Prospéritas Capital Partners

Mini-double receives a collapsible desk.

Think your dorm room is small? According to Stanford Magazine, Vice Provost John Bravman ‘79 cringes at the thought of the size of “mini-double” rooms when he drives around with the president and stops at Lagunita on move-in day.

Until Bravman’s “Housing Master Plan,” which aims to provide an increased quality of living for Stanford students, is complete, Residential Education (ResEd) has attempted to increase the space for undergraduates in a number of ways. At the start of this academic year, housing ran a trial experiment of using “HiddenBeds” in one of the mini-doubles in Ujamaa. The HiddenBed design is essentially a desk that converts into a bed when required.

Brittany Bennett ‘12, one of the students living in the one-room mini-double, explained how the HiddenBed design increased space in the room.

“We do not need to clean up our desks in order to lower the bed, which is a plus,” Bennett said. “Items up to 15 inches high, such as a desk lamp, can remain on the desk, and we also have a lot of desk space.”
Imogen Hinds, associate director of Student Housing, said ResEd chose one of the smaller rooms on campus to try out the furniture, since it wanted to see whether the beds would meet the needs of students living in the rooms.

“In Student Housing we frequently try out new types of furniture and finishes as styles, as [students'] needs change,” Hinds said. “The HiddenBed design that we are currently trying out was seen at a national housing association conference, and was felt to be a style of furniture that offered a large desk space, flexibility and efficiency.”

Jan Barker, associate dean of students and dean for the black community services center, said she supported the move to have an experimental room.

“Housing approached me about using one of our rooms as a pilot to test whether this product was efficient in saving space,” she said. “I supported their efforts to explore options of creating a more comfortable space for students.”

Bennett, however, had mixed feelings about the model furniture.

“The biggest problem is that when both of our desks are up, then we can’t offer guests a place to sit in our room,” the Ujamaa resident said. “Friends can’t sit on our beds when we are working at our desks. I don’t know how to alleviate that.”

Bennett added that a lot of students visit her room as they pass by to catch a glimpse of the furniture.

“A lot of freshmen seem to think that it saves space and that it would be helpful,” she said. “However, a lot of upperclassmen seem to think that it is more hassle than it is worth. I can’t say as I haven’t had the chance to live in another room yet.”

Bennett added that she has the inconvenience of tucking in the blankets before folding the bed away, although she does not necessarily have to completely make her bed every day.

Hinds said that when the students who were assigned to the dorm moved in, ResEd had staff on hand to help explain the functionality of the furniture and to help the residents with questions or concerns.

“We let the students know that we were very interested in hearing from them to find out what they liked and what recommendations they might have for the furniture design,” she said. “Toward the end of the quarter, we will be soliciting some more formal feedback from them.”

According to Hinds, the furniture will remain in the room all year and possibly longer, if it fits the needs of residents. It will be removed if it is determined not to be effective.

“Residential Education told me that, if at any time throughout the year we hated our furniture, we could ask to have it changed back to a regular bed and desks,” Bennett said. “They just want us to be comfortable.”