What students want (an apartment with 5m headroom and balcony)

Today's students can live without the traditional student dorm on a corridor with a common toilet. A big part of them still prefers to live with other students but with an own private area (with own toilet and shower). This is the conclusion of a poll with 2 141 respondents, which was commissioned by Stockholm Student Housing, the association "Studentbostadsföretagen" and White Arkitekter.

 

(Image: Kristoffer Roxbergh, White)

“It surprised me that as many as a third of the responding students prefer to live with other students. An explanation could be the student budgets, which being tight, make it more practical to share rental costs with others”, says Kristoffer Roxbergh, architect at White Arkitekter.

The poll is part of a research project which is financed by "Boverket" (Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning) and ARQ (a foundation for architecture research). The goal is to find out about the students' aspirations when it comes to different types of accommodation. A few highlights form the results:

- A majority wants to use their university accommodation - in a larger extent than today - to spend time with friends, cook meals and study

- Students are open to sharing a kitchen, laundry, living room and balcony with others

- They do not, on the other hand, share a bedroom or bathroom

“The poll suggests that we need different types of student housing. Many students can live in a limited space and share accommodation but they want to have a sharp separation between the common and private areas. That's something for us to work on”, says Kristoffer Roxbergh, architect at White.

In the research, White Arkitekter has identified three types of students: the ones who wish to live by themselves, the ones who want to share it with another person and the ones who wish to live in a broader community. Those target group types have inspired architects to work on three different concepts:

- uniBO (23 sqm) for one student

- duoBO (38 sqm) for two students

- multiBO (117 sqm or r19 sqm per student) for six students

Multibo is White Arkitekter's concept for the future of collective accommodation. Six students share 117 sqm and have a common ground floor with six different rooms including a study area, social areas and a kitchen with five meter's headroom. On the upper floor, every student room has its own bedroom and shower.

About the poll:
The poll was made in 2015 through an online questionnaire and is statistically valid (2 141 respondents). Respondents come from the whole of Sweden - from Luleå up north to Malmö down south) and include Swedish students in a dorm, foreign students studying in Sweden and living in a dorm, students who are not living in a dorm as well as 18-30 year olds who do not live in a house. The online questionnaires were completed with in-depth interviews with 31 students (seven non-Swedish) in an online forum so as to udnerstand the target groups thoughts, behaviour, needs and aspirations.

Sergio Guimaraes
Media relations manager
+46(0)851836588
sergio.guimaraes@white.se

About White Arkitekter

White Arkitekter was founded by Sidney White in 1951 and is Scandinavia’s leading architectural firm with over 800 employees working in 14 offices in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK. Our work is research focused and our expertise encompasses architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and interior design.

For nearly two decades, White has invested in establishing a unique research-based department of highly qualified experts in the field of sustainable design. Our founder’s aim was to improve society through architecture and his legacy lives on in our ambition to contribute towards the building of a sustainable world.

About "Studentbostadsföretagen":
"Studentbostadsföretagen" is an interest organisation representing companues who own and administrate student accommodations in Sweden http://studentbostadsforetagen.se/om-oss/

Stockholm Student Housing:
The foundation Stockholm Student Housing is the largest in Sweden with almost 8 000 rooms and apartments https://www.sssb.se/om-oss/

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