LOHA’s LEED Platinum San Joaquin Student Housing for seven student housing structures at the northern limit of the University of California, Santa Barbara, represents an application of the firm’s interest in urban environments within a university context.  Respecting the adjacent community’s scale and character, LOHA’s design comprises housing clusters characterized by an impermeable outward-facing edge and an activated campus-oriented edge. Stimulated by an undulating circulation system that weaves between the myriad social hubs incorporated within its buildings, the new housing seeks to foster and advance the robust social and intellectual life of UCSB.

UCSB dormitories have typically pushed circulation to their exterior envelope, with an inert central courtyard accessible only from within the building. LOHA’s design reverts this.

The exterior edge that faces outward from campus will be passively “quite” while the edge of the interior courtyard opens up to the campus and contains all building circulation, thus encouraging inter- and outer-housing movement.

Social hubs featuring various programs – reading rooms, gathering spaces, dining, etc. – are dispersed and “floated” above others to create a dynamic overlay. This inconsistency of spaces will allow for varied student experiences and generate a healthy campus culture.

This project joins additional housing volumes and student facilities that make up UCSB’s 15-acre North Campus village master plan.