Room
**History of Room Structures**:
– Neolithic room at Skara Brae, Orkney, c.3,000 BC
– Akrotiri excavations on Santorini reveal defined rooms from early Minoan cultures around 2200 BC
– Ