Description
The world has experienced unprecedented transformations since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of which have been prioritized and met with counter-pandemic strategies. Amongst them, the design of living space has faced new challenges and requires innovative changes to accommodate quarantine-intensive lifestyles in the pandemic era. Although scholars and architects have studied the post-pandemic design of residential housing, student accommodations as specific quarantine spaces for students have seldom been investigated. In response, this thesis focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on student apartments and possible design strategies for improvements based on a case study of Wencui Parfait International Apartment in Suzhou. The thesis presents a typological study on apartment buildings that followed a literature review and a questionnaire-based field survey designed to identify the pandemic’s potential influences on residents and the studied apartment. According to the results, students living in the apartment have altered their lifestyles and behavioral habits during quarantines. The results also reveal deficiencies in the current design of student apartments when used as quarantine spaces, including a lack of space in individual rooms for various functions required during quarantines and the waste of vacant common space in each flat. Against those trends, design strategies, including enlarging each individual room and adopting flexible spatial arrangements, are proposed for designing student apartments that can better adapt to the pandemic quarantine situation in this pandemic era.| Period | Jul 2022 |
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