The Architecture of Togetherness: Spatial Design, Co-Housing Mindsets, and the End of Loneliness

In an age of hyper-individualism and nuclear tracking, how we structure our physical environments dictates how we handle isolation. This week, Raakhee sits down with Shweta Sinha, a project architect with Schemata Workshop in Seattle, who possesses over twenty years of experience designing multi-million dollar community projects and affordable housing developments across India and the United States.

Shweta shares a blueprint for transforming sterile living quarters into communities of connection and resilient local networks. From the "Courtyard Effect" that sparks spontaneous interactions to the rise of Small Efficiency Dwelling Units (SEDUs) that naturally drive young adults to look beyond their walls, this discussion completely redefines our spatial relationships. We also explore the intersection of Afrofuturism and anti-racist architectural frameworks through her studio's latest urban preservation project.

References available on the Episode Webpage

New episodes every Thursday!

• Sign-up for our mailing list by clicking 'JOIN" to stay updated on group discussions, workshops and other upcoming events.
• Share your thoughts and suggestions, access our Terms & Privacy Policy, contact us and more at: www.horizonshiftlab.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to Signal Shift with me, Rocky. Community living and new ways of living, both to combat costs and loneliness, have been topics we have often touched on. Whether it's concepts like Bestie Row, a group of four couples who had been friends for decades, bought land together and they built tiny homes, which were kind of their second properties. And the rooms themselves were really small, but they had a massive common area that they would share. And they would cook together and spend time together. Or it could be places like in Hesperia, California, a new planned community called Silverwood. And they want to foster a culture of kindness. So you have to sign a kindness pledge when you move in. You have to commit to being engaged and helpful and community-minded. And the expectation is that you're going to welcome your neighbors and you're going to help them when they sick. Now, as noble as it is, I think it's a little bit more challenging to implement something like that in real life. But we see places coming up with these sorts of concepts and new ideas and trying to push the boundary of how we live together. We see single young people moving in with elderly people trying to combat loneliness. And one provides company support, new knowledge. The other has the financial backing to have a residence in the first place. So today we're going to explore this further and we're going to discuss concepts around co-housing and alternative housing with our wonderful guest, Shwera Sinha. Shwera, a very, very warm welcome. Hi, Raki. Nice

Empowering Through Form: Introducing architect Shweta Sinha and the Schemata Workshop mission.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

to be here. Thank you. Thank you for being here. We really appreciate it. I'll share a little bit more about Shwera. Shwera is an architect with Schemata Workshop in Seattle. The company's mission is to improve communities and empower people. Shwera completed her Master of Architecture at the University of Southern California and has over two decades of experience in Bangalore, Los Angeles, and Princeton, ranging from building multi-million dollar museums to community schools. She has specialized experience with affordable and innovative living in urban neighborhoods. And she believes in a collaborative architecture that is true to its context and crafted through understanding and care. So, Shweda, I'm very excited to speak to you about all of this today and I think get those insights that we often miss as people who are not designing homes that people live in. How do physical spaces actually shape community and even community resilience? Why doesn't building matter in terms of either bringing people together or even bringing them apart?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So communities where people like actually interact and share life experiences are what I think of its resilient communities. And especially now in our age of individualism and have nuclear families, designing physical spaces in such a way that people can actually come together and share life becomes even more important, right? And in terms of how does a building matter, I mean, um, because we we were just talking about LA and how both of us have a connection to it, it reminds me of these two buildings that I lived in when I was in LA, um, two apartment buildings. One was, I think, 300 units, like a four-story uh building with lots of amenities. You basically walked into a corridor and there were doors on both sides, and people just walked into their units. The other one was 16 units, but they were all set around a courtyard, two floors. I actually made more connections with my neighbors or saw more of them, chatted with more of them in the second building, even though it was much fewer people. So absolutely, like when you design physical spaces to me, those two buildings are like such a great example of how you can bring people together or how you can completely isolate them, even though you have so many people living in such a dense urban environment.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

