Collaborative Work Spaces

Many folks have in recent semesters mentioned that students had taken over the faculty dining room to use as collaborative work space.  The most common reaction seems to be to interpret this as a problem to be solved.  Might it, instead, be a glaring statement about a need?  It's a poorly lit room with furniture and decor that's not been update in ages and yet it's one of the most "successful" offerings we have in terms of student work spaces.

To enhance the undergraduate experience let's build on this free data about what students want/need and look around the campus to see where we can create spaces with similar functionality.  Of course, that means we have to start by understanding the features that make this space attractive.  One might speculate that it's centrality and proximity to food.  Perhaps it's the layout (dense but not too dense?) and furniture (round tables that seat 4-6).

We should approach this not as a need to displace students from the FDR but as an opportunity to create other spaces (in the library, for example) that are "user friendly" not according to some theory or what a consultant tells us, but based on how our students seem to be using this one and ones like it.  What other spaces are currently used intensely like this one?  What do they have in common?  What features make each stand out?  Where are there opportunities to reproduce some of these features?