View Full Version : Windowless dorm?
Apparently UC Santa Barbara is on a path to building what to me sounds absolutely horrible, a dorm where 94% of the rooms have no windows. The purpose being to encourage people to spend more time in the public spaces. I read that as ‘make the rooms unpleasant enough so that people won’t want to be in them.’ $200 million for the project is being donated by Charles Munger, who has put strings on the donation that absolutely nothing about the design change. At least he’s enough of a believer in the project that he’s willing to have his name on the building.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/uc-santa-barbara-mega-dorm-munger-hall-rcna4401
I am trying to get my head around how that room would have felt when I went off to college. I was a lot more adaptable in those days.
iris lilies
11-3-21, 8:47am
We have a window-less bathroom, and I don't even like to put pets in there for any time longer than an hour.
I once tried to interest my wife in building an underground house. She vigorously refused. She insisted on natural light and thought it would be too quiet, “like a tomb”. I lost that one.
I would imagine deep depression for many students.
Given a choice between windowless solitude and socially-engineered herding, I'd learn to embrace the room with artificial light and ventilation, I suppose. This reminds me of the roundly-scorned group projects being foisted on students these days. What do these educators have against individuals, anyway?
catherine
11-3-21, 12:53pm
I once tried to interest my wife in building an underground house. She vigorously refused. She insisted on natural light and thought it would be too quiet, “like a tomb”. I lost that one.
Reminds me of that old movie--a great concept, OK movie--Blast from the Past--where Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken raised Brandon Fraser in a 1960s-era bomb shelter.
As far as Munger's design: I think it's dreadful. "Prison" sounds like an apt description.
Reminds me of that old movie--a great concept, OK movie--Blast from the Past--where Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken raised Brandon Fraser in a 1960s-era bomb shelter.
As far as Munger's design: I think it's dreadful. "Prison" sounds like an apt description.
Every once in a while, you read about someone renovating a bomb shelter as a residency. Some of them look pretty nice to me.
I still think there are a lot of pluses to an underground or earth berm house; but it was one of those arguments that would only be resolved through divorce.
Back at the dear old U, I lived in a drafty cinder block monstrosity thrown together after the war. The pampered students of today would consider it a human rights violation, but it served its purpose.
Reminds me of that old movie--a great concept, OK movie--Blast from the Past--where Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken raised Brandon Fraser in a 1960s-era bomb shelter.
As far as Munger's design: I think it's dreadful. "Prison" sounds like an apt description.
I loved that movie, because they kept pulling out all these stock certificates and he had money to spend in the present day.
Looks perfect for the students to sit in their cell, strap on their Oculus, and live in the metaverse.
Every once in a while, you read about someone renovating a bomb shelter as a residency. Some of them look pretty nice to me.
I have so many times *almost* bought a decommissioned missile site to turn into the Blast From The Past palace, but even divorce has not got me to getting it done :-)
iris lilies
11-3-21, 4:13pm
DH’s cousin, Eric Breitenmoser in this article, owns a WWII bunker in Switzerland. It is huge, a huge cement bunker.
https://www.naratek.com/en/impact-enabler/2021/alpine-battleship-as-modern-data-bunker.php
rosarugosa
11-3-21, 4:13pm
I would imagine deep depression for many students.
At least they won't be jumping out the windows!
I have so many times *almost* bought a decommissioned missile site to turn into the Blast From The Past palace, but even divorce has not got me to getting it done :-)
My plan was much more modest. A series of cylinders buried in a hillside. No so much a prepper ark as a three-bedroom ranch with a really low profile and a decent wine cellar.
iris lilies
11-3-21, 6:12pm
At least they won't be jumping out the windows!
Haha an astute observation.
Chicken lady
11-3-21, 10:04pm
Um, fire?
Um, fire?
Presumably it’s designed like a high rise. Pressurized internal fire stairs and sprinklers throughout. At ten stories tall it’s too tall for a ladder truck anyway. They only reach seven stories.
chrisgermany
11-4-21, 6:48am
It reminds me of the inner rooms without real windows on cruise ships.
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