A writer describes abandoning the standard nuclear family model to live with eight other adults in a London terraced house, complete with shared childcare, domestic labor, and even a living room birth. The piece argues that the modern pursuit of privacy, space, and individual autonomy trades the friction of shared life for an underlying weightlessness and chronic loneliness.
It is a rare firsthand look at the friction and relief of stepping off the property ladder into interdependence, though it glosses over the immense privilege required to coordinate such an arrangement. Most people cannot simply opt out of atomized housing without institutional support or considerable social capital. Still, it is a useful prompt to ask what we actually give up for the sake of an extra bedroom.
more: https://aeon.co/essays/living-in-community-is-where-self-illusions-go-to-die
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