How Private Is Your Bedroom? Apartment Layout 101

How important is privacy to you? Pretty important, right? That’s what most people will say, but when they leave the dorms, many college students will choose to lease an apartment without fully considering how apartment layout will directly affect their privacy for better or worse. Before you sign a lease, then, ask yourself this question: How private is your bedroom?

Apartment Layout Goals

Apartment complexes and individual apartments are designed to meet certain goals. Two common but frequently incompatible goals are: improving the quality of life of residents and reducing building costs. Some developers include hallways in their apartment designs, and others, knowing that the additional space will increase costs, will not. It seems like a small thing, a hallway. From the standpoint of the people who will live in that apartment, it’s actually not. 

The trend in architecture for some time has been for open areas in homes, in work spaces, and in schools. Unfortunately, people are finding out the hard way that, while open areas and no additional walls save money for the investors, people hate living and working in these open environments. The lack of privacy drives them crazy. It turns out no one likes living in a fishbowl. 

The Difference a Hallway Makes

A hallway is a small but effective design feature, walls that channel traffic from common areas to private areas. The benefit of a hallway is that no one wants to hang out in the hallway. This naturally increases privacy for the rooms leading off the hallway.

If there are no hallways in an apartment and all the bedrooms are situated directly off common living spaces like the kitchen and the living room, the privacy of roommates is compromised. You probably don’t want your every action and movement noted, but that’s what can and often does happen in an open space apartment layout. Everyone in your apartment, including your roommates’ friends, gets to see your pajamas, your messy hair, what you’re eating, and who you’re bringing in and out of your private space just like it’s a parade.

Hallways also act to dampen noise and light. When you go to bed, you want your bedroom to be quiet and dark so you can sleep. If your bedroom is right off the living room and your roommates have a lot of people over or are up late at night watching television, it’s going to be harder to sleep. Quiet is also important for studying. It’s also very common for roommates not to share the same taste in music or entertainment. That’s why having your own room is so good for your mental health. Everyone needs their own private space and the ability to get away from things they don’t like. 

Meadows Crossing incorporated hallways into our apartment layout design from the beginning because we were conscious of the value of privacy. We want to create a better standard of living for our residents so they can be productive and happy while they are attending GVSU. Another layout feature Meadows Crossing included in our design was a half bathroom on the first floor. This may not seem like a big deal, but it allows our residents’ own bathrooms to remain private and secure. When guests are around, they can use the half bath off the living room instead of traipsing through one roommate’s private space to their private bathroom.

Hallways are only one way Meadows Crossing has maximized resident comfort and well being with our apartment layout, but it’s an important one. If you are looking for an apartment in Allendale, Michigan, take a minute to think about what you want in your living space and how important privacy is to you. Then make a point of noting which apartments respect that and which do not. Chances are, the apartment complexes that have open space designs also discounted other quality-of-life amenities that our complex has invested in. To view and lease an apartment at Meadows Crossing, call us at 616-892-2700 or stop into our leasing office today! 

Get There â­¤ Get Back

map of Meadows Crossing and Grand Valley State University

Location

10745 48th Avenue, Suite B-100
Allendale, MI 49401
Get Directions: View Google Map

Utilities

DTE Energy: (800) 477-4747
Consumers Energy: (800) 477-5050
Spectrum TV/Internet: (855) 895-5302

Contact

Phone: (616) 892-2700
Fax: (616) 892-2702
Email: info@meadowscrossing.net

Office Hours


Monday - Friday: 10am - 4:30pm

Saturday: 10am - 3:00pm

Sunday: Closed

 

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