Observing: Xanadu
Xanadu has a unique shape as a house. It is shaped like an L, with a lounge, computer cluster, kitchen, dining room, and living vestibule on the first floor, and with dorm rooms and balconies on the second and third floors. There are 5 entrances. Two are entrances directly to stair cases, one to the dining room, and front and back entrances on either side of the lounge. The main staircase is in the center, positioned directly between the two entrances to the lounge, and directly between the lounge and the dining room.
This shape allows for a number of benefits. Because most people take the main staircase, there is a lot of traffic through the main social areas. People sitting by the table under the staircase can say hi to everyone who walks in. And because the main staircase is the only way to get down to the dining room from the second or third floors without going outside, people often run into each other on their way up and down from meals and at other times. The design of Xanadu around its central staircase therefore has a number of community building benefits that are not present in other residences, where some residents can enter and leave the building all they want without ever seeing another side of the dorm.
At the same time, this design can cause some issues as well. The computer cluster is quite tucked away and not very comfortable, and therefore those who wish to get work done often rely on the tables in the lounge and game rooms. When these are taken by other meetings, or people are loud and socializing, the design of the lounge can feel a bit constricted.
Additionally, the design of the dining room has some issues. Most Xanadu residents prefer to eat outside when the weather permits, but the picnic tables are on the exact opposite of the house. Most of the time, that is worth it. But when weather doesn’t permit, the dining room becomes overcrowded and noisy. Additionally, the positioning of the serving stations on the outside of both the main kitchen and kitchenette is not ideal for our chef, and needing to prepare food far away from where it is served is an issue that is not necessarily as present in other row houses.
There are also some issues with food storage in the kitchenette. At the start of the fall, we often have significant issues with ants in our kitchen. Breakfast foods and other items need to be accessible to students, but by being accessible to students they are also accessible to ants crawling through the window. The refrigerators are typically quickly filled with residents’ food, and food is often lost, spilled, spoiled, etc.
From these observations, issues that our project could address:
Balance between creating community through a socially accessible common area, and affording for studying and working with common areas that encourage focused collaboration.
Design of a kitchen and dining to encourage more sustainable food practices, with less food waste, and to encourage more socially sustainable interactions over meals, with a dining room and outdoor dining area that is both more centralized and also more comfortable.
Our project should not focus on Xanadu, and instead focus on an example of a common area with that demonstrates these principles, but does not necessarily work within all of Xanadu’s constraints.