Dormitory, parents or sublet - a few decades ago you didn't have much choice as a first year student. While alternative ways of living such as municipalities paved the way to the cute shared apartments of today, the classic sublet has almost completely died out. The possibilities have now exploded, the student housing market is constantly changing, so that it is difficult to keep an eye on the blossoms it is experiencing.
A boatload of freshmen
A place where one would previously assume construction workers or bananas is set to establish itself as an alternative to the classic apartment building in the coming years: the container. What has been a reality in the Netherlands for several years in the form of student settlements is now also coming to students in Germany. Barbecue areas and cafés should ensure attractiveness and retain tenants in the long term, so that the settlement is not just seen as a temporary solution to the initial housing shortage among first-year students, as was previously the case.
Students and other socially needy people
First: What is it like to live in a container? Michael Deflorian is 23 years old. After completing his bachelor's degree in political science at the FU Berlin, he moved to the Swedish student town of Uppsala to do his master's degree in global environmental history. Instead of living in an old Berlin building, he now lives in a container, a ten-minute bike ride from the university. In addition to short-term accommodation for students, the municipal housing association primarily provides these housing options to those in social need. Michael's neighborhood is mainly made up of unemployed people, pensioners and migrants. Apart from a one-month notice period, according to Michael, the most you can complain about is the lack of furniture in the 41 square meter apartment, and an Ikea tour is unavoidable, especially for students who are moving to Uppsala.
Too big for one, too small for two
The monthly rent for a container is around 500 euros. Although it's standard for a large single apartment in Uppsala, it's still expensive for a student like Michael. As a person living in a shared apartment, the large, empty room soon got on his nerves, so he looked for a roommate on Facebook. There was a hail of inquiries. First a Milanese woman moved in, then a French fellow student who now sleeps on a mattress in the living room. However, the status quo won't last long: just one month after Michael moved in, the housing company announced that the contract would expire in two months. A ray of hope for Michael: his French roommate and he decided to look for a new place to live together. “At least we are united in times of need.” It is rare to settle down in a container and so this empty living container has the power to polarize. For some it is a cute and innovative approach to the fight against the housing shortage among young people, for others the idea alone sounds like second-class housing, Big Brother and ghettoization.
The container as a revolutionary
In addition to all of this, the container is one thing above all: an apt symbol for what the current Bologna study is often broken down into. History makes it clear: the container began its triumphal march from America in the mid-1950s. Loading was quicker, it was standardized, hardly slipped, didn't cause any damage, was quickly replaced if it was damaged and could be filled with everything that was needed in the world. It has been said since then that the container revolutionized the global economy. So why shouldn't he be able to use his revolutionary power in other areas of life? When there was an architectural exhibition about containers in Düsseldorf in 2011, exhibition organizer Werner Lippert put it as follows: “Containers are a symbol of life and living in our globalized, mobile, nomadic times.” Words that also apply to studying, that is more modularized, globalized and suitable for the masses than it was 50 years ago.
Opportunities of modularization
However, if you think through the symbol of the container to its logical conclusion, there are also positive things to report. For example, the wanderlust that many students feel is encouraged more actively and can even be in line with the study regulations. Globalized modularization may not currently correspond to the educational ideal of days gone by. But as long as students do what they have always done and design their own educational ideal, modularization offers them more opportunities than limitations. There are enough signs of this: standard study periods that are exceeded; Semesters abroad that become long-term stays; student projects that are even rewarded by the examination office.
A container for life
But what happens when the flood of freshmen subsides in the following decades, events are understaffed instead of overcrowded and student halls of residence have to be converted into retirement homes? Perhaps it will then be the standard for many students to live in their own container, have it transported cheaply from study location A to internship location B and have it docked to other containers for a shared apartment. The container principle would offer it. And there might still be a handful of students who are inspired by forgotten Occupy activists and convert deserted lecture halls into dormitories and fill empty seminar rooms with beds.
Labor in exchange for a residence permit
Since complaints about the lack of housing have become louder and louder, journalists have been happy to visit alternative living spaces where students can still stay. As house guards, they then live in schools and hospitals and are supposed to protect them from vandalism and arson. As nursing staff, they live in a retirement home and accompany seniors on walks for a few hours a week. In addition: gymnasiums and barracks, basements and campsites. In such reporting you can see the embarrassment of journalists to fill their lines with strange housing options and thus highlight the housing problem. Nevertheless, as the history of the shared apartment from a way of living to a way of life shows, it may be worth taking a closer look in order to find an answer to what the student living of tomorrow can look like.
Living as a house guardian:
http://www.stadtstudenten.de/2012/04/wohnen-in-berlin-studenten/
http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/camelot-miete-sparen-als-hauswaechter-in-leerstellen-immobilien-a-883382.html
Retirement home:
http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/wunderbar/wohnungsnot-in-uni-staedten-in-kiel-wohnen-studenten-im-altenheim-a-914510.html
http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/wunderbar/studenten-wohnen-im-seniorenheim-a-910855.html
Container:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/containerdorf-in-berlin-living-in-a-box/8451708.html
Barracks:
Other alternatives:
Jan is actually very happy with his shared apartment. He would only move into a container if he could plant it on the banks of his favorite canal in Berlin's Wedding. With roommates, of course.
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Dormitory, parents or sublet - a few decades ago you didn't have much choice as a first year student. While alternative ways of living such as municipalities paved the way to the cute shared apartments of today, the classic sublet has almost completely died out. The possibilities have now exploded, the student housing market is constantly changing, so that the blossoms it produces
