flexiblefullpage -
billboard - default
interstitial1 - interstitial
catfish1 - bottom
Currently Reading

New start, new life, new friends: Student residence life in the age of Instagram

Multifamily Housing

New start, new life, new friends: Student residence life in the age of Instagram

When it comes to the design and space planning of your residence life program, the quality of the space you create will be reflected in the social media feeds of your students.


By Zachary E. Zettler, AIA, LEED AP, Associate Principal, GBBN | August 7, 2019
Students working in a communal space. Photo courtesy GBBN

Students working in a communal space. Photo courtesy GBBN

  

The first of the Gen Z students are now freshman and sophomores in college. Soon, they will replace Millennials on campus completely. When it comes to Gen Z, no website, brochure, or campus tour can compete with the power of social media; they have never known a world without it—it’s where they live, learn, promote, slam, etc.

When it comes to the design and space planning of your residence life program, the quality of the space you create will be reflected—good or bad—in the social media feeds of your students. Gen Zs may show up for a campus tour, but their opinion will be shaped by searching the #nameofyourhall to see what their digital peers are saying about it. Inspiring positive posts starts with creating positive spaces for these students to Gather, Bond, Play, Rejuvenate, and simply, Be. It starts with providing spaces that enhance the college experience and empower your students’ personal growth and success.

Sharing IRL/In Real Life (Bond/Be)
Private space for Gen Z often fits within the dimensions of whatever screen they’re using. Even within social groups, this generation will retreat into their phones for a little private down time before rejoining the conversation going on around them. Social media for them is both public (in the way it amplifies their ideas and connects them to peers) and intensely private (every parent of a teen has experienced the way the phone gets turned down or the laptop lid quickly closed when we walk into a teen’s space). Zs may be having an intensely personal text conversation in the most public of spaces; they’re blurring the lines of what happens in public/private.

Video (Gather/Be/Play)
When Zs want to learn how to do something (make slime, write cover letters, create Insta Stories, or use Excel), they turn to video platforms like YouTube or Twitch. If designed correctly, space can accommodate video for group activity (gaming vs. ‘the big game’); group learning (beaming in a subject matter expert for a small group session or watching past lectures) and quiet, focused learning. Designers and Residence Life Programmers need to recognize this key difference between Millennials and Gen Z and start incorporating spaces to support these activities.

 

Student sitting in a hammock

 

Entrepreneurial spirit (Bond/Play)
What if the prior generations’ tech leaders didn’t have to leave their universities to create their start-ups? Colleges and universities should consider providing spaces that empower students to play with their ideas, taking them from inspiration to prototype to digital marketplace quickly. Gen Zs (and ahem, their Gen X parents) have watched the cost of college continue to rise.  Luxury amenities in new and renovated residence halls do not resonate with Zs or their parents, but given Z’s entrepreneurial spirit, a makerspace will (incubator spaces or pop-up business spaces might as well). Well-designed student housing can provide Gen Z with space for both living and launching.

Smart Sleep (Rejuvenate/Be)
While Gen Zs are clocking more zzz’s than previous generations they are also facing a growing burnout epidemic across industries. Space must address their needs to tune-out and turn-off. Sleeping rooms must be designed to foster a quiet place to promote relaxation and sleep. This could be as simple as blackout shades or as complex as increased noise insulation and higher NRC windows on urban campuses. These elements must be considered and custom-tailored to your university’s unique situation.

Conclusion
Just when you thought you had Millennials figured out, Gen Z shows up on your campus. Are you monitoring hashtags related to your university and residence halls? Does your next student tour have a potential social media influencer on it? It would be a mistake to consider the physical space of your residence life program as mere backdrop for selfie scrolling Gen Zs. Updating those 70s era halls requires more than surface polish—it requires understanding Gen Z’s unique preferences, expectations, and ways of communicating. The impact is great and long lasting: the real-life connections forged in your campus housing will become the digital connections that last a lifetime. Providing space for students to Gather, Bond, Play, Be, and Rejuvenate empowers them to positively connect their peers IRL and online.

Related Stories

| Aug 11, 2010

RMJM unveils design details for $1B green development in Turkey

International architecture company RMJM today announced details of the $1 billion Varyap Meridian development it is designing in Istanbul’s new residential and business district, which will be one of the "greenest" projects in Turkey. The luxury 372,000-square-meter development on a site totalling 107,000 square meters will be located in the Atasehir district of Istanbul, which the Turkish government intends to transform into the country’s new financial district and business center.

| Aug 11, 2010

Urban Land Institute honors five 'outstanding' developments in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Five outstanding developments have been selected as winners of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) 2009 Awards for Excellence: Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) competition. This year, the competition also included the announcement of two special award winners. The Awards for Excellence competition is widely regarded as the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition program.

| Aug 11, 2010

10 tips for mitigating influenza in buildings

Adopting simple, common-sense measures and proper maintenance protocols can help mitigate the spread of influenza in buildings. In addition, there are system upgrades that can be performed to further mitigate risks. Trane Commercial Systems offers 10 tips to consider during the cold and flu season.

| Aug 11, 2010

Brad Pitt’s foundation unveils 14 duplex designs for New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward

Gehry Partners, William McDonough + Partners, and BNIM are among 14 architecture firms commissioned by Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation to develop duplex housing concepts specifically for rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. All 14 concepts were released yesterday.

| Aug 11, 2010

NAVFAC releases guidelines for sustainable reconstruction of Navy facilities

The guidelines provide specific guidance for installation commanders, assessment teams, estimators, programmers and building designers for identifying the sustainable opportunities, synergies, strategies, features and benefits for improving installations following a disaster instead of simply repairing or replacing them as they were prior to the disaster.

| Aug 11, 2010

MulvannyG2 Architecture wins “Best Mixed-use Development—Future” award

MulvannyG2 Architecture’s project, Aquapearl in Taipei, Taiwan, was honored by Cityscape Asia 2009 as the “Best Mixed-use Development -Future” on May 20, 2009 at the annual conference in Singapore.

| Aug 11, 2010

REDD and Corcoran Group Real Estate developing eco-friendly boutique condos in Brooklyn's Vinegar Hill

REDD and Corcoran Group Real Estate are developing 100 Gold, a 10-unit boutique condominium complex in Brooklyn's Vinegar Hill that consists of (6) one bedrooms, (2) duplex studios—one with a private yard, and (2) penthouses—duplex apartments with one bedroom and loft, and private terraces.

| Aug 11, 2010

AECOM, Arup, Gensler most active in commercial building design, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report

A ranking of the Top 100 Commercial Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants

| Aug 11, 2010

Turner Building Cost Index dips nearly 4% in second quarter 2009

Turner Construction Company announced that the second quarter 2009 Turner Building Cost Index, which measures nonresidential building construction costs in the U.S., has decreased 3.35% from the first quarter 2009 and is 8.92% lower than its peak in the second quarter of 2008. The Turner Building Cost Index number for second quarter 2009 is 837.

boombox1 - default
boombox2 -
native1 -

More In Category




halfpage1 -

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021