Rethinking the study-bedroom: How to better the quality of life in student housing and its environment focusing on mental health
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2023
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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Universities routinely list student well-being and academic success as their highest priorities. However, the following thesis suggests that these good intentions are often inadvertently undermined by shortcomings in living and learning conditions in student housing, primarily noise and lack of privacy for relaxing, sleeping, and bathing. It is advanced that these issues disproportionally affect incoming students, who are typically used to having their own room at home, and suddenly having to share a study bedroom 24/7 with a complete stranger. Even when they like their new roommate, it is suggested that the constant presence of someone else in the spaces where they are accustomed to working, relaxing, sleeping, and bathing on their own can be a significant source of stress that can disrupt a student ability to relax, study and even sleep properly. The study proposes three simple changes to eliminate the primary sources of noise and lack of privacy in study bedrooms without significantly increasing construction costs: dividing the area of a typical shared study bedroom into two single rooms, subdividing these into separate spaces for studying, relaxing and sleeping, and finally, providing bathrooms that can be accessed without passing through public areas. Floor plans based on three prototype rooms containing different combinations of these changes are also compared favorably with a range of recently built student residences in terms of daylighting, natural ventilation, and an area devoted to circulation.
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Student housing--Design and construction, Student housing--Psychological aspects
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