Nurturing the Individual

A New Generation of Student Housing

The culture shock for an incoming college freshman has many faces, not the least of which is dormitory conditions. A drab and uniform dorm room or suite can easily send a new student packing back home to the comforts of suburbia or to an off-campus apartment.

The retention rate of college students, for both living on campus and being educated there, is increasing at many universities as they invest in new student housing with a variety of amenities, including espresso shops, Wi-Fi lobbies, fitness centers and 24-hour markets. However, colleges can easily overlook other basic student needs.

The design of many student housing projects centers on collaboration and the integration of varied components. A new design approach is emerging to emphasize the student as an individual through a strong public and private dynamic.

The approach offers strategies for administrators interested in going against the grain by providing residences that promote privacy and individuality for their students, while also giving them places to socialize. It achieves its goals through a creative process, site inspiration and various architectural elements that incorporate common areas, such as atrium spaces and courtyards.

Creative Process

Students can enter housing at different levels, adding to the sense of individuality.

A creative, in-house process was the tool that led architects to the idea of designing for individuality in student housing.

Design architects, a project architect focused on overall responsibilities from beginning to end, an interior designer, a marketing professional, and a design intern are brought to the table to represent different viewpoints. Their objective is to analyze the project at hand: a student housing design competition, with the awareness that every project has something unknown and yet to be discovered. The team is also dedicated to bringing the visions of client and architect together, avoiding opposition.

To begin the creative-thinking process, the team listens to the client to help find the passion in the project. The team then begins to contemplate what the project is really about. The problem statement is written on a marker board and from there, the process becomes one of analysis and synthesis.

Considerable time is spent breaking apart the project and looking at it from different vantage points. Site, spatial arrangements, neighborhood, movement with other projects, and the client’s thoughts are all discussed. Getting as far away from the project as possible with ideas is important, because the journey back is what leads to creative thinking and the new idea.

Site Inspiration

Unusual sites can give designers a unique jumping-off point to create housing units that provide privacy and define differentiation. At Utah State University, for example, a long, narrow, steep site with a 60-foot elevation change provided the spark for a plan composed of a landscaped series of terraced levels of varying student-housing units.

Common areas such as atrium spaces and courtyards create a strong public dynamic and a place for students to socialize.

The lower end of the proposed site was the connecting point of the main campus with a neighboring single-family residential community. The site’s high end linked to the campus with classroom buildings. A pedestrian trail traversing the site was frequented by a constant stream of students walking between classrooms and to parking areas along the streets in the nearby neighborhood.

An additional feature of the site was an adjacent park, with a landmark historic building and old-growth trees, which the campus shared with the residential area. The student-housing plan needed to respect both the park and the single-family residents.

Creating a low scale for several housing units accomplished these two goals, while respecting the steep topography of the site. At the same time, the approach was intended to preserve the pedestrian pathway trail, so students could continue to move back and forth, enhancing arterial campus circulation.

Walking along the backdrop of the proposed housing at Utah State, students could follow a landscaped series of terraces. The project is architecturally inspired by a village-style approach, with housing units juxtaposed to each other in a twisting pattern, terracing down the hillside. In the corner of the site, a parking structure was also nestled and partially buried into the hill.

With a prairie-architecture style selected for the buildings, each has the characteristic sloping roofs and long eaves, lending a strong home-like sense. The twisting juxtaposition of each building helped to create natural areas of privacy. While students walk along the pedestrian spine to campus, they can stop at various outdoor private spaces and courtyards along the way. Interior spaces also have numerous gathering areas adjacent to private spaces, including breakout areas in the hallways and two-story atrium entries that additionally enhance wayfinding.

With different building types and different unit types within each building, the design was intended to offer students a range of settings in which they can live. For units at the top level, for example, glazing was treated differently. Hallways and related spaces both private and public changed according to each building type. Because the building is designed into a hillside, students enter at different levels, adding to the sense of individuality.

By promoting privacy and individuality through architectural ideas and elements for new housing, university administrators can offer a strong, nurturing environment producing good academic performance and student retention for years to come.

David Cassil, AIA, of Architectural Nexus can be reached at dcassil@archnexus.com.