Loosen Up!
Many colleges could benefit from loosening up a little bit. Consider what it would look like to make learning environments a bit more casual than they used to be. While you're at it, you might also look at ways of incorporating spaces that better reflect the personality of your school. Learning should be fun, and inviting, and give room for new ideas. Need some inspiration? Take a look at recent developments in the hotel sector. Lobbies are becoming places for entertainment and immersion – not a means to an end. In some cases, coffee bars are replacing the transactional front desks entirely. The result? People actually want to spend their time there!
Encouraging Connections
Living room-style communal spaces aren't just giving students a place to chill, they're giving them something they can't get at home: unexpected human interactions. They also have the potential to serve as alternative workspaces where students can work on a project or collaborate with others.
Make Learning Spaces Unique and Dynamic
Just as boutique hotels are reflective of the cultural fabric of the places in which they are located, the vibe of a hospitality-inspired design should embody the unique nuances of your school culture, the surrounding city context as well as the students themselves. By curating more holistic environments that bring together space planning, architecture, lighting, acoustics, materials, texture, and even objects, the design of your school can feel like a favorite restaurant or hotel that you want to return to again and again!
Make Relaxation Accessible
Learning can be stressful – the learning environment shouldn't add to it. A college inspired by hospitality should have areas to take a load off and relax for a bit. Just as a great restaurant will create emotional responses, so too can workspaces. You can control volume, color, texture, lighting, and more to influence the kind of energy and dynamics of an ideal learning environment. With a solid hospitality-inspired design strategy in place, colleges can become highly desirable places to learn! What are your thoughts? How would you emulate the principles of hospitality in a higher education setting?