Next Gen Dorms

Year: 2018–Present

At UCLA as well as other universities in major cities, the number of students with commutes of over 90 minutes is growing. “Super-commuting” is the by-product of a housing market that continues to segregate and price out Los Angeles residents who can no longer afford to live near where they work and attend school. While the nature of work has become increasingly digital, the majority of universities still require students to be physically present which expands the wider housing problem. cityLAB conducts research on the impact of extreme commutes on college students. From a broad survey in partnership with UCLA Transportation, cityLAB studies new types of accommodations for non-traditional students who live far from campus, who sleep overnight in their cars on occasion, who need on-campus spaces for cooking, storage, and napping, and who might use a low-cost hotel near campus several times a month. Design experiments are shared for feedback with student super-commuters and submitting to campus administrators supporting the research. This research leads directly to the BruinHub demonstration projects, as well as other campus accommodations studies.