And the second place you described reminds me a little bit of this a similar grad housing situation I was in as well. And I remember the courtyard, and you're right, that being so important because you know you would stroll out just to sit and get a break, and somebody else would walk in, and that's when you have those really beautiful interactions. The other question that comes up is is the issue of is it the people or is it the space? And just wondering about historically, were they were they better at designing? So is it that design has changed and it has become colder and more of these multiplex sort of condos? Or is it simply also that as people and as culture, we have changed so much? Um, you what's the interplay? And that's a tough question.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

That's a little bit of both, right? We have changed as societies. I mean, we used to live in villages where people knew generations. You knew the grandfather, you knew the father, you knew the kids. Now people have moved into these nuclear, really insular societies. So we've changed for sure, but we can definitely design spaces that help counter that change to actually design in such a way that we can throw people together and life happens in those moments.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

It is affecting us, right? We have uh a loneliness crisis, um, so it's definitely impacting us. Um, so what exactly is co-housing?

Defining Co-Housing: Trading underutilized private square footage for shared resources.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

How would you define that?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

The definition talks about people coming together sort of intentionally to share amenities and resources, but to me it's it's more of a mindset. It's when people choose to live together in such a way that you start sharing some living spaces and they can be internal, they can be external. And uh for for example, like you have single-family homes where a four-person family might have 3,000 square feet, right? And those four people on a day-to-day basis do not use that 3,000 square feet. They probably go to their rooms, they maybe meet for meals uh in the small dining space, not even the large dining space. And so um the idea is in co-housing that maybe you take a thousand square feet from that 2,000 square feet and give it away for common spaces. And because you have six families that are giving away thousand square feet each, for 6,000 square feet, there's some economic benefit too. But then there is also the benefits of just getting people to hang out with and sharing meals with and caring for each other, and you know, and and then once you get to know people, not everybody needs camping equipment or not everybody needs to have skis. I mean, you could share that stuff. It becomes a great situation where people start caring for each other, people do chores for each other. It it could just uh evolve into this beautiful thing. It's people choose to live together such that they share life with each other.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

It intersects with so much culturally happening that is almost calling for us to return to that type of way, whether it's the increased cost of things, uh, people saying, gosh, if I'm worried about food in times of crisis, that I need to have a garden, but you know, two people, three people, a small garden just doesn't work. You need community garden. As an architect, how do you how do you design differently to create spaces where um togetherness, even that neighborliness is the default rather than the exception?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

I actually grew up in India, and uh my grandfather's house was like this great example of co-housing as we think of it now. Um, every nuclear family had their own like unit. So you had sleeping quarters, but you also had a kitchen. However, there was this larger kitchen that was set next to a courtyard where a lot of meals were cooked, and every celebration happened in that courtyard, whether it was birthdays, whether it was festivals, people um, you know, dried pickles and poppered in that courtyard. And and we grew up with multiple sets of parents. It was, you know, there was so much love and everybody took care of each other. Those experiences, I really draw upon those when I design as an architect. When I look to design a building, I'm not just looking to make a beautiful building, right? I'm always looking to see how you can have uh spaces where people don't feel lonely, where maybe they chance upon other people going about their lives, and somehow you're not so alone anymore. For example, at a recent home ownership project that we finished, when you enter the lobby, there is there is a space that's set right off the lobby, and it's a common space, and it's next to the mailboxes. And I imagine that somebody who's coming home after a long day, you're tired. Um, I imagine you share a few words with somebody uh who's sitting and watching a game, you share a few smiles, you create these spaces where people are walking through, and and um somehow you're always thinking about how people can interact with other people.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Reminds me of our

Mailroom Serendipity: Embedding chance encounters along central community paths

SPEAKER_00 9:49

place. Uh, when we go down to the mail room, it's just the boxes and you get it and you come straight up. And all the common areas are so far, so you don't use them. There was just a small, like coffee area, even I could imagine when you go grab the mail, you just sit down for a few seconds just to take a breather, and that's when you can interact with somebody. Yeah, I think you're painting this picture for us of how important that intentional design is in crafting those spaces. And I know there's this concept of um serendipitous interaction, the idea that communities built in the hallways and kind of shared gardens, exactly as you were speaking to.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

