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thirty years ago, eight women embarked on a radical experiment in urban living: they built a communal house in central amsterdam in which practically everything — from kitchen utensils to childcare — was shared.

the house was conceived as an alternative to expensive, single-family apartments and atomized urban lives. it also reflected decades of progressive thinking on feminism, gay rights, and collaborative living.

with co-living making a comeback, new york-based designer irene pereyra returned to her childhood home to learn about the story of this unusual place, and to discover what we are willing to share in our living environment on a day-to-day basis — beyond the safety of our screens.

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produced by
behind the scenes
directed by
written by
voiceover
production and design
art direction
cinematography & editing
web development
motion design
illustrations
3D
research
soundtrack
voiceover recording and mixing
my amsterdam footage
‘cello song

thanks to our incredibly talented friends who went above and beyond to make this project a reality.

thanks to ada bolder from "amsterdam steunpunt wonen" who provided us with invaluable information about communal living in the netherlands. as a member of the city council, ada proposed the legislation that established amsterdam’s one-percent communal housing rule.

thanks to anneke and han for so generously providing us with footage from ed van der elsken’s film “my amsterdam.”

much love to everybody who called kollontai home and shared their story: marjan, fokke, nelly, swante, tjalling, hannah, ans, merel, nienke and joske.

this project is dedicated to my mother who made the absolute best decision to move us into kollontai and still lives there to this day.

info@onesharedhouse.com

one shared house

the story

thirty years ago, eight women embarked on a radical experiment in urban living: they built a communal house in central amsterdam in which practically everything — from kitchen utensils to childcare — was shared.

the house was conceived as an alternative to expensive, single-family apartments and atomized urban lives. it also reflected decades of progressive thinking on feminism, gay rights, and collaborative living.

with co-living making a comeback, new york-based designer irene pereyra returned to her childhood home to learn about the story of this unusual place, and to discover what we are willing to share in our living environment on a day-to-day basis — beyond the safety of our screens.

one shared house —
an interactive documentary

by anton & irene / 2014-2016

1 of 2

what would you be willing to share in your immediate living environment, long-term? select from the list to the right to find out how you stack up.

nothing
at all

not even internet?

shower

sometimes you might have to wait around in your shower sandals.

toilet

you can hold it, right?

common
room

a place to see and be seen, or just hang. you’d have a private room, too.

work
spaces

a co-working space right in your building.

kitchen

rock out with your communal wok out.

daily
dinners

join whenever you like. if you don’t cook, expect dish duty.

groceries

everybody chips in for the basics: coffee, toilet paper, etc.

car

be sure to reserve the house car ahead of time.

child care

everybody keeping an eye on the kiddies means more downtime for parents.

cleaning

because the common room’s not going to vacuum itself.

washing
machine

the eco-friendly alternative to owning your own washer/dryer.

garden

enjoy a slice of the countryside, but be prepared to get your hands dirty.

gas &
electricity

stay warm and illuminated for less.

internet

dirt-cheap and wicked-fast (except maybe during peak hours).

2 of 2

now tell us a little bit about yourself so we can have some more meaningful results.

how do you identify yourself?

male
female

in which country do you live?

how old are you?

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

are willing to share more items in their
living environment than

are willing to share the most,
and the least

ranks highest out of participating
countries in their willingness to share

is what most people who took this
survey are willing to share with others

of people who took this survey don't
want to share anything at all

is the one thing that most people
are not willing to share in their
living environment

sorry, there’s nothing here

home page survey

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for the next 10 minutes, sit back, relax,
and make sure your sound is turned on.

amsterdam
/1984

marcantilaan
/309-320

amsterdam
in the 80s

perspective:

my mom
/25 years later

we moved in

/1989

left-wing
sentiments

alexandra kollontai
/1872-1952

perspective:

house
kollontai

realists, not
just idealists

the beginning

perspective:

— yeah and I really wanted to live in a group

I don’t know why, I still do

coming from a large family, all nice and cozy together

and the social aspect of raising kids together

not in a claustrophobic little family of two people with children

but with
more options

perspective:

— a couple of things did change over time

and I don’t remember us ever making a decision about that

it just happened naturally

eating together is very intimate, and you do that with friends

and if they don’t become your friends, it’s not interesting

and to keep doing it just to keep the household efficient, just doesn’t work

so it’s really
quite simple

you end up eating together less and less, you start joining less

you start to think you might as well cook upstairs

and then gradually the dinners are no longer happening

perspective:

— once I went upstairs to cook, which was really something else

and tini completely lost her mind because she had seen me take her salt shaker

and felt that I had commandeered it!

and I thought to myself, well if this is how it’s going to be

I won’t be cooking here anymore, I don’t care

perspective:

— what we always had to agree on, was the division of the spaces

if somebody would move out we had to agree on who would move into that space

and that ultimately was the only agenda item we ever really had

if someone was moving — oh my god!

we have to decide again on what to do

and at some point
that went wrong

there was a fight about a move in the house

and one of the residents squatted the communal room as leverage

squatting!

and then evacuating!

yes! the other residents decided to evacuate her and her stuff!

I still remember that, me standing there with all these people moving her stuff out

and thinking
oh my god

perspective:

— well, that’s not an unhealthy environment
to grow up in

I think a lot
of villages have that

they have their own village idiot and they have their own artist

and they have someone who just kind of walks around

they have lots of different kinds of people

and for children that’s very interesting