New Versatile Spaces Promote Collaboration and Private Study
Sacramento State faced a shortage of study spaces along with a growing demand for them. In existing study areas, students often moved the furniture, which sometimes impeded walkways. Additionally, the furniture had outlived its usefulness and was falling apart. The first collaborative furnishings used at Sacramento State were Backbone Media Platforms in the Student Technology Center (STC) – and so began the journey to address the need for more versatile environments.
After observing students and how they used the STC space, STC planners incubated ideas for next-stage classrooms and open study spaces. The STC space became the proof of concept needed to spark an entire redesign of the Academic Information Resource Center (AIRC). In the AIRC, students find comfortable, functional study areas for individual or group work. Hub modular seating with screens separates and defines open study areas that run the length of the building. Hub and Athens tables are bolted into place to assure traffic ways remain open. For mobility, Pirouette tables and Strive chairs with casters let students reconfigure as needed. MyWay seating with sled bases also allows for easy movement. For Sacramento State, branding was an integral part of the new design. School colors are used throughout and the university logo was added as a modified option to table tops.
Maureen McQuestion, Director, Academic Support Services, Information Resources and TechnologyWe knew KI furnishings would perform and have received unsolicited appreciation and feedback from students.
High density was a major requirement for the campus. Sacramento State has now doubled the amount of seating capacity in its AIRC building, with MyWay becoming the “go-to-chair of choice” for students. The new spaces embody versatility, allowing faculty to teach in new and dynamic ways – for instance, creating flipped, hybrid, and collaborative classrooms, or easily facilitating group project work.
