This is why the death of the communal space matters

It's a space where you can complain about your day while listless daytime TV hums in the background.

- Olivia Petter, The Independent

A place to flop onto the sofa and idly tap through your phone in silence next to someone else doing the same. An environment built for opening a bottle of cocktail juice on a Sunday afternoon, pouring extra glasses for anyone who decides to join in. You can eat greasy takeaways, and watch old romcoms, all with the comfort of knowing you're only ever a moment away from someone bursting in and disrupting your solitude, because the beauty and madness of this space derive from the fact that it is fundamentally shared.

Yes, I'm talking about the living room - a place that was once integral to any housing experience, but has now become a fleeting rarity. According to data compiled by SpareRoom, the UK's busiest flatsharing website, half of UK renters now live in flatshares without a living room. The survey of more than 2,000 Britons found that 80 per cent were living this way due to landlords choosing to turn what would be a living space into an extra bedroom, consequently earning rent from an additional tenant. Just 7 per cent of those surveyed said it was their own choice to live without a living room.