With 6075 student beds currently in design or delivery*, Hayball’s breadth of student accommodation experience exemplifies our understanding of the sharpened focus on student wellbeing.
Senior Associate Thomas Gilbert is a driving force in next generation student housing projects which successfully blend indoor/outdoor shared spaces and encourage interaction through interior layouts. A hierarchy of spaces, from the very active to the private and calm, enables all students to feel ‘at home’.
In an article for Campus Review, Thomas traces back through the sector’s history to the need today to provide supportive, social and comfortable housing with an emphasis on shared experiences.
“Student accommodation needs to provide an experience that echoes the warmth of a family home, making every inch of communal space work hard with interwoven pastoral care elements that add a sense of care and support for young people,” he writes.
The next frontier is the ever-increasing sophistication in designing for wellbeing that embraces more sharing than ever before. Its drivers? Young people who are savvy and not only technically motivated by, but reliant on, Apps that support ever increasing connection and sharing. They are the generation most likely to expect technology to simply work, and to fully take advantage of an existing foundation of technology.
And as much as university is about one’s social life, it’s also about education.
“Student accommodation design also needs to address the educational aspects that are inherent to student life. In addition to the relaxed communal spaces at a project in central Melbourne (La Trobe Student Accommodation) the residential tower will include collaborative learning spaces for studying and hot-desking, which aims to promote collaboration between students as well as encourage study. Along with tech and Wi-Fi-enabled zones and flexible spaces for group and individual work, students can have a better chance at academic success if they’re provided with well-equipped amenities.”
Read: Homes away from home: residential facilities must be more than places to sleep by Thomas Gilbert, on Campus Review (subscription required)
Connect with: Thomas Gilbert on LinkedIn
* Hayball is working on purpose built student accommodation projects in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, across delivery types which include the developer/investor model, commercial providers, and tertiary institutions. Pictured 01 / 02 – the communal dining space for Waymouth Street Student Accommodation, Adelaide, and 02 / 02 – rooftop space, La Trobe Street Student Accommodation, Melbourne.