Author: Kaeley Pollock
Major: Sociology and Psychology
Approved: Fall 2020
Status: In progress
This project explores environmental factors and physical conditions that improve undergraduate students’ well-being, which will lead to the implementation of these factors in the redesign of the third floor of Ritter Hall on Roanoke College’s Campus. The floor will be developed into student wellness affinity housing, influenced by my research and the project’s outcomes. I will be conducting a literature review exploring the existing research on both physical and theoretical aspects of built environment and institutional arrangements. I will further define students’ well-being into three aspects of student life: academic, social, and mental well-being. Next, I will use the information gathered from my research to create multiple virtual renderings of the third floor of Ritter Hall on Roanoke College’s campus. Using these designs, I will send out a survey to the student body of Roanoke College and request feedback on multiple aspects of each design. The students’ responses will be used to influence the purchasing and non-virtual design decisions I make in the last stage of my project. That last stage will include the physical redesign of the third floor of Ritter hall. Aspects such as wall color, furniture design and layout, lighting, associating spaces with specific tasks, clutter and neatness and their influences on mood, how nature or green spaces may influence student’s cognitive skills, etc. The floor will be developed into a wellness floor to promote student well-being. The decisions made for the floor will be supported by research from both the literature review and the responses of my survey.
