Compact Living: Less Space. More Life

Can we live better by owning less space and sharing more?

Housing is getting more expensive, households are changing, and cities cannot simply keep giving every function its own private square metres. But smaller homes only work if compact does not become another word for compromise.

A practical look at the home as something larger than the apartment itself:

OBOS Living Lab opens with Bo Kompakt, where new ways of living are being tested with real residents. What happens when private space is reduced, and more of everyday life is moved into shared spaces and services? What do residents actually use, what do they value - and what have the first findings taught us about the limits of compact living?

Then we move from research to solutions. MASE, IKEA, Coera, AutoStore x Pio and others get short interventions around the same challenge: if we give up private square metres, what can design, technology and new services give us in return?

Furniture that makes a room do several jobs. Storage that no longer consumes the apartment. Shared spaces people actually want to use. Services and digital layers that make sharing easy rather than inconvenient. And, most importantly, the community that can turn density from a constraint into an asset.