ABSTRACT
Student housing is the form of co-living that is most likely to be familiar to people, but the ‘halls of residence’ of the past pale in comparison to some of the student accommodation on offer today. however, student housing is an incredibly competitive market where private developers, as well as the universities themselves, are battling to attract student interest. Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) offers students exciting spaces and services that allow these term-time homes to become destinations in their own right. Key to the success of PBSA is a balance between space efficiency and design quality. Just like student housing of the past, developments have to rely on compact spaces and sharing in order to make the numbers stack up. With the market for PBSA showing no signs of slowing down (even after the pandemic), developments are becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of both design and business model.
