Public, private & in-between spaces in student housing

Abstract

The right balance between public and private spaces is one of the most difficult issues in any housing design. Scholars argue that in student housing public and private spaces are equally important for promoting interaction as well as ensuring opportunities for self-development among the students. This research aims to establish definitions for public, private, and in-between spaces along with their relationships to achieve the right balance in the design of it which would eventually contribute not only to the students, but also the university and surrounding areas. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used for this research and then the student housing is designed following the findings. This research reveals that public and private spaces coincide together in student housing. Whether a space is public or private can be identified based on four factors, which are accessibility, inclusiveness, visibility, and use of the space. Several in-between spaces like common, privatized public and adaptable spaces are also found following these derived factors which create the balance between publicness and privacy in space at certain periods of time. Accordingly, no such space can be termed as entirely private or public space and thus the balance cannot be determined in a quantitative way. Furthermore, the scale of the space or the way space is studied is also crucial in identifying the publicness or privacy of that space.