COULD YOU LIVE IN A WINDOWLESS APARTMENT?

COULD YOU LIVE IN A WINDOWLESS APARTMENT?

Billionaire Charlie Munger is bankrolling the design of a massive dormitory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The $1.5 billion project comes with a major catch — 94% of the dorm's single occupancy rooms are in the interior of the building, and have no windows.

The plan for Munger Hall includes an 11-story building that would provide more than 4,500 beds for undergraduates. Each residential floor would have eight "houses," each holding 63 students. There are eight suites in each house, and every suite has eight single-occupancy beds — window not included -- as well two bathrooms and a common space.

The rooms do have artificial windows, however, which Munger said resemble the Disney cruise ship's artificial portholes where "starfish come in and wink at your children.”

I thought this was an interesting concept with a million questions to be answered. On the positive side, it provides low-cost student accommodation with easy access to the campus. The small room concept was intended to dissuade having students spend a lot of time indoors and thus they would mingle and socialize with other students much more. I didn’t think that student socialization was a problem for most kids but it would be hard to have a party in a tiny room. Having said that, I do recall ten or twelve of my St Joseph’s College roommates sharing a lot of laughs and beer the first year I lived in a 10x25 foot room on campus!

I almost sense that this venture is a sociology research project to study and record the impacts on human behaviour of those confined in small spaces. Will residents display more anxiety and stress because of the layout or will we be actually cultivating a hibernating student body? Will residents perform better or worse academically as a result of their unique situation? Other experiments performed on animals in confined spaces resulted in displays of more aggressive and volatile behaviour. How long will residents cope with confined living before moving out?

The other major factor besides the tiny living space that is significant is there is no view of the outdoors. I know that I have never booked an interior cabin on a cruise ship as I just assumed I would at least want a porthole to look out, if not a large window. I have experienced rooms that had window-size photos of outdoor scenery attached to a wall to try to simulate an outdoor environment. It might work for a while, but I am not sure if it would last. When we first lived in Istanbul, I often used to have to open up the one window we had in our living room, and stick my head out in order to see if it was cloudy, sunny or raining! That was pretty bizarre and I know i would not choose to do it again. Or even worse, live without a window that opens.

It will be interesting to see if the concept catches on or disappears into the sunset. I think I am betting on the latter option.