The tower that ended loneliness in Japan: A sociological experiment
english.elpais.com
english.elpais.com
https://www.social-apartment.com/
The positive version: you have a private room but have shared areas for socializing
The negative version: you pay more than you would for a private apartment
If you watch American movies from the 1940s it seems like it was common for people to live in houses and rent a room but all share meals and the living room. They seemed to be called boarding houses. AFAIK they mostly don't exist anymore?
In researching family history, I was surprised to discover how frequently a nuclear family would have various relatives living with them. This was up through the 1930s. It seems that American ideas of desirable personal space changed significantly around the 1940s.
My dad was born in 1942 and was one of 5 brothers and 1 sister, they grew up on one side of a big old walk-up apartment building odin the French-Canadian district of Manchester, NH. The brothers shared a bed and my dad was resentful that he got hand-me-down shoes from his brothers.