Keywords

1 New Perspectives for Student Housing

The present paper illustrates activities and studies made possible by the collaboration between the ABC Department and the ATE—Area Tecnico Edilizia—of the Politecnico di Milano.

The role of student housing in academic formative paths is rapidly changing and increasing in importance, with a view of the broadening of learning and educational processes, triggering new forms of socialization, developing sharing habits, fostering emancipation from families (Micheli 2008; Rosina et al. 2007; Agnoli 2010) increasing the sense of responsibility, promoting exchange and dialogue among students coming from different cultures and traditions, also from the standpoint of their involvement in public life (Livi Bacci 2008; Abidin et al. 2011; Costa 2014; Naji et al. 2014; Eikemo and Judith Thomsen 2018).

In encouraging a new way of living, based on the acceptance of rules, timetables and deadlines, student housing contributes to developing the moral and civic quality of individuals, enhancing their social disposition and fostering an idea of “education as life” (Simmel 1995) in which interpersonal relationships and relational context become key elements to increase the individual’s faculties and skills in an economic, cultural, and social perspective. Not surprisingly, the ability to meet the student housing demand is affirming itself as an increasingly relevant factor in the definition of international rankings and in the evaluation of the quality of universities (Downing et al. 2017).

This raises the question of the effectiveness of the policies implemented in our country over the last decades, aiming at increasing the overall number of students’ matriculations, without specific reflections on structures and strategies to raise a higher level of social and collective education. This situation needs to find a solution quickly, fostering new consideration for student housing, both from a morpho-techno-typological perspective (Bellini 2015, 2019a, b; Newman 2016) and from a social one. The new users of residencies, their crescent variety in terms of age, nationality, academic role, education raise the necessity to adapt the functional and organizational offer of these structures to the new social and cultural scenario (McBride 2017) (Fig. 1).

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Maslow pyramid of student accommodation

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Far from being considered as mere structures dedicated to temporary accommodation for foreign students, student housing should be regarded as a public service: a fundamental element to support academic, didactic, and research activities as well as to provide facilities and services for the collective cultural and recreational growth of population, generating new human and social capital (Ciaramella and Del Gatto 2012; Laudisa 2013; Bellini et al. 2015; Bosio et al. 2018; Eversley 2019).

2 The Case of the Politecnico di Milano

This reflection frames the strategic investment of the Politecnico di Milano, which over the last decades doubled the sleeping accommodation for its students, by activating to date seven new student residencies in Milano, Lecco, and Como.Footnote 1 The result has been achieved both through the renovation of existing structures and the realization of new ones that enhance the outstanding supply (Fig. 2).Footnote 2 This situation is destined to grow as a consequence of the fourth implementation procedure of the law 338/2000, which will allow the Politecnico di Milano to realize three new interventions, adding 834 new sleeping accommodations to its offer.Footnote 3 The importance and the size of this venture, as well as the urban placement of the new buildings, make the case particularly meaningful to understand the new management praxis and the operational procedures involved in the phenomenon (Bellini et al. 2016).

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Student residence “Isaac Newton” of the Politecnico di Milano, in the Gallaratese District

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The first interesting point is the tendency to locate new student housing facilities in peripheral areas of the city as well, characterized by the lack of common services and difficulties in social integration and cultural dialogue among citizens. This is also produced by the situation of the historical center, denoted by strict building heritage protection, determining a general growth of the price of real estate and limited flexibility in its reconversion.

In this scenario, the authors initiated a study to focus on the proactive role of student housing in urban regeneration processes, both at a physical level—in relation to the common spaces and facilities that they provide to districts—and at a social one—considering the importance of students in understanding the multicultural problems of citizens who live in suburbs. After a general analysis, the more suited residence for starting the experimentation turned out to be the Newton one, in the Gallaratese District (Fig. 2). Due to its urban, social, and historical context, as well as its morpho-techno-typological traits, the residence represents the best qualities for a field trial. The choice is determined by the heavy social and territorial problems of Gallaratese,Footnote 4 confirmed by its inclusion among the five areas of the competition “Bando alle periferie” fostered by the Municipality of Milano in 2017.

In this scenario, Newton residence introduces 258 students from 20 different nationalities, becoming an integral part of the urban fabric—on average, students live in the district for more than one year. The students represent a micro-community, in some respects bound together by the same problems of the local community—difficulties of integration and cultural comprehension, linguistic barriers, distance from home—in others characterized by original traits—high cultural profile, belonging to a young and homogeneous age range. If not properly considered and treated, this resource risks becoming a negative factor for the population and the urban environment, fostering undesirable processes such as “studentification”.Footnote 5

