The sharing economy has made it possible for people to extract new value from peer-to-peer rentals of their homes, cars and other items.

But what if the products themselves were designed and built specifically for the sharing economy instead of re-purposed and “hacked” to make them sharable? That’s the idea with Collaborative Housing Group LLC, a new startup that is seeking to build housing specifically designed for the sharing or collaborative economy.

The startup plans to build rental housing that has smaller private spaces for residents than typical apartments but much larger shared public space that renters share. The company aims to make the housing cheaper than traditional market rate housing. These will not be what some call “micro-apartments” however, which have drawn some criticism, because the developments would have a community and social aspect that those do not, says Jay Standish cofounder of Collaborative Housing.

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