A Psychologist Takes a Look at Student Housing

Grinnell College’s Cowles Hall (Jim Heemstra photo)

Should students have roommates or live in single rooms? How big should residence-hall rooms and suites be? Should residence halls offer lots of amenities—as a way of impressing potential students during admissions tours—or should living quarters be comparatively spartan so that students are encouraged to leave their rooms and congregate in campus centers and other social spaces? In our Architecture Issue, Piper Fogg puts these and other questions to Susan Painter, a design psychologist who is a senior planner at the architecture firm AC Martin Partners.