Treanor Architects, P.A.

Treanor sponsored university architecture studio reveals what students think about residence hall design.

Millennial generation students grew up in smaller families than most of their predecessors. They live and breathe technology that evolves daily. They come to campus with expectations about the place they’ll be calling “home.”

So what do students value in a residence hall? How does where they live impact their well being? Those were questions undertaken by students in Bill Carswell’s fifth year architecture studio at the University of Kansas, sponsored by Treanor Architects.

Working with several real campuses, the students were charged with designing a 400-bed residence hall by semester’s end. Ashley Trunnell, a young architect who participated in KU’s studio, said the experience revealed a number of areas that can make student residences more “home-like”—and more marketable.

Customization. Our homes communicate who we are and mark our territory. This is no different for students on campus. They want to interact with their space and arrange it in a way that speaks to their values and priorities. For some freshmen, that room is the first place to express their individuality and responsibility. A room design that offers multiple arrangements for beds and desks, a chance to paint walls or interchangeable cork and marker boards can be simple and inexpensive ways to customize.

Group markers. Students naturally identify with affinity groups— their floor, their major— and are attracted to environments that enhance this tendency. Building design that makes it easy to identify reference groups also enhance security, psychologically and physically. It’s easier to see who does and doesn’t belong and to identify strangers.

For example, one of the most mundane areas of a residence hall— corridors— can become “streets” that allow students to personalize and identify with a smaller group. In the studio, students examined another overlooked area: the threshold into student rooms. Small gestures like painting doors, adding benches outside doors, keeping electronic charts of who is “in” create a sense of ownership and “front porch” community.

Quirkiness. While many residence halls are designed around repeated room designs and cellular structures, the most appealing environments are those with quirks and eccentricities such as unique built-in features and furnishings. KU studio participants all prioritized unique elements in their designs. Nationally, small liberal arts schools such as Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, that offer intimate and non-institutional living spaces are routinely rated high in student residence satisfaction surveys.

Spontaneous engagement. Circulation systems, community spaces and layouts that support informal interaction can be even more important than individual rooms. Yet even newly constructed residence halls can lack adequate community space, says Nadia Zhiri, AIA, Principal at Treanor Architects. “How does it feel to have an open entry where you can see into the building, see friendly faces and have a natural interaction? Compare that with an entrance that is closed off from spaces where students interact, where there is no place to go but straight to your room,” says Zhiri.

Adding common open spaces can cost as little as $31 per semester, the equivalent of two Starbucks grande lattes per month, she adds. “That’s hardly an expensive price tag for a design approach that can positively impact the living experience of every student in that residence— and make the hall more marketable to prospective students.”

Shared experience. Residence halls provide temporary community, marked by specific events. Spaces are attached to specific memories and calendar events, such as “sunset-watching plazas,” performance spaces and football party spots. Julie Lawless, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Kansas, notes that KU’s scholarship halls, which offer cooperative living environments, are extremely popular. To live there, students must apply, maintain community service hours, meet GPA requirements and share in cooking and cleaning.

“It’s not home, but it’s home-like,” says Lawless, who is working with Treanor to collate research on the impact of design on student well-being and performance. “This kind of housing is appealing to students who come to campus from smaller towns and smaller schools. You’re living in a house with people who you really get to know.”

Well being. Students can adapt to almost any environment if there is a sense of well being within that environment. Student needs are human needs: personalization, socialization, safety and the ability to exercise some level of control over their living space. Green building is also about creating healthy environments, from daylighting and ventilation to connections with the outdoors. Along with socializing, students need quiet places with low sensory stimulation, the ability to choose solitude and sound levels similar to nature.

Cultural comforts. Technology permeates our culture and students have strong opinions about the technology that they’d like to see on campus, from social networking integration to devices that monitor energy usage. Today’s students also enjoy more free time and recreation opportunities. They expect fun places to socialize, TV and gaming spaces, and study nooks that are open to the full campus.

“Residence halls have changed culturally over the years,” says Carswell. “Administrators must attune their building program to the cultural changes.” That includes being responsive to how students live their lives, he says.