In order to avoid this situation, the research group focuses on the definition of an innovative multidisciplinary and multi-scale strategy, able to foster a reciprocity among academic knowledge, technical apparatus and local fragilities, fostering a shared environmental and social atmosphere as the condition for promoting a sense of belonging for individuals to their urban context and local community. According to international studies and experimentations (Ferrante 2012; Hassan et al. 2012; Khajehzadeh and Brenda 2016; Kader 2017), this approach could produce significant consequences for urban territories, also in view of the participation and sensibilization of local people on urgent topics such as social integration, environmental sustainability, food education, waste reduction, sustainable mobility (Fig. 3).Footnote 6

Fig. 3
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Public space facilities in Newton student residence

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3 Ongoing Projects

The ongoing projects are the result of a study conducted by the authors over recent years, which has already produced publications on the topic (Bellini 2015), participation in seminars and conferences (Bellini and Mocchi 2016; Bellini 2019b; Mocchi 2019), field classes and activities.Footnote 7 The results so far achieved confirm a dynamic situation, made up of cooperative students and a local network of stakeholders, associations, and players already active in the area.Footnote 8

In 2017, the authors developed a project to take part in the competition Polisocial,Footnote 9 which in that year was dedicated to the theme “Periphery.” The project had the merit to start a collaboration among departments dedicated to research and technical bodies—“ATE—Area Tecnico Edilizia,” “Servizio Residenze”—fostering a better comprehension of the student housing phenomenon in terms of management and financing, on the basis of which to orient the research phase. The project had the endorsement of important institutions operating in the sector, such as the University of Milano—Direzione del Patrimonio Immobiliare, Centro Studi TESIS, RUI Foundation, Legambiente.

The study identifies four areas of intervention, in which social inclusion plays a fundamental and strategic role: 1 (In) social, including activities of learning, education, social cohesion; 2 (In) environment, with actions related to the environment, sustainability, circular economy; 3 (In) sport, considering sport activities as a fundamental part of the student housing experience; 4 (In) science, for contributing to the dissemination of scientific research.

The experimentation is now part of the Off Campus project, a development program financed by Polisocial. The program aims at fostering new forms of field teaching and research, putting into relation the academic organisms and knowledge with the local community’s needs.Footnote 10 Off Campus are physical structures placed in the city, working as delocalized satellites of the university, able to encourage on-field research and teaching activities, with a specific attention to the characteristics of places, the relationships between university and local reality, the way of living and dwelling in urban territories. The presence of students inside this area represents a big opportunity for the territory, leading to the idea of opening an Off Campus satellite in the Newton residence (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4
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Students of Politecnico di Milano hosted in the “Isaac Newton Student Residence”

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An important moment for the research took place on May 16, 2019, during the conference “Living and Dwelling University. A critical view of student housing in Italy,” promoted by the ABC Department with the scientific involvement of the Dastu Department, ATE—Area Tecnico Edilizia, and Sevizio Residenze of the Politecnico di Milano.

The national conference was aimed at developing a critical balance of the law 338/2000 and the following procedures, focusing on the new role of student housing as a driving factor for the renewal of academic training courses, for attracting private and public investments to build and manage new structures, for experimenting new methods and procedures in architectural project, for fostering innovative and interactive practices involving students and local population.

The conference represented an important moment for favoring a dialogue among stakeholders, professionals, architects, political representatives, and academical researchers, which will follow a publication of the proceedings. Furthermore, the conference was an opportunity for launching the “Observatory of student housing of the Politecnico di Milano,” with the purpose of monitoring the student housing situation in Lombardy, strengthening competences and skills for the management, design, administration, and governance of the structures.

4 Student Housing as a Community Hub

The research carried out and the open perspectives clearly demonstrate the potential of student housing as a privileged field for the construction of Community hubs able to provide spaces and furniture to local people as well as social support to the population by young students with high educational profile and specific linguistic, technical, and digital skills.

Community hubs are public spaces able to bring together community agencies and neighborhood groups, offering a range of activities, programs, and services referred to the specific needs of the local population. They encourage social gatherings, improving the use of public spaces, embracing multiple services under one roof. Among the others, Community hubs can include health services, education, and employment amenities, childcare and sports facilities, social, cultural, and recreational spaces (Bagnoli et al. 2019). Community hubs foster the integration of local population, helping to put in relation people who speak the same language, with similar cultural backgrounds (Sousa 2013; Brotsky et al. 2019).

This gives the interpretation of student housing a double meaning, considering it on the one hand as “hardware”—a physical place able to provide innovative spaces and facilities to citizens—on the other hand as “software”—a social environment able to interact with the multicultural tendencies of a contemporary metropolis. Hardware and software become the new tools for generating integration, cohesion, inclusion and new human and social capital.

In conclusion, the research has opened an innovative interpretation of student housing, as a strategic field for promoting sociocultural regeneration of urban environments, triggering virtuous interactions among citizens—in particular among the more vulnerable groups such as the elderly, differently abled, children without access to a decent education, immigrants, and second generations of immigrant families—and fostering accountability in students, favoring their empowerment in urban life and their involvement in active citizenship.