You don't put a room in one corner of the building because then it's never going to get hit. You put it where there are movement patterns going through it. There's constant activity or volume of people going through it. So that itself would lead to sort of these chance encounters. Uh, maybe when there is a cluster of buildings, you don't just design the spaces because co-housing happens in multifamily, but it also happens as building clusters. So when you design clusters of buildings, maybe the spaces in between the buildings should not be leftover spaces. They should be intentionally designed. This concept of positive and negative space. So negative space is when it's just leftover space between the two buildings, but positive spaces when you're thinking about that space between the two buildings, does it create some sort of a play between the two buildings? Can you hold some building volume one way or the other to create a little bit of space there? So thinking about always positive outdoor spaces as well. Um, and then the other thing would be if you had uh kitchens or you had some areas of the house that are not private, areas where people hang out, living spaces, kitchens. If you put those next to the community, the areas where the community is walking through, there are more chances of somebody leaning out of their window as they're cooking, watching someone go by, saying hello. Make sure that people are always coming in contact with each other just as they're going about their daily

The Privacy Progression: Designing a spatial spectrum from public thresholds to private sanctuaries.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

lives.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The question, and maybe as a millennial, um, that coming up, right, is that we uh we've grown up so independently, nuclear families, privacy and living our lives a certain way, it doesn't matter. It's it's sort of embedded in our habits. When I I think about um living with my in-laws, for example, and while I can see immense benefits, it certainly also brings up concerns of how do you how do you maintain a private life and how do you how do you have a space? Can you have a space that can cater for some privacy and some bit of your own life while still allowing for living with others and interactions?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

There can be a progression of spaces, right? Like you have a completely public area that's say outside your building, and then when you walk into your building, it's kind of like a semi-public area. Now it's limited to the eight families that live in your building. From there, maybe you go into the community spaces from which you go into your homes where you try to put the living areas on the periphery of where you're entering. So your dining areas, your kitchen areas. So now these are sort of more private public areas. You can share some of those aspects with other people. And then you can actually have sanctuaries, which are your sleeping rooms. So there's a progression. At all of these points, there is some sort of uh the threshold, right? I feel like if you do have a progressional spaces, you can figure out ways to have a little bit of your own. I mean, I I think people are all kind of on a uh spectrum going from uh introverted to extroverted, right? So the extroverts can choose to stay in those sort of uh community spaces, the more public spaces of that uh community, and the introverts can stay for 15 minutes and then sort of retire to their own spaces because you have these options of uh different kinds of spaces.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

We've had that privacy for so long. It feels a little hard to give up, but I think I think there are benefits, also to letting up on that a bit and letting people in, right? The thing with co-housing is um it kind of is or community living rather is touted as one of those pillars of living this hundred-year life or longevity and knowing how important that is. Um, and I guess with that in mind, maybe this is a broader question, but um yeah, what are you seeing in terms of just the future of I think building and architecture and that world? Um, are all things moving in that direction to allow us to live that hundred-year life?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

You need to think about accessibility in strollers just like the way you think about accessibility in walkers and wheelchairs. So there are there's some common things there that we can tap into. I have I have actually been thinking about this a lot because I have Asian parents. How how could we have societies that are kinder? I love what you said about the kindness contract that you signed with that community. Then I feel like mixed-age communities might be the way to go. And I think you touched upon this a little bit too. It's because older people might have more resources, they might have more time, and older people are lonely and might need support, and younger people might be able to provide that. So this could be a win-win situation for everybody. Like, I think of at the time when I was a young mom and um um with two little kids, and I would have, in a heartbeat, like traded some child care time for cooking a quick nutritious meal for somebody and hang out with them. You know, have somebody hold my baby while I go take a nap. I I think these are very, they could be very symbiotic relationships once we set them up. So um I I think there's going to be something like this because we have aging communities all over the world now.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

