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Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

independent.com

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Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#361
post #134
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this doesn't work. The Marines stuffed me into a very small barracks room and gave me a room mate. It doesn't make you leave any more often, it just makes you fight.

But in this case, every student will have a single, on a campus where the lack of singles is one of the biggest student complaints. Especially loathed are triples, which would be eliminated campus-wide once this building opens.

Every student will have a single when the thing opens, and then later they'll put in the bunk beds.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal is to get the students out of their bedrooms. There's plenty of common space, and lots of really nice places to go study and socialize out of your bedroom. This is intended to promote real-life socialization, which is the only real reason to go to in-person college these days. Plus, everyone gets a single! My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is diff…

Which is great except 50% of people are introverts and need space to recharge. How many people live like this in real life? That speaks to the choice of hanging out followed by "leave me alone". It sounds like an experiment but it could probably have been done slightly further "away from home" if it was about collaboration. Just have places to encourage people to hang out if they want to and not if they don't. Forcin…

I detest architectural coercion. Who is this old rich fuck to force "socialization" (a dystopian word if there ever was one)? That's my business. Buildings and urban environments should be built to allow various degrees of social interaction based on one's own personal needs and determinations as you see fit, not some megalomaniacal lunatic's tyrannical and dehumanizing designs. This is the tyrannical streak running through modernist architecture. For some reason, some people with money see everyone else as rats or cattle that they can heard around as they please, for their "own good".

In an environment that respects human persons and their individuality as well as their social nature, the environment is structured according to subsidiarian principles. The town square is where anyone can socialize with anyone in town. Next the building courtyard is where anyone in the building can socialize with anyone else in the building. Next, the living room or common area of an apartment is where anyone can socialize with anyone in the apartment (analogously for single family homes). Individual bedrooms are for total privacy. I don't need to be coerced out of my bedroom if that's where I need to be because some crazy billionaire high on his own flatulence says so.

Be very wary of so-called "philanthropists". They are in love with their power to control and coerce, not the actual good.

To quote C. S. Lewis:

"My contention is that good men (not bad men) consistently acting upon that position [imposing “the good”] would act as cruelly and unjustly as the greatest tyrants. They might in some respects act even worse. Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under of robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some points be satiated; but those who torment us for their own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to heaven yet at the same time likely to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on the level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#363
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution to this is for someone else to offer a more compelling vision of the future that is also practical and achievable. Take Elon Musk for example. His vision of the future is more compelling than anything I hear any politician of any political party in the USA (or most other nations) putting forward. I find the standard issue right-wing vision of the future repugnant and the standard issue left-wing vision c…

Elon's vision is being the king of Mars, where the only law is his own. I'm not sold.

When did he say that?

Even if that is his vision, it won't work. You can't be king of a frontier for very long unless your rule is very competent, minimal, and low-cost. The tighter your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Preparing/conditioning today's young adults for the dystopian future, where all our jobs are being done by robots, and the elite class needs to warehouse the rest of us safely away in 2mx2m cells in gigantic concrete honeycomb dormitories, where we're given a TV and one Soma per day.

If anyone is interested, this is basically the first half of the speculative fiction story, "Mana" ( https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 ) which has been posted here on HN a few times.

Yea, it seems every year we are moving closer and closer to some dark mixture of Manna, Fifteen Million Merits [1] and Elysium [2], where regular people no longer serve any purpose, and are simply warehoused somewhere to keep them out of the hair of the few rich elite.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film)

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#365
My primary concern would be the noise. I can deal with small rooms, no windows etc. but I assume students crammed that close together would be crazy noisy. I have ADHD so I’m much more noise sensitive than most, but even for normal people I would expect better sleep and study outcomes from a quiet environment.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#366
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that sounds so great. I walk out the door to class, realize I forgot a pen, then get to take a 15 minute walk all the around the building just to get back up to my room. Wonderful

A fringe benefit of the design is that it applies behavioural and evolutionary pressure against forgetfulness and other cognitive flaws.

Such as free will.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal is to get the students out of their bedrooms. There's plenty of common space, and lots of really nice places to go study and socialize out of your bedroom. This is intended to promote real-life socialization, which is the only real reason to go to in-person college these days. Plus, everyone gets a single! My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is diff…

Which is great except 50% of people are introverts and need space to recharge. How many people live like this in real life? That speaks to the choice of hanging out followed by "leave me alone". It sounds like an experiment but it could probably have been done slightly further "away from home" if it was about collaboration. Just have places to encourage people to hang out if they want to and not if they don't. Forcin…

Living like this is actually pretty common both at universities and as a young adult. You have private space, a shared kitchen/dining room, and the building has lounges and other public amenities.

Your room is for sleep, and possibly study, though there are other places on campus with fewer distractions. You can choose to eat and work together in groups in your dining room. You socialize away from your suite so you don't annoy your roommates.

The dorms that I used had all sorts of unpleasant features:

-- giant shared bathrooms had gang showers, or required you go go down 2 flights of stairs and along a hallway for 100 yards -- shared larger rooms with multiple beds and desks, creating issues around differing schedules -- no kitchens or cooking facilities -- no food storage facilities, creating unsanitary conditions

etc.

As an example, a fairly common layout that I've seen is a 3-room quad -- two very small rooms with two bunk beds, two dressers and maybe a close adjoining a not particularly large 'common' room with 4 desks, perhaps a mini-fridge, and a beat-up couch.

Munger's vision is a palace compared to this.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#368
post #28

Glad he had the balls to step down and call them out. The other committee members and people in charge of the project should be embarrassed as they failed to represent the best needs of the university and its students. Windowless dorms, crazy 97 year old billionaire amateur architect and a bunch of corrupt university staff and committee members who would do anything to save a few bucks. What could go wrong? Humanity…

[deleted]

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same initial reaction as most here when reading the article. This data has caused me to think more critically about the concept, thank you.

A lot of the reviews amount to "well at least it's cheap" which is not really a ringing endorsement. When you build living spaces that are terrible to live in, they become inexpensive relative to the horror that is the current rental market. But that seems like a bad solution to rent inflation.

Well, if they are better considering the cost, then they are better considering the cost...

Maybe someone else can design a building that has similarly good/better reviews and gives students windows. But to just assume that there are unproven better cost/benefit options at the needed scale... Well, does not seem justifiable either

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#370
post #226

Munger also did the same thing for the University of Michigan's graduate residence building^; 95% of the rooms have no windows. ^ https://housing.umich.edu/residence-hall/munger/

Worth noting that the UM building is a significantly different scope and scape: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2015/07/heres_your_firs... It houses 96 suites, 6—7 bedrooms each. Each bedroom is 16x9 with their own private bathroom. In one of the blueprints in the UCSB article, there appears to be 1 bathroom per 8 suites [1]. To be fair, graduate housing is supposed to be a bit better than undergrad dorms — espe…

I see two back-to-back bathrooms per eight bedrooms.
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