**1. Introduction**

Designing the perfect home for its resident has been architects' ambition for centuries, aesthetic perfection, functionality, which responds to the consumer's market. Today, the residential sector is experiencing a paradigm shift due to the changes in needs of its inhabitants: the incorporation of technology in spaces [1], remote working trends [2,3], workforce intercity and intercountry relocation and fluidity. Additionally, an unaffordable urban housing market [4] that makes houses non-accessible for part of the population and an increase in loneliness [5–7] are factors that are driving people towards diverse rental typologies with more shared spaces and innovative plug-and-play solutions, like coliving[8].ThisisatrendthathasbeenacceleratedbytheCOVID-19pandemic[9,10].

Before COVID-19, Europeans spent around 55%–66% of their time at home—home indoors—[11]; these ratios have increased during the pandemic, when we spent a considerably larger amount of time at home due to restrictions. In 2021, a new normality has brought new routines and evolving requirements for residential spaces.

COVID-19 has led to a redefinition of the way we live, how we use our residential spaces, our behavior and home responsibilities [12]. Loneliness, once said to be the

**Citation:** Regodon, A.; Armand, M.; Lastres, C.; De Pedro, J.; García-Santos, A. Data-Driven Methodology for Coliving Spaces and Space Profiling Based on Post-Occupancy Evaluation through Digital Trail of Users. *Sustainability* **2021**, *13*, 12607. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su132212607

Academic Editors: Pierfrancesco De Paola, Francesco Tajani, Marco Locurcio and Felicia Di Liddo

Received: 17 September 2021 Accepted: 4 November 2021 Published: 15 November 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

illness of the XXI century, has risen exponentially, partly due to the regulations imposed by governments in response to pandemic [5,6,13]. According to the United Nations, community actions to reinforce social cohesion and reduce loneliness are needed to reduce the mental health consequences of the pandemic [14].

Coliving is an emerging residential typology, a "top down, modern form of housing where residents share spaces, activities, values, and/or intentions" [1,8]. These shared living solutions have shown ways of fostering human relationships and close networks that improve daily lifestyle, without imposing sharing behavior or patterns, simply by enabling users to choose what spaces to occupy and the levels of camaraderie they want to engage with. Monitoring and evaluating the use of these spaces has become essential to improving the future of spaces and promoting sustainable housing, tracking the factors of environmental, social, and financial sustainability [15,16]. Post-COVID-19 housing resiliency is related to flexibility, adaptability, reducing risk infection and ensuring user well-being [17,18], and has turned even more human-centered.

HCD defines a design based on human needs and experience [1]. HCD puts the end-users, humans, at the center of the design [19]; psychology and technology are implicit in its initial planning [1,20,21]—the human factor of buildings. Research that connected architectural design and behavioral patterns [18] has grown exponentially thanks to smart technologies and sensors [22].

The level of digitalization of buildings is also growing exponentially [23]; as buildings become smarter and more connected, the Architects, Engineers and Constructors (AEC) industry must adapt [1]. Smart buildings are living entities capable of adapting to the changing needs of the users and reporting to practitioners to improve the future design of spaces.

This research aimed to generate a methodology of spatial analysis using Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of the spaces' performance and user behavior patterns based on the available technology infrastructure.

There were two primary objectives: the first was to identify the data provided from existing data sources that will offer valuable information for HCD spaces, and the second was to generate data-driven Space Profiles (SP) based on the methodology generated that can help AEC experts improve the design of future coliving spaces based on datadriven techniques.

The innovation of the current research also relied on the methodology fully performed remotely due to COVID-19, in real time and relying on the existing IT infrastructure of Coliving without adding other sensors.
