HUC

• Students are faced with a variety of new options, different from their parents’ dorm rooms.
• Previous research has found a lack of student socialization spaces negatively affects students’ academic performance and well-being.

Space affects academic performance and well-being

• Firstly, students’ proximity to campus matters for developing positive relations with faculty and with the campus community.
• Paradoxically, both universities with private partners and private developers alone are marketing increased privacy in student accommodations, in response to perceived demand.
• Many privacy-oriented apartments house only one or two students, but privacy is a questionable benefit for students.

Measuring privacy

• To study students’ experience of privacy and socialization, we developed a scale of six levels, called the Hierarchy of Isolation and Privacy in Architecture Tool (HIPAT).
• In a second study we created a taxonomy to classify students’ rooms and living facilities defined by their lived experience, called Housing Unit Classification (HUC).

Inhibiting resilient networks

• Over half the residences (23) were selected for more detailed study of privacy and socialization opportunities, and how they changed over time.
• Describing the privacy and socialization spaces of each residence permits us to classify how much the built space of residences enable students to socialize with new people and create resilient networks.


Reports on student housing construction show that there is a trend towards building more suites and apartments. These are not built with the common spaces of traditional residences that have historically facilitated socialization and been positively associated with higher GPA and well-being.

Privacy is not a luxury

• Student residences built in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom over the past 20 years prioritize privacy and risk isolation to accommodate perceived student preferences.
• This trend is to the detriment of students’ social spaces, and should be questioned.
• Universities and developers need to focus on building student housing that fosters community building in order for socialization and new relationships to occur.

• When the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) closed in 2019, it left the Hopi Tribe in incredible economic distress.
• When these payments and jobs vanished, it left the Tribe in dire need for economic development.
• "We are honored to have been selected by the Economic Development Administration as a finalist for the Build Back Better Regional Challenge.
• "The Hopi Tribe is now seeking phase 2 funding of up to $100 million to support project implementation," said Hopi Utility Corporation President Carroll Onsae.