The growing trend of luxurious interior design in modern student accommodation has helped trigger a wider, US-style culture of lifelong housing rental, according to Acres Architects.
The architectural group has released its latest concept designs for a proposed Nottingham city centre student development that is more akin to a five-star hotel than the student accommodation of bygone years.
Acres Interiors, the interior design arm of the Nottingham-based company, has included a gym, café bar and library with pocket working areas in its designs for Chameleon’s Rest.
The multi-million-pound project – complete with luxury ensuite studio apartments, bold colour schemes and ambient LED lighting – is designed to meet the increasing expectations of today’s students and reflects how far developers are having to up their game in a hugely competitive market.
Chameleon’s Rest, which is still at pre-planning stage, is just one of a growing number of projects that Acres Architects is lending its expertise to, not only in student accommodation but in the booming build-to-rent market.
The practice, based at Nottingham Science Park, believes that the higher expectations of students and their families is helping to catapult society closer to a whole-life rental culture rather than the traditional UK aspiration of home ownership.
Edward Acres, founder and managing director of the Acres group, said: “Today’s student accommodation is so good that, when they come to leave university, graduates can’t afford to buy anything close to the same standard. But they still want it.
“So they are renting fabulous new city centre apartments instead. It’s a major shift from what we were used to – and there’s now a huge emerging market in single family housing in the suburbs that’s only available for rent. It’s a very US model, but a direction we are definitely heading in the UK.”
He said the “monthly payments culture” was already evident in multiple aspects of modern life, from the way we pay for everything from cars to music, so the change in dynamic more heavily towards renting accommodation for life was unsurprising.
“More and more people, from twenty-somethings upwards, will be having to rent rather than buy,” said Edward. “It’s not all the result of vastly improved student accommodation, but that certainly reflects an upswing in our expectations compared with a few years ago.”
Alicia Hollis, interior designer at the Acres Group, said there was clearly a proven market for more sophisticated design in student accommodation, that had partly been driven by the desire of universities to attract affluent foreign students, particularly those from Asia.
“The design is definitely now more like hotels,” she said. “Better-configured kitchens and communal areas, gymnasiums, games zones and elegant café areas are becoming the norm, as is an increased focus on well-being spaces and ‘bringing the outside in’.
“Today’s students are also rarely forced to sleep in small, single beds and most have ensuite shower rooms.”
Acres Group specialises in residential projects, from private homes to large student accommodation and build-to-rent developments.
Established in 2008, the company has grown from a back bedroom operation to becoming an award winning, RIBA accredited firm in expanding office space on the outskirts of Nottingham, near to the University of Nottingham.
