From Shared Living to a Life-Service System: Young Residents’ Everyday Practices and Service Touchpoints in Seoul Co-living Spaces

Abstract

Co-living has become an important residential model in Seoul, South Korea, where young single-person households face high housing costs, compact living conditions, and changing expectations of urban life. Existing studies have often examined co-living through spatial typologies, such as private units, community spaces, leisure spaces, and workspaces. However, contemporary co-living increasingly operates as a life-service system in which spatial design, digital platforms, maintenance services, community programs, and management rules jointly shape everyday living. This article examines Seoul co-living as an integrated service ecosystem rather than a purely architectural or real-estate model. Based on a document-based review of academic literature, policy materials, market reports, and publicly available operator descriptions, the study develops a service-touchpoint framework for analyzing how co-living organizes daily routines. The analysis argues that the value of co-living lies not only in shared facilities but also in the coordination of entry, booking, cooking, working, cleaning, maintenance, social participation, and withdrawal from interaction. The article contributes to housing and design research by reframing co-living as a spatial-service assemblage that mediates privacy, convenience, and selective community participation.