The Sleeping Pod

Representing a completely new building typology, the
University of Utah, Lassonde Studio project meets two
campus needs: the creation of a “student garage” – a
flexible 20,000 sf making/planning-hacking space – for
the Lassonde Institute, a student-led business and
entrepreneur incubator, and integration of student
housing for 400 students ranging from freshman to
graduate level.

Combining these two functions in one facility posed a
unique opportunity to transform entrepreneur education
and the student experience recognizing that innovation is
an activity that is fueled by the activities of life, this living-
learning environment supports entrepreneurial students
by making entrepreneurship a 24-7 endeavor, fostering
academic excellence in an interactive, interdisciplinary,
immersive milieu that engages a range of users,
accommodates a diversity of activities, and fosters
interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary “mash ups” of
science, humanities, technology, theory, practice, learning
and research.

To complement the hyperactive studio environment,
student sleeping pods were designed providing students
with a quiet respite from university life. Custom designed
sleeping pods represent an entirely new kind of living
space not found in any education institutions throughout
the United States. The prototype pod is a 7’ x 7’
prefabricated room (55 square feet) that incorporates all
the furniture found in a standard single dorm room –
including demountable book shelves, a full-sized bed,
nightstand, closet, medicine cabinet, and full-length
mirror – all in a well-designed layout that is
simultaneously compact and comfortable. Each pod has
its own individual climate control. Daylight, which is
plentiful in the loft space thanks to huge floor-to-ceiling
windows, enters the pod through top-corner clerestories
and through a glass door and wall, which can be blocked
with a privacy curtain.