Collective housing in Vancouver and HCI

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Why is it important?

Our work contributes to HCI studies of the home through an four-month design ethnography of three collective homes in a city on the west coast of Canada. Collective homes represent an alternative housing model that offers agency to individual members and the collective group by sharing values, resources, labour, space and memory. Our paper offers two contributions. First, we offer an in-depth design ethnography of three collective homes, attending to the values, ownership models, practices, and everyday interactions observed in the ongoing making of these domestic settings. Second, we interpret and synthesize our findings to provide new opportunities for expanding the way we conceptualize and design for ‘the home’ in HCI.