Residence Hall Design - Rules of Thumb
When planning a new student life space, whether residence hall, dining hall or living learning space, starting with a few rules of thumb can put you on the road to success.
Establish a clear process. Outline your process ahead of time and be sure that you include adequate time and means to involve all stakeholders, including your students. “In some cases, the space requirements, programming or intention of the project has changed because of student influence and input,” says Nadia Zhiri, principal at Treanor Architects. “Sometimes students can surprise you.”
Conduct a cultural assessment. What are the goals and objectives for this building? How are the users of this building unique from those of other buildings on campus, or from those on other campuses? What are their needs?
“Student expectations will be different on each campus,” says recent graduate Ashley Trunnell, now an architect at Treanor. “What works on a small liberal arts campus may not work for an engineering school.”
Use solid rules of thumb for space planning. An enhanced living environment—one that positively impacts student well being— begins with following standard square footage guidelines:
- Residence halls with good amenities generally have 260-300 square feet per bed
- Living-learning residence halls will need 350-400 square feet per bed
- Classroom and programming space square footage should be 20 times the number of desired occupants
- Lounge space square footage should be 10 times the number of desired occupants
- Multi-purpose spaces that may be used as dining spaces should be 17 times the number of desired occupants
- Multi-purpose spaces with lecture seating should be 7 times the number of desired occupants