[aristophenes]

You’d have seven roommates and would also have no window. Looking at the layout, it’s like sharing a tiny apartment with 7 other people. This is the worst part, if you have one disruptive person out of eight, they are going to make everyone else miserable. Hard to get sleep, hard to study.

[danso]

Having your own "pod" (within a shared common suite) may be preferable than the standard situation of sharing a standard-size bedroom with a stranger. One bit of context is that UCSB has had a profound housing shortage (since at least 2010), and students have had to triple up in rooms: https://www.independent.com/2021/07/27/ucsb-offers-new-detai...

[ghaff]

The dorm I was in undergrad had a suite type of arrangement. (Though the rooms were not all singles and they mostly had usable windows.) IMO, it's preferable to the long corridor with rooms coming off of it.

The lack of windows seems not great and perhaps the massiveness as well. But the basic idea of groups of rooms sharing a common area is fine by itself.

[pphysch]

No, actual room mates. Not flat mates. Like sharing a bed room or bunk bed with a stranger, hostel style. That's what this is competing with.