Closer to home, the cook and writer Rosie Kellet recently went viral on social media for documenting her communal lifestyle in a converted warehouse in east London. The space is huge, filled with art and handcrafted furniture, and under imminent threat from developers. Rosie and her (ware)housemates cook dinner for each other each night on a rota, and one evening, I join them.

“I’ll probably be here until they kick us out,” Rosie laughs. “We all share everything all the time, especially in winter when the weather is horrible. Most nights we are all around the table and it’s a joke that someone has a crisis-of-the-week but it’s never the same person.”

Rosie is honest about the fact that you need the right combination of people to create a space like this, but says communal living set-ups – when working effectively – can be a hotbed for friendships beyond the building. At her warehouse, they host supper clubs, day parties, record music, and more generally look after waifs and strays that are new to London. I can see why she’s so wedded to the community she’s built here, made up of gorgeous, open-hearted people from all over the world.

When I ask Rowan, who’s recently finished training as an architect, if he would consider living in a commune again, he immediately starts talking about practicalities. It is possible to get land for community housing projects and communal spaces if you don’t have a lot of money in the bank, but it takes time and energy. There’s a lot of red tape. However, he still thinks communal living fundamentally makes sense.

“It strikes me as weird that we all live in little boxes,” he says. “We’re leading lives that are separate and atomized. I don’t really think that’s how human beings should live.”

For some of us, living in a commune may never be a reality. Realistically, I know that while I adore some of my friends, the idea of us living together might not be the smartest. But, if I were to come across people with whom I shared values and mindset, who wanted to give communal living a go? Well, it’s good to know that people like Rowan could make it happen.

“I dream of living with my friends forever – but is the reality as utopian as I imagine?”