I love that uh bringing

Acer House Spotlight: An Afrofuturist, anti-racist preservation project in Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

together different generations um under one under one roof. Um, I think that's that's beautiful. I'd love to talk about um a project you've done that totally caught my eye. I was like, this sounds so incredible. It's a little bit a little bit off topic, but I just have to talk about this, which um it's Asa House and Teresa and Cherry. And it's described as an Afrofuturist response to Seattle's first anti-racist um development. Tell us about this project.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, so uh Acer House is a project, it's a multifamily residential project in the central district of Seattle. It is designed by Skimara Workshop, but uh we worked with a black architect, Donald Kinney. And Donald questions this Eurocentric way of design in the US. And so um for this project, because this is a predominantly black community in that area, so uh for this project, he kind of drew upon um African building forms and textures, and the the building definitely reflects patterns and textures from from there, which sort of reflect uh an African background, but also looking forward. There's like also a very um cool aspect to the project, which is most of the time when you have development in sort of inner city areas, um the people who actually own that land get pushed out. In this project, the developer uh gave people the choice of either staying and building equity in this project or selling and moving away. And as you know, usually when people get pushed out from inner city areas, it it is disproportionately uh people of color that get pushed out. So this was a great chance for them to build equity in in an area where they've grown up. Um, the other thing that Donald did was he also drew upon sort of the the black experience in uh America. So uh the project has like uh what he calls a stool and a porch, which you see it in some communities here. So um it's it's set around a courtyard, so it's it is a very new project and it's uh getting there, it should get done soon.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

That's amazing, and I think drawing on that inspiration from Afrofuturism, which is it's a very inspiring space. And um, in being South African, of course, you know, it's certainly connecting with me as well. And um, yeah, that's so beautiful. I think it's something I'd I'd love to see one day. When it comes to both co-housing um and and even the affordability of housing and just all these things, what's I mean, what's coming, what's new, what what do you think we are gonna see over the next few years and some changes?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, um, I think one of them we've kind of touched upon, right? I think co-housing for um uh the elderly or an aging population is something we're gonna start, we're gonna have to start thinking about very, very soon. But also uh thinking about younger people and uh kind of the the kind of uh spaces they might want to live in, because we talked a little bit about how they may not be able to afford a lot, right? They don't have as many resources. So there are things like co-living, which is basically you have your own maybe sleeping area, but then you could you you share kit a kitchen or you share a bathroom with other people, so that's one. Um, the other one that Seattle has is called uh small efficiency dwelling units, and basically they're small, fully self-contained units, right? But they're very small, and so you'll have a kitchen and you'll have a washer dryer and you'll have everything within the unit, but because the unit is so small, it gives you affordability, but then it also kind of forces you to step out of your home to sort of use those common spaces. Those are a great idea for young people, especially like in a dense urban environment.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Um, a really empowering pivot because I think we have that mindset of oh, needing this big space, and but what's the point of being alone and lonely in a big space when you can have a small space that actually enables and empowers you to enjoy more of what's out there for us to enjoy? So it's it's such an interesting way to change that on its head and think about it differently. So I love that. Shuna, thank you so much. Are there any final thoughts or anything you wanted to share?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

One thing that that is coming up is the whole AI revolution and we talk about robots and we talk about how these things are going to affect us in the future. I sometimes think that when we talk about um elderly co-housing or uh co-housing for an aging population, maybe it's not such a bad thing, you know, because not every 75 year old can cook. So if you had a robot that could do some of the grunt work or just help you with some of the stuff, maybe it would give us the time to just enjoy each other's company, to actually share that meal without having Having to put in a lot of work as we age. So it may not all be bad. There might be a good balance out there that we could tap into.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

I think of Japan, right, being very future forward in that sense and using robots with the elderly and their aging. There's got to be positive applications to this that, you know, as a society we'll have. Thank you so much, Veda. It was wonderful having you. Thank you for being on Signal Shift. And to everybody listening, thank you for being here. Yeah, please watch, subscribe, and you know where to find us. So thank you. And we'll see you again next week. Bye for now.