Moving Home to College: Socio-Physical Factorsin Creating 'Home' in Temporary Environments

Abstract

Intentionally temporary housing environments, like student housing, where residents know they will settle for a short period may lack the social and physical factors that inspire a sense of home and community. Yet, these environments compete with traditional housing options to retain residents and therefore, universities want to create housing that makes students feel at home and bond with their fellow students and their eventual alma maters. This research asks how do the social, psychological, and physical structures of a temporary living environment create a sense of `home?' This study analyzes these connections in residence halls on the campus of the University of Kansas, as a way to develop principles that will result in high-quality design for temporary living environments. Methods used in this study adapt a series of five focus-group activities combined with interviews and observations to investigate the social and physical factors that inspire students to create `home' in the halls. Four major themes developed through this study address the social-physical connection in the environment: choice and control; flexibility and adaptability; comfort and well-being; and community. These themes suggest a set of design principles that respond to the social development of residents and the physical requirements for successful student spaces. The principles encourage the incorporation of smaller, clustered residential communities to improve identity and community, the use of adaptable furnishings, and the incorporation of `third places' for socialization. This study proves that scale matters; it sets forth design principles for temporary environments that emphasize the importance of social and physical scale in the living environment, and it highlights the viability of a design process to develop ongoing practice in the field of student housing. Student housing officials may use the results of this study to evaluate housing policies and set agendas for future construction projects.