Offering housing and communal space, co-living developments are either a solution to the urban housing crisis or simply an attempt to cash in on it

In the industrial chic lobby of the Collective, a huge apartment block in the northwest London neighbourhood of Willesden Junction, a set of posters advertise its events series for residents. There’s a crystal-pendant-making workshop, a talk on the politics of body hair and another on mental health awareness. The most popular class to date, according to Jade Coles, the Collective’s head of events and experiential marketing, was on how to make a ceramic dildo. “That one sold out in eight minutes,” she says.

The 550 residents who call this building home pay a monthly rent starting at £1,085 to live in rooms that are hotel-sized but which benefit from a number of communal amenities, like the events. There’s a cinema room, a co-working space that converts into a music venue, another co-working space, a library that feels like a co-working space, a restaurant and a bar. There’s no fee to join, and you can leave with one month’s notice.