The Glass Box
More than just your average space
As many college students would tell you, one of the biggest dilemmas many of us students face is finding the motivation to do our homework. For me, I constantly seek out the perfect place where I can truly focus on my work with minimal distractions. A place that is quiet, but not too quiet. I found this place in the room titled the “collaborative center”, inside Miller Hall on campus at Western Washington University.
This is a space that attracts all kinds of students with a variety of different goals. One of the things I like most about this room is how fluid its purpose is. Due to its closeness to both coffee and classrooms, it is used for both social and academic reasons. When considering a college, I did not think to pick the school I wanted to attend based on where I could study. We all know the kinds of things you have to consider to pick a school; what majors it offers, price, the general feel of the school. But I neglected to look at the actual space in which I could see myself working towards an education. Luckily I found this on Western’s campus.
Another great function of this room is its ability to host a group setting. You are not required to be quiet in this room like you are in a library so you can get a group together to study with and not worry about disrupting others. An important aspect in gaining any education is the ability to work with others and learn with your community of peers. I again found this in the collaborative center.
The center is across the hall from a coffee shop and a grocery store which makes for an abundance of noise pollution. In addition, there are classrooms throughout the building so students are frequently passing through on their way to and from classes. Not to mention the people chatting and talking on their phones. One thing that shocked me about college was people’s ability to work freely in and around any kind of circumstance, I experienced this idea while in the glass box, and it makes sense considering a typical college atmosphere.
One of the great appeals about this space is the variety of seating options. Along the perimeter of the room there are several comfier chairs that make for good online shopping and comfortably reading books. Spread throughout the middle of the room, are more basic tables and chairs that are good for doing homework and eating. And finally along the side wall, there are high-seated chairs with small tables that attract the coffee-drinking chatters. All in all, the seating plays a major part in bringing in the wide variety of students.
An interesting aspect about the room is the actual atmosphere of the room. Most of the walls are just windows which brings in mostly natural light as long as there is natural light available. Also, the walls have very simple and straightforward decorations of different sky themes. This soft decorative aspect gives the space a free-feeling, it is light and open and very natural. So, the room feels very open which helps with the learning process. This aspect of the room seems very Western-oriented. Not many schools have a similar mood to Western’s stereotypical hippy-like vibe. We like an organic learning space and that seems particularly present in the room.
All in all, I set out with the opinion that this was just your average common area. Upon further inspection, it immediately became clear that I had stepped into a room like no other. I know that I will continue going there for whatever reason, whether I have a big test to study for, to catch up with a friend, or simply to stare off into nowhere for a while. This speaks to the true wonderment of a college level, collaborative center.
