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Contact: Jon Meerdink ([email protected])

ANN ARBOR — The University of Michigan’s Munger Graduate Residences opened in 2015, promising opportunities for transdisciplinary collaboration in apartment-style living. The six-to-seven-occupant suites feature private bedrooms and bathrooms with numerous amenities designed to enhance community experiences among graduate- and professional-level students.

Now entering its tenth year of service, is the residence living up to its promises? Two U-M researchers are attempting to find out.

Hannah Myers, a Ph.D candidate in the College of Engineering, and Kim Rollings, a research investigator in Social Environment and Health at the Institute for Social Research’s Survey Research Center, recently published a paper surveying the effects of the Munger Graduate Residences on the students who live there. “Perceived effects of residential design on mental well-being: A quasi-experimental study of the University of Michigan’s Munger graduate residences” compared the mental well-being of Munger residents to non-residents, finding that the graduate residence appeared to have a significant negative impact on its occupants.

“We found that Munger residents reported experiencing lower overall mental well-being than their non-Munger counterparts,” said Myers.

The survey of students measured three elements that factored into overall mental well-being, one of which was social connection. And despite being intentionally designed to create connection and collaboration, this was the area where Munger residents showed the biggest difference from their non-Munger colleagues.

“Social connection scores had the biggest difference between Munger residents and non-Munger residents, which is unfortunate considering one goal of the building design was to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and interaction across disciplines,” said Myers.

Myers and Rollings, both trained and former practicing architects, were intrigued by the opportunity to study the residence in part because of one unusual feature: 87 percent of the bedrooms don’t have an exterior window.

“Every time I talk to other architects about this building, they are shocked that windowless bedrooms are permissible. In residential codes, bedrooms are usually required to have a window for egress,” said Myers. “However, in residential buildings with more than three stories like the Munger Graduate Residences, windowless bedrooms can be code-compliant depending on local ordinances and inclusion of a sprinkler system, plenty of emergency exit stairs, and sufficient bedroom lighting and ventilation.”

The lack of bedroom windows came up often when respondents described factors that affected their mental well-being. 75.9 percent of Munger residents who participated in the study reported that windowless private bedrooms negatively affected their mental well-being.

Myers was introduced to this topic when she became a graduate student at U-M in 2021. At the time, UC-Santa Barbara was considering building a Munger undergraduate dorm with characteristics similar to U-M’s Munger Graduate Residences.

“There was a lot of news coverage about the proposed UCSB dorm that would house thousands of undergraduate students in largely windowless accommodations. Articles also referenced the Munger Graduate Residences we have here in Ann Arbor,” said Myers. “We quickly realized that no one had studied this building design approach and its effects on residents, so we wanted to apply our unique training in architecture, design science, and environmental psychology to see how the design affects residents.”

UC-Santa Barbara ultimately canceled plans to construct its mega-dorm. Myers and Rollings hope their study highlights recommendations for improvement for the current Munger Graduate Residences and future graduate student housing options. They’re also drawing attention to the aspects of the Munger Graduate Residences that proved popular with students who live there.

For instance, although bedrooms are primarily windowless, each resident has their own private bedroom and bathroom. The residence also boasts a number of amenities not typically found in other graduate student housing options on or off campus.

“The eighth floor has really nice study spaces with lots of natural light,” said Myers. “There’s also a gym, a rooftop running track, and a rooftop patio where you can sit and enjoy being outside.” Other generous building amenities include a convenience market, theater room, game room, computer lab, and wellness center with massage chairs.

These amenities didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated by Munger residents, especially in a city like Ann Arbor, where the cost of living can be quite high.

“The study presented an opportunity to learn how we can improve current graduate student housing experiences and inform future housing design. As housing needs and costs increase, nearly every U.S. campus and college town, especially in urban areas, is trying to maximize occupancy and minimize costs. Solutions to this challenge must also prioritize and value residents’ health and well-being, and include their voices in the design process,” said Rollings.
The full paper was published in the September 2024 edition of the Journal of Environmental Psychology and is available online via Science Direct.