Today’s students value authenticity, peaceful places and style. Find out how student housing operators meet those needs.
The last of the millennials, unless they’re on the Van Wilder plan, have moved out of our higher educational system. Taking their place have been members of Generation Z, who are the most diverse group in America and bring different needs and demands.
“They have always had smart phones,” said Laurie Provin, Director of Marketing for University Furnishings, at NAA’s CampusConnex conference this February in New Orleans. “The Internet has spanned their lives.”
They also lived through the Great Recession, which may have shaped another character trait. “They’re very conservative with their own money and they tend to avoid risks,” Provin says.
They prize authenticity. “They’re into resale [used merchandise] because it improves authenticity and is less expensive,” says Chelsea Dora-Shibley, Vice President of Interior Design for HPA Design Group.
Safety and Authenticity
If student housing developers and managers study these traits, they can develop unique offerings to meet the needs of Gen Z. For instance, knowing that Gen Zers like to buy resale goods online has led some firms to develop a safe buying zone, which is a physical space where they can meet sellers.
“Because they’re buying goods from strangers, some communities are putting in a safe buying zone so they’re not driving around and meeting strangers,” Provin says.
Experience is also important for this generation. “They’re not into style for style’s sake,” Provin says. “It has to mean something. If they haven’t been to Paris, they don’t want to hang a poster of the Eiffel Tower.”
Student housing providers are looking for other ways to meet Gen Z’s need for authenticity. “They don’t believe in ‘bedroom in a box’ or ‘dorm in a bag,’ ” says Provin.
This generation is also more stylish than millennials or Gen X. Dora-Shibley says that designers of student communities are “starting to see the influence of color again,” while James Kenner, Senior Director of Design at Greystar, adds, “The strictly minimalist style is going away with this group. They prefer a combination of styles and comfort is very important.”
What do these preferences mean for student furniture? Provin says her company took a lot of influences and engineered them to have aesthetic appeal and survive five or six years of student housing. “We went from big and bulky to things with more style,” she says. “The last thing we want is furniture piling up in the hallway because they’ve replaced it with items they find more attractive or appealing.”
Today’s students are also cognizant of their wellness and health.
Kenner says Greystar is exploring designing “decompression rooms,” where students can unwind away from electronic devices. In some of their new on-campus communities, the company may provide office space for a university-affiliated therapist, in keeping with GenZ’s acute awareness of mental health.”
“They look to their apartment community to provide a safe haven from a chaotic world,” Provin says.
Letting Students Have Their Space
Design can also help stressed-out students. “We will usually have a courtyard with open space,” Kenner says. “It lets more light in and the ‘green space’ allows the student to reconnect with the earth and become grounded.”
As students congregate, many of them want to be near the action, but not actually participating. Housing operators and designers call this being “alone together.” Designers will create activity rooms with amenities such as pool tables toward the center and booths around the perimeter that offer a degree of privacy.
“To balance GenZ’s need for alone time and desire for community, every room should serve multiple purposes through different pockets of space that allow social events and privacy to coexist simultaneously.” Kenner says.
Another place where many Gen Zers aren’t necessarily participating is the kitchen. With the rise of GrubHub and Uber Eats, many students now rely on delivery. “They’re not cooking,” Dora-Shibley says. “Giving them a full kitchen isn’t important.”
Student housing designers can save space by skipping the stove and putting the fridge under the counter. They won’t quite be able to eliminate the microwave but could soon move toward convection models.
“You have a smaller footprint for the kitchen and you can gain space in the living room,” says Dora-Shibley.