Blended living

The Class of 2020’s conference in Berlin during November will explore the blurring boundaries between living, working and learning environments in university cities.

The rate of change in the lifestyles of university students and young talent has accelerated fast in the past decade. Gone are the days of siloed education and career paths defined spatially by homes, offices and university libraries.

The digitisation of education and work, the inaccessibility of housing for young people and less linear career trajectories have given rise to a new generation of globally minded talent eager for experience-driven lifelong learning. 

At the Class of 2020, we were originally inspired to explore the role the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) industry plays in shaping urban ecosystems for living and learning.

Approaching 2020, these are exciting times for the industry, as we observe a blend between student housing, co-living, short-stay concepts and hospitality all contributing to more diverse options
for accommodating individualised young urbanites. 

In wrapping our minds around the progression of PBSA and the complexities of accommodating talent in cities, we have been excited to find a number of accompanying ‘blends’ in university-city life. The European market is starting to experience a blurring of PBSA as an asset class and the emergence of a range of hospitality-related living services and branding concepts.

The urban campus is at its infancy in terms of looking at novel ways of living and working together and the sharing economy and the Internet of Things helps explore more intelligent ways to live-work, addressing issues of flexibility and affordability and improving the quality of the working and living experience.

This co-revolution provides added capital in other areas, too – improving sustainability through more efficient living and working, utilising the full capacity and flexibility of spaces and reducing waste through sharing. Emotional wellbeing is improved through a more connected community, addressing the loneliness epidemic and providing a platform for collaboration and entrepreneurship.

The conference on blended living to be held in Berlin from 6–7 November will bring together the real estate industry, higher education providers, policymakers and city governments with a range of enterprises connected or interested in the future of living, working and learning.

The conference aims to inform, challenge, inspire and provide networking opportunities with the most important leaders in the field.

For more information, go to theclassof2020.org/the-class-conference-2019/