A home for worship: university student center design
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyze the needs of religious student centers as a means to more fully address those concerns in the facility's design. A case study on the Wesley Foundation Methodist Student Center at Texas A&M University in college Station, Texas, has been performed to determine areas that students, clergy, and staff feel are inadequately represented in the facility's design. This information was used as a basis for a redesign of the current facility. This study * Determined the user needs of a religious student center * Analyzed the user needs * Addressed the user needs in the facility's design * Provided a model of the importance of the post-occupancy evaluation as a design tool. Funding problems or lack of foresight often account for design decisions that are made without a concern for the user or for the facility as a whole. Considering the increased enthusiasm for worship and fellowship among young parishioners, buildings designed without this exuberance in mind are usually not flexible enough to meet the needs of its student population. Students are more active during worship services, using guitars, synthesizers, and other musical equipment which leads to more involvement by the other worshipers who often sing and clap to the music. Students, clergy, and staff at student centers know best those areas that are lacking in their facility's design. This research accounts for their perspective in the design of student centers.
Description
Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-47).
Citation
McFaul, Christopher Leon (1999). A home for worship: university student center design. Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1999 -Fellows -Thesis -M395.