Student Living in 2040

Abstract

DUWO, the largest student housing corporation in the Netherlands, strives to contribute to the best time of a student’s life by offering suitable and affordable housing for both national- and international students. An opportunity here is to explore the wishes and expectations of student housing in the future to build new innovative/ successful student buildings that also contribute to the student’s well-being. The research question of this project: How can DUWO contribute to the better well-being of all students, now and in the future? Literature research concludes that quality of life, life satisfaction and happiness are all different terms describing well-being. Findings on happiness research show that the human biopsychological pathway, which balances positive/negative feelings, predominantly determines our overall feeling of happiness. As human interaction heavily affects our positive feelings, one can see that valuable relationships make people happy. To stimulate the formation of these valuable relationships, one should start to facilitate social contact. Internal research shows the increasing interest of DUWO in the well-being topic, which results in practical ideas. Nonetheless, the main focus still lies with affordability and availability. This focus and the stimulus of the Dutch rent allowance/valuation system results in the corporation mostly building studios. This result affects the way students build these valuable relationships. From an abstract level, it also seems that there is a gap between the corporation’s intentions and the expectations of the students. DUWO focuses on the future and the collective, whereas students ask themselves what it implies for their individual situation in the present. The reframed challenge: Find out how DUWO can support social relations between students living in the same building and get a better understanding of students’ needs, to be able to design for those needs and support well-being. To stimulate the formation of valuable relationships, one should promote community building. People within the community dare to be interpersonally vulnerable, which creates emotional safety and intimacy. To be part of a community also provides a feeling of belonging. The best way to stimulate community building is to facilitate contact and to create a feeling of involvement. Design requirements: 1. DUWO has to get a better understanding of the students their needs. 2. Student housing should stimulate social contact and create a feeling of involvement. 3. Students need to know beforehand how they can give input and how DUWO will use their input. 4. Students should be able to respond to specific topics which they care about The final design outcomes:1.Internal policy change. Embrace well-being internally. Make it the basis to inform the policy. Ensure that affordability and availability no longer determine the future of student living. 2.Enrich the communication between DUWO and the student. Involve students via statements inside the DUWO app. See what students think and how many are concerned about which subject. Link these polls to offline discussion evenings where students can share their input elaborately. 3. Architecture recommendations. Ensure the building itself promotes social contact, plus create a feeling of belonging through designing for hierarchy.