Student accommodation
Common areas
A residence's common areas are the spaces all residents share outside their own room: reception, study rooms, shared kitchens and lounges, the laundry, the gym, terraces and corridors. They are part of what is on offer, and also what suffers the most wear and needs the most rules.
Also known ascommunal areas · shared spaces · amenities · zonas comunes
What they are for
In a residence the common areas do two jobs at once. They are a service: the study room, the laundry or the gym that a rented flat does not have. And they are community: the place where people meet, where activities happen and where a first-year student stops being alone. In British PBSA, which talks about amenities or common rooms, they have become one of the ways to tell one building from another, and new private residences in Spain have gone the same way. In coliving they are almost the whole product; in a colegio mayor (a Spanish hall of residence with a formative programme), the library, the assembly hall and the dining hall are part of community life. For each space you have to decide:
- Opening hours: when it is open and whether that changes during exams or at weekends.
- Access: who gets in, residents only or visitors too, under the visiting rules.
- Use: first come, first served or by slots, with its own common-room booking.
- Upkeep: who cleans it and who to tell if something breaks.
Worth knowing
What belongs to everyone ends up belonging to no one. A fault in a bedroom is reported by whoever lives there; one in a shared kitchen or a washing machine is seen by everyone and reported by few, because each person assumes someone else will have said so. Reporting should be easy, and whoever reports should know that someone has picked up the maintenance ticket.
Sources
Related terms
- ColivingA coliving is a building of private rooms or studios with a shared kitchen, lounge and work areas, run by an operator with services included and a community life. It is aimed mainly at young professionals and stays of several months. In Spain it has no national law of its own.
- Common-room bookingCommon-room booking is the system residents use to reserve a study room, the laundry, the gym or a court in time slots. It sets the opening hours, the capacity, how far ahead a slot can be booked and how many times a week, so the space is shared without arguments.