Space Personalization in Students’ Living Environment: Case of Eastern Mediterranean University Dormitories, North Cyprus

The modification of spaces by students in their living environment has often been identified as a means of creating an atmosphere that is socially acceptable to them and their friends, making their rooms to be more aesthetically appealing and also as a means of expressing their personality. It has been classified as an important human behavioral interaction with the environment which is generally referred to as personalization of space. By definition, space personalization is a means of reflecting a user or group identity through deliberately decorating, modifying, or rearranging individual or shared environment. Generally, people have needs ranging from biological, personal, social, to cultural, which are to be expressed in the built environment, and as such, young people like university students are not left out in having a strong desire to personalize and manipulate their own environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the ways and manners that space personalization is done by students in their living environment generally and then focuses on specific group of students, precisely Nigerian students, in order to provide better information on how students studying far from their geographical home location go about space personalization in their dormitory rooms. For this purpose, qualitative research method is utilized in the study. At first, all concepts which are related to personalizing behavior like territoriality, privacy and personal space were explored from literature to serve as the theoretical base for the research and used accordingly to draw out relevant criteria that were used for evaluation of the case studies. Observation, inventory charts, interviews, questionnaires, sketches and photographic documentation were used as data collection tools. The study shows that personalization of space is a human behavior that has a direct relation to how people feel related and attached to an environment. In this respect, in dormitory spaces that is occupied by students studying far from their countries, they personalize their space as self-expression which is important for them for adaptation to the new environment. That’s why the architects designing the dormitory buildings and the interior designers dealing with their interiors as well as dormitory managers should be aware of this fact and provide necessary means to students to personalize their spaces and to make them “their own”. This study attempts to be a guide for understanding personalization behaviors of students in their dormitory rooms, to make it possible to design and manage these kinds of spaces more consciously. Keywords: spatial behavior, space personalization, territoriality, privacy, personal space, dormitory rooms, students.