Mýrargarður Open for Business

Translation: Julie Summers

Mýrargarður, a new student residence hall on Sæmundargata, opened its doors in January, and the first residents are getting settled in. “Residents are moving in in two waves,” says Rebekka Sigurðardóttir, public relations officer for Student Services (Félagsstofnun studenta, FS). “We’ve already assigned rooms in the first part of the building, and students are starting to move in.” The new building features three different room types: couples’ units, studio apartments, and so-called co-living units. Each unit has eight to nine bedrooms with private baths, and residents share a kitchen and living area. “In mid-February, we’ll allot the remaining rooms. We’ve already assigned residents to all the studios and couples’ apartments, but there’s still availability in the co-living units for anyone who’s interested in applying.”

Fully furnished common areas

Rebekka says the co-living units are the first of their kind on campus. “They’re basically eight- to nine-bedroom apartments. You live in the same apartment with a group of people, so as soon as you step out of your room, you’re in a shared area.” The common area in each unit consists of a fully furnished kitchen, entryway, and living room. “All you really need to bring is your computer and your clothes,” says Rebekka. “Each bedroom has a bed, and the common areas are fully furnished. The kitchen is stocked with dishes and everything you need for cooking and serving food. The living area has a dining table with enough chairs for all the residents, and then some. Then there’s also a comfy sofa and a TV in each unit.” Moving away from home can be expensive for students, but Rebekka says the co-living units are a perfect way to reduce the cost of starting out on your own. “Besides all the furniture, people end up investing in dishes for a bunch of people, but there are only so many times a year that you really host dinner parties.”

The new co-living arrangement also gives friends the chance to be neighbors. “Generally, it isn’t possible to make special requests about who you want to live next door to. We’re dealing with so many students that it’s just impossible,” says Rebekka. Previously, student apartments with more than one bedroom were only assigned to couples or families with children. The only exception was two-person apartments, but friends were not allowed to apply for them together. “But now we can offer people the opportunity to apply to live in the same unit as their friends or relatives if they’re also UI students. You can link your applications in the application process.”

The largest communal area in Mýrargarður is in the middle of the building – a spacious common room for residents’ use. “It’s a really amazing space that we’re still finishing up,” says Rebekka. “All 300 residents in the building have access to it for free. You could even hold a family reunion there, it’s so roomy with plenty of space for everyone.” FS has also been working on updating common rooms in other residence halls, including Gamli Garður, Hjónagarðar, and Vetrargarður.

Increased resident interaction

In recent years, FS’ goal when it comes to housing has involved, among other things, responding to growing feelings of isolation among students. “About ten years ago, we were at a conference in Central Europe where we saw shocking statistics about young people’s well-being. Even though the same sort of study had never been done here, we assumed the results were also applicable to Iceland. Then in early 2018, we saw the first surveys conducted to gauge university students’ well-being, and the results were very similar to the previous statistics.” As a result, says Rebekka, FS decided to place more emphasis on resident interaction in Oddagarðar, which was under construction at the time. “When we saw those numbers, we realized we might need to rethink the design of our residence halls. What could be done to support students’ well-being and increase the likelihood of residents interacting with their neighbors?”

Two of the buildings in the Oddagarðar complex were designed so students would have private bedrooms and bathrooms, but shared living rooms and kitchens. “There’s a bit of a hotel vibe to it. You come into the shared unit from the stairwell, and the common area is situated so that it’s visible from most rooms. It’s surrounded by glass, so you can look in from the stairwell, and on the other side, you can see into other common areas in the building. We wanted to create a community where people see each other. If you’re alone in your kitchen, and no one who shares that kitchen is around, you can peer out the window or go out on the balcony and see if your friends from other shared units are around. And even though you’re assigned a certain kitchen, you’re welcome in the other ones as well.” According to Rebekka, the entryways at Oddagarðar and later at Mýrargarður were also designed to encourage more interaction. “Instead of having a bunch of different entrances, there are only a few. That increases the chances of people running into their neighbors.”

Rebekka says it took some time to convince people of the benefits of communal living. “We could tell some people were nervous about it at first. They were uncomfortable with the idea of living with people they didn’t know instead of by themselves. When we were first assigning rooms in Oddagarðar, there were a lot of people on the waiting list for studios who were completely convinced that they wanted to live alone. But we said, we can give you a room here, where you’d have shared common areas. If you move in and don’t like it, you can just apply for a transfer. More often than not, people were so happy with their new living arrangement that they withdrew their applications for transfers or turned them down if they were offered.” Rebekka adds that it can be extremely valuable for both Icelanders from outside the Reykjavík area and international students to share a living space with others. “These students don’t necessarily have a lot of ties in the city, so it’s really important for them to be part of a community.”

Shorter waiting lists

“We’ve had 600 and even up to 1100 students on our waitlists for housing, and we had the highest numbers ever three years ago,” says Rebekka. “After assigning rooms in the fall, we had just over 600 people left on the waiting list, and we’ve managed to whittle that number down a lot.” Besides the opening of Mýrargarður, the construction of Skjólgarður in Brautarholt and the renovation of Gamli Garður (which was closed during renovations but reopened a few years ago) have helped shorten the waiting lists. Rebekka says shorter waiting lists mean more flexible rules for housing assignments. “For example, we’re changing the rules now so that incoming students starting in the fall can apply earlier for a room in one of the co-living units.” Up to now, new students couldn’t apply for student housing until June, but now they’ll be allowed to apply as soon as registration opens in March 2020. “Students have had to deal with a lot of uncertainty sometimes, because housing isn’t assigned until maybe July or August. We even know of cases where people decided not to study because they didn’t have any housing. But this new residence opens up a lot of possibilities.”

Rebekka says it’s now possible for current students who thought they had no chance of getting a spot in student housing before to apply. “What happens when so many students get spots at the same time is that it opens an opportunity for people who are interested in living in student housing but thought they didn’t have a chance before. Now we’re getting to the point where we can tell people they’ve got a real shot when they apply.”