Architects and planners today are designing academic campuses for the most connected, collaborative generation that we’ve ever encountered. To better understand the rising generation’s learning styles and interest in wellbeing, HLW brought together an interdisciplinary team of strategists and designers to ask current students: How are you learning today, and what spaces do you think will best accommodate your ability to learn in the future?

The team’s recently completed study, Students Talk: Spaces for Learning Research Report, sourced survey responses from a diverse range of students in the higher education space to identify how current students are learning and how their campus can best suit their needs. The report summarizes the role design plays in how students congregate and study, identifying three primary themes of today’s academics and providing key insights for educators and facilities managers. HLW’s goal is to draw on both design experience and research to inform the way that they guide clients, while reshaping how they approach the educational experience.

Research Methodology

The survey collected 611 responses from students at 433 schools across 35 states—representing a mix of private non-profit (31%), private for-profit (4%), and public (65%) institutions. The questions asked were both written and visual images of learning spaces, paired with questions about how students would use them. Images were selected to represent archetypal settings found in a range of academic institutions.

While intended to demonstrate a diversity of spaces, the images all shared several common characteristics. They all were professionally photographed, capture people using the settings, and represent a diverse cross section of gender and ethnic diversity.

Results

Overall, if graded for student satisfaction, many current space typologies flunked. This results was not a surprise. The way students are learning is adapting rapidly—at a pace that exceeds the typical campus planning and design cycle. Fortunately, our findings reveal that students are aligned on clear themes and actionable solutions that can be applied both to existing space and new construction that would allow their spaces to evolve in a way that supports the student population.

The study found that these themes and the resultant architectural solutions align with trends HLW has included in workplace designs for years. One such example is the integration of mobile technological solutions into spaces. Take the addition of outlets to a cafe. This low-effort architectural move transforms the environment from one for a singular use during a prescribed time of day - eating during mealtime - to one that can be activated throughout the day. Thanks to innovations, such as mobile technological solutions, formal learning is increasingly able to occur in informal settings. Campus architecture needs to adapt to support these new learning needs.

Through the analysis of these results, the team identified three key themes that students believe will enhance their spaces for learning:

Balance of Space Types

Respondents reacted positively to spaces that have multifaceted usage because that allowed them to feel like they were part of a larger network of peers, even when doing work alone. These spatial types range from fully enclosed space for individual and group work to booths and semi-private seating to open seating. Specifically, students were drawn to a concept we call alone-together. When studying, students want to be able to have a dedicated space, but did not want this to happen in isolation (for example in a carrel at the library). Instead, they liked single-user areas like a dedicated table and chair or enclosed study room with transparent walls and sight lines to a more social environment. Like working at a coffee shop, this builds a sense of camaraderie - or togetherness — among people who are studying.

Functional Furniture & Tools

Specialized educational environments, like maker spaces, did not resonate as strongly with respondents as less specialized, multi-use spaces did. This could be that these spaces are not used by all students, so certain respondents did not consider them relevant to how they learn. That said, students did prefer spaces with clear and relevant functionality to ones whose design they found aesthetically pleasing. Students pointed out, for example, when there was a white board but no markers or a mounted monitor but no cord to connect. In short, they were evaluating the usability of the space first. This was true for furniture selection as well. Respondents were drawn to large work surfaces and movable furniture options that could accommodate teaming and group work. Something as simple as a table with a large enough work surface to hold a laptop and textbook side by side at the right height for the chair it was paired with received extremely positive feedback across the board.

Focus on Wellness

Elements like plants and natural light create a more welcoming and healthier environment. These components go a long way to create an environment education settings. This theme is one that most aligns with trends seen in the workplace over the last decade, where sustainability and wellness have become a cross-industry priority. Features of this theme include dedicated quiet rooms with acoustic privacy, natural materials, natural light, plants, and views.

This study showed that while students want more out of their education environments, their requests are by no means impossible. Instead, most suggestions can be implemented at a low cost and applied across scales. For long term campus projects, consider how to tie these requests into strategies for future-proofing so that ultimately, students can make the finished space their own.

This lesson is one we're applying in our current work. HLW is currently designing a new student center at Fordham University in New York. The student center is the literal and figurative heart of the campus and will integrate many of the principles outlined in this research study. Throughout the programming process, we identified the need for students to be able to make this space their own. The center reflects the university's focus on wellness, which will be reflected in major features like a new fitness center and food spaces as well in more subtle elements such as indoor greenery, skylights, other natural light access points, and a range of furniture options throughout the social and study spaces.

The process of designing and building responsive architecture on university and college campuses is a complicated one. By asking the end users what they want prioritized, the outcome is sure to be one that supports how students are learning in order to create spaces that receive outstanding grades in the future.