Dormzilla

UC Santa Barbara had struggled recently to house all its students and Charlie Munger billionaire and philanthropist was ready to fund a new dormitory. The donation came with some preconditions Munger was to be the ‘architect’ and only his scheme was to be built.

His proposal the Munger Residence Hall UCSB better known as Dormzilla was an 11 story, 1.68 million sqft residence for 4,500 students, 94 percent of them with no windows. Lighting was to be provided by fake ‘windows’ simulating the outside. Planning looked more like a battery chicken farm than a standard dormitory, it was super-dense.

Floorplan shows the dorms arranged around common spaces, also windowless around a central access core.

It was a System Centred Design for the benefit of the University administration rather than design for the welfare of students¹. A rent and tuition fee raising facility. Since the death of its benefactor and ‘architect’ Charlie Munger the project was officially cancelled, it just faced too much opposition².

What’s interesting about the building is that it’s super-dense and that it was in many ways a System Centred Design, A design to maximise profits for the University rather than one to foster a good environment for the students to study. There are many buildings that are System Centred for instance Data centres³, but not many that are meant for people to live in.

⚲Location: 34°25’11.8”N 119°51’07.6”W

Links

• Goodbye Dormzilla, Hello Student Housing - The Santa Barbara Independent
• AR Interview with Charlie Munger
• Why Charlie Munger’s ‘dormzilla’ has windowless bedrooms - Los Angeles Times
• Buffett Partner Charlie Munger Has a Side Gig: Designing College Dorms - WSJ
• Yes, Build the Windowless UC Santa Barbara Dorm in My Yard
• Architect Says Billionaire’s Dorm Design Is Dangerous Experiment
• Dormzilla Descends on UCSB - The Santa Barbara Independent
• twitter thread
• public presentation
• His other building Munger Graduate Residences — Michigan Housing
• Also see this development which seems a little exploitative california-startup offers affordable capsule pods in shared living accommodation

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1. Rather than Human Centered Design which is what most buildings are.↩︎

2. UCSB Architect resigned when he saw the proposal for the building. On October 25, 2023 the Dormzilla project was finally put out of its misery.↩︎

3. Datacentres can often run at higher internal air temperatures than buildings meant for people to inhabit for instance.↩︎

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