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Jesus FUCK that's a horrible idea. My neighbor is a maintenance guy for a sober living complex and he has talked to me about maintaining these kinds of high den

Jesus FUCK that's a horrible idea. My neighbor is a maintenance guy for a sober living complex and he has talked to me about maintaining these kinds of high density environments, and this seems like a nightmare scenario just waiting to happen. Also, just emotionally, this can't possibly work. There's no way to succeed in such a high pressure environment like those college years with so little space and so little privacy. This reminds me of that Black Mirror episode where they ride the exercise bikes and earn credits and watch advertisements 24/7.

ctdonath 5y ago
Your point is good, but the profane is inappropriate.
- mrtesthah 5y ago
  Perhaps profane words are appropriate and suited to naming a profane architectural concept.
- Espressosaurus 5y ago
  No it's not.
- throwawayninja 5y ago
  I find the profanity nicely limited and appropriate; if the comment had gone on to curse institutions in general / not share a constructive anecdote that's where I'd call it inappropriate.
  - ctdonath 5y ago
    You don’t even see the problem. Try using “Mohammed” in the same context.
- dang 5y ago
  There's no rule against profanity on HN. It's maybe loosely correlated with breaking the rules (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html - for example the one asking people not to fulminate), but obviously not always. We're not Bowdlers here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20bowdler&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
awillen 5y ago
"There's no way to succeed in such a high pressure environment like those college years with so little space and so little privacy." I lived in Stanford for four of its most overcrowded years... as a junior I lived in an tiny two bedroom apartment that had three people in it, because the university needed to get extra people in and didn't have the space. Obviously a ton of things wrong with this building, but the idea that this will cause people to have "so little space and so little privacy" ignores the fact that UCSB is in a tremendous housing crunch right now. Adding more housing isn't going to suddenly create a space with little space and privacy... that's the current state of affairs, and more housing will alleviate it. You have to examine this in the context of the university, not in a vacuum.
jefftk 5y ago
So little privacy? The first three of my four years in college I had shared rooms; only had a single my senior year. I think that's reasonably common? This is much more privacy than that. (Lack of windows is much more of an issue from my perspective)
- gbronner 5y ago
  As long as the ventilation is good, I don't care about the windows -- the idea is that you should use your bedroom for sleeping at night, and go socialize and learn about things elsewhere. I suspect that a lot of night-owl students will actually appreciate the lack of windows and roommates -- they'll sleep better.
  - Bradlinc 5y ago
    I agree. Had I been given the choice of no windows or no roommates, I would choose no roommates.
- structural 5y ago
  I lived in a four-bedroom apartment with individual bedrooms (and three common rooms) my first two years and a rented house with a couple of housemates my last two. From the rendering shown, these kids will have less space by something like a factor of ten. The amount of living space per student proposed here is by no means common and really does look like a prison block.
loeg 5y ago
My college dorm room (150 sq ft[1]) wasn't much bigger than these rooms, and I had a roommate. Privacy isn't something dorms have had in a long time, and a tiny solo sleeping room actually affords more privacy, I think? My roommate often stayed up late at night playing videogames with voice chat, which sucked in a double. Also a (tiny) single room gives you more privacy for sex, which is another important part of college. I don't love this building, but I don't think (1) privacy is an actual problem with it, or (2) that the concerns of a sober living facility are necessarily the same as a college dormitory. [1]: https://www.hfs.uw.edu/HFSExtranet/media/Floor-Plans/McMahon-Floor-Plans.pdf https://www.hfs.uw.edu/HFSExtranet/media/Floor-Plans/McMahon... (PDF)
- xboxnolifes 5y ago
  I agree. With the exception of not having a window. This setup looks better in every way than all of the dorms at the college I went to. Somehow, UCSB considers having 3 people[1] in a room about 2.5x the size as as "having privacy". [1] https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/housing-options/options-filter/santa-catalina https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/housing-options/options-filter/...
tomtheelder 5y ago
In one of my years at a top 5 rated undergrad university I was in a ~100 sq. ft. windowless room as part of a 6 person suite with a decently large common room. That was a slightly unusual situation at my school (the windowless part, I mean), but remarkably like what is being proposed here. The overall building was quite a bit smaller and most of the rooms had windows and all that, but it really was almost the same from my perspective. It was absolutely fantastic. I had a private space to sleep in and retreat to when necessary (a single is a major luxury for most undergrads!). I had a semi-private space shared with my suite-mates for work, socialization, etc. There were larger common spaces I could utilize around campus. It was my favorite housing situation I had while at school. I could see it being a major problem for those who are highly socially reclusive, though.
thehappypm 5y ago
This dorm gives everyone their own private room, far more privacy than the forced doubles and triples many (most) college have today.
xboxnolifes 5y ago
> There's no way to succeed in such a high pressure environment like those college years with so little space and so little privacy I feel like you haven't been in a college dorm in at least the last decade. These look far better than most dorms I know of. I'd much prefer this setup than the dorms I had to be in freshman year. Small rooms fitting 2, 3, even 4 people in one bedroom is crazy. At least I'd actually have a room to myself. They call the living quarters small, but they look roughly the same size as what I had if you subtracted my roommate's space out of the room. Thank god I got an off-campus house with friends years 2-5.

ctdonath 5y ago

Your point is good, but the profane is inappropriate.

mrtesthah 5y ago
Perhaps profane words are appropriate and suited to naming a profane architectural concept.
Espressosaurus 5y ago
No it's not.
throwawayninja 5y ago
I find the profanity nicely limited and appropriate; if the comment had gone on to curse institutions in general / not share a constructive anecdote that's where I'd call it inappropriate.
- ctdonath 5y ago
  You don’t even see the problem. Try using “Mohammed” in the same context.
dang 5y ago
There's no rule against profanity on HN. It's maybe loosely correlated with breaking the rules (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html - for example the one asking people not to fulminate), but obviously not always. We're not Bowdlers here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20bowdler&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

awillen 5y ago

"There's no way to succeed in such a high pressure environment like those college years with so little space and so little privacy." I lived in Stanford for four of its most overcrowded years... as a junior I lived in an tiny two bedroom apartment that had three people in it, because the university needed to get extra people in and didn't have the space. Obviously a ton of things wrong with this building, but the idea that this will cause people to have "so little space and so little privacy" ignores the fact that UCSB is in a tremendous housing crunch right now. Adding more housing isn't going to suddenly create a space with little space and privacy... that's the current state of affairs, and more housing will alleviate it. You have to examine this in the context of the university, not in a vacuum.

jefftk 5y ago

So little privacy? The first three of my four years in college I had shared rooms; only had a single my senior year. I think that's reasonably common? This is much more privacy than that. (Lack of windows is much more of an issue from my perspective)

gbronner 5y ago
As long as the ventilation is good, I don't care about the windows -- the idea is that you should use your bedroom for sleeping at night, and go socialize and learn about things elsewhere. I suspect that a lot of night-owl students will actually appreciate the lack of windows and roommates -- they'll sleep better.
- Bradlinc 5y ago
  I agree. Had I been given the choice of no windows or no roommates, I would choose no roommates.
structural 5y ago
I lived in a four-bedroom apartment with individual bedrooms (and three common rooms) my first two years and a rented house with a couple of housemates my last two. From the rendering shown, these kids will have less space by something like a factor of ten. The amount of living space per student proposed here is by no means common and really does look like a prison block.

loeg 5y ago

My college dorm room (150 sq ft[1]) wasn't much bigger than these rooms, and I had a roommate. Privacy isn't something dorms have had in a long time, and a tiny solo sleeping room actually affords more privacy, I think? My roommate often stayed up late at night playing videogames with voice chat, which sucked in a double. Also a (tiny) single room gives you more privacy for sex, which is another important part of college. I don't love this building, but I don't think (1) privacy is an actual problem with it, or (2) that the concerns of a sober living facility are necessarily the same as a college dormitory. [1]: https://www.hfs.uw.edu/HFSExtranet/media/Floor-Plans/McMahon-Floor-Plans.pdf https://www.hfs.uw.edu/HFSExtranet/media/Floor-Plans/McMahon... (PDF)

xboxnolifes 5y ago
I agree. With the exception of not having a window. This setup looks better in every way than all of the dorms at the college I went to. Somehow, UCSB considers having 3 people[1] in a room about 2.5x the size as as "having privacy". [1] https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/housing-options/options-filter/santa-catalina https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/housing-options/options-filter/...

tomtheelder 5y ago

In one of my years at a top 5 rated undergrad university I was in a ~100 sq. ft. windowless room as part of a 6 person suite with a decently large common room. That was a slightly unusual situation at my school (the windowless part, I mean), but remarkably like what is being proposed here. The overall building was quite a bit smaller and most of the rooms had windows and all that, but it really was almost the same from my perspective. It was absolutely fantastic. I had a private space to sleep in and retreat to when necessary (a single is a major luxury for most undergrads!). I had a semi-private space shared with my suite-mates for work, socialization, etc. There were larger common spaces I could utilize around campus. It was my favorite housing situation I had while at school. I could see it being a major problem for those who are highly socially reclusive, though.

thehappypm 5y ago

This dorm gives everyone their own private room, far more privacy than the forced doubles and triples many (most) college have today.

xboxnolifes 5y ago

> There's no way to succeed in such a high pressure environment like those college years with so little space and so little privacy I feel like you haven't been in a college dorm in at least the last decade. These look far better than most dorms I know of. I'd much prefer this setup than the dorms I had to be in freshman year. Small rooms fitting 2, 3, even 4 people in one bedroom is crazy. At least I'd actually have a room to myself. They call the living quarters small, but they look roughly the same size as what I had if you subtracted my roommate's space out of the room. Thank god I got an off-campus house with friends years 2-5.