Shared student residential space: a post occupancy evaluation

Purpose In Iran, as elsewhere, a great number of student dormitory-style buildings have been built with shared rooms either side of a central corridor as a simple and affordable building form. Highly populated shared rooms with common facilities in such buildings can produce problems in terms of personal space but, at the same time, have many advantages for social interactions and better use of resources, which is a feature of sustainability. Most of these buildings are old and need fundamental refurbishment. This study aims to provide some guidelines to improve advantages and control disadvantages of this building type for future refurbishment and new developments. Design/methodology/approach The advantages and disadvantages of shared spaces have been analysed using a Post Occupancy Evaluation approach in a case study which is representative of more than 30 university dormitories in Iran. Interview, observation and questionnaire survey tools are used in this study. Findings Results show students have some problems regarding privacy, interaction, security, noise, circulation, access hierarchy, storage spaces, use of rooms and territory definition. Practical implications Based on the results of the study, some design suggestions are made for more efficient shared spaces for future designs and also for improving the case study dormitory, in terms of both access hierarchy and internal room arrangements. Originality/value Post Occupancy Evaluation has not previously been used to provide guidelines for architects to improve the quality of design according to existing functional/behavioural problems in similar buildings.