving Semkovo and Outsite; strategies for scaling coliving brands with Node, PLP Architects and OurDomain; and regional market insights from POHA House, Greystar, International Campus Group, DoveVivo, Badi and others.
Coliving Awards 2023 highlights
This year’s edition of the Coliving Awards, which took place at the end of the Coliving Conference, included 17 categories and gathered over 10,000 public votes on LinkedIn. With candidates from over 25 countries around the world, the diversity and innovation of the applicants was inspiring. Below we highlight some of our favorite projects.
1 - User & Community Experience
Community is the core value proposition of the coliving model: with a strong user and community experience (UCX), shared living businesses are able to retain guests, lower customer acquisition costs and create an ecosystem of loyal brand advocates. This category highlights operators that are doing their best to facilitate thriving shared living communities.
Winner: B-Hive Living
B-Hive Living was created out of the ambition to proactively build homes, communities and shape experiences supporting the holistic health and wellbeing of a growing generation of renters.
Finalists:
- Gravity Co-living: prominent London-based coliving operator
- Together Co-Living: Australian coliving brand backed by GCP Hospitality
- Covive: Mexican coliving startup with shared houses in CDMX and Monterrey
Honorable Mentions:
- I5 Union Market: luxury coliving project in Miama backed by W5 Group
2 - Impact & Sustainability
Embedding ESG and social value into the core of your shared living business can support you to attract aligned investors, customers and staff, facilitate planning approvals and create engaging impact-driven marketing materials and branding strategies. This category highlights the shared living businesses that are ‘measuring what they treasure’, and embedding impact and sustainability throughout their business strategies, designs and operations.
Winner: Episode
EPISODE is the coliving vertical of SK D&D and various partners based in South Korea. They are one of the operators behind the Worldwide Coliving Membership (WCM), which was conceptualized for the purpose of developing a coliving culture across international coliving brands and operators.
3 - Student Coliving
Coliving is a housing typology that stems from other shared living models such as purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). The PBSA and coliving sectors have grown close and both models are starting to inspire one another and even resemble one another more and more. This category showcases the PBSA and student coliving products that are proving to be some of the best inspirations in the wider shared living sector.
Winner: SHED Living
SHED Living is a student coliving brand by I Asset Management based in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. SHED creates vibrant living and studying spaces that blends modern comforts and international communities. SHED was created with an idea that every next level in young person’s life will demand a new version of themselves.
Finalists:
- Nido Living: one of Europe’s most well established student coliving groups
- MILESTONE: Austrian real estate group with coliving for students, professionals and seniors
- Campus Perth: student coliving brand backed by GCP Hospitality
4 - Blended Living
New mixed-use developments are integrating concepts of coworking, coliving, hospitality, F&B and the likes to create dynamic hubs. These spaces can become neighborhood hubs that contribute a range of what we call ‘community capitals’ (e.g. human capital, social capital, political capital) to their wider neighbors and stakeholders. This category highlights the most innovative new live / work / play hubs the shared living sector has to offer.
Winner: Hyve
Hyve is hybrid hospitality concept that is a constantly evolving ecosystem and a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship. It’s a temporary home for digital nomads, developers, those who already are world changers, as well as anybody seeking to become one.
Finalists:
- Together Co-Living: Australian blended living brand backed by GCP Hospitality
- YUST: Belgian hybrid hospitality brand based in Brussels, Liege and Antwerp
- MyTown Co-Living: prominent coliving brand in the Philippines
- Coliving & Surfing Fuerteventura: coliving and coworking community for nomads in Spain
5 - Emerging Coliving Concept
As the coliving sector evolves and consolidates, more and more players are entering the market. By assessing the failures, successes and learnings of earlier models, emerging coliving concepts are bringing the newest insights and innovations to create inspiring new shared living projects. This category highlights these newbies and their latest concepts.
Winner: The Citylifer
The Citylifer offers sustainable, convenient and accessible coliving residential solutions for like-minded young professionals and digital nomads. The Citylifer is delivering a brand-new housing solution that is uniquely catered to young adults and contemporary nomads.
6 - Proptech
These days streamlining operations and facilitating community requires a bit of support from technology. This category celebrates the apps, property management softwares (PMS), hardwares, roommate matching and other property technology (proptech) solutions.
Winner: Utopi
Utopi is a specialist ESG technology platform for multi-tenant real estate. They collect data, engage with residents, and report on how buildings perform to ESG standards. Through granular, real-time reporting for certifications like GRESB, operators can improve ESG performance by up to 20%.
Finalists:
- res:harmonics: all-in-one PMS for short and long stay residential products
- Spaceflow: all-in-one tenant experience solution for residential and commercial products
- RoomMate: property management platform for tenants and investors
Honorable Mention:
- Coly: roommate matching tool using psychometric assessments / mapping
7 - Coliving Operator of the Year
As the coliving sector evolves, everyone wants to know who the most inspiring and innovative shared living businesses are. With the right balance of community, wellbeing, sustainability, technology and business viability, this category highlights the ‘crème de la crème’ of the coliving sector.
Winner: Gravity Co-Living
Gravity Co-Living provides cleverly designed, affordable rented accommodation in the U.K. (London and Reading). With flexible contracts, all inclusive bills and a community first mindset, Gravity provides a convenient approach to renting. This is the second year in a row that Gravity has won ‘Operator of the Year’.
Finalists:
- Node Living: global coliving brand in Barcelona, Madrid, London, Dublin, NY and LA
- Folk Co-living: one of London’s newest coliving brands, backed by DTZ and urbanbubble
- UKO: Australian coliving group based in Sydney and Melbourne
Honorable Mention:
- POHA House: German ‘cospace’ brand with locations in Aachen and Münster
Coliving Conversations: Content & Media Winner 🏆
This was another inspiring edition of the Coliving Awards, and we couldn’t be more proud and happier of also winning an award of our own, in the Content & Media category for our Coliving Conversations podcast series!
We extend our gratitude to all the podcast speakers, partners, listeners and everyone who supported and voted for us for this Coliving Awards nomination!
We look forward to the next edition of Coliving Awards and Coliving Conference. Until then, you can subscribe to receive Conscious Coliving email notifications for more resources and insights on coliving.
For more insights into Coliving Awards 2023, make sure to download Coliving Insights’s Coliving Awards Special Edition 2023.
And, of course we hope you enjoy listening to the award-winning Coliving Conversations podcast series! 🎙️ 🏠 💚.
This article has been authored for you by:
Transformational Coach and facilitator. Trainer in mindfulness, sharing circles, and how to live and lead more consciously. Co-author of the Community Facilitation Handbook and the Coliving Apps & Tech Guide. Facilitates community engagement strategies.
Penny is Director of Research & Sustainability at Conscious Coliving. She has an MSc in Social Research Methods, and her PhD explores how shared living may enable lowered environmental impacts. She has consulted on numerous shared living projects, specialising in impact strategy, concept, and community. Penny has presented at conferences including the Co-Liv Summit, the Urban Living Festival, BTR360 and more. She has also authored publications in The Developer, Coliving Insights Magazine, the book Urban Communal Living in Britain, as well as being interviewed by the BBC and the Guardian about shared living.
Matt is responsible for designing community experience and impact strategies and measuring the social value of coliving communities. Matt is also a founding member and current Head of Community of Co-Liv and has worked for The Collective on their Impact Team.
Juan is a Communications Strategist, Project Manager, Systems Engineer, Team Coach and Executive Coach with an ontological/systemic approach. Co-author of the Coliving Apps, Software & Tech Guide and contributor of The Community Facilitation Handbook. He facilitates connection for individuals, teams, and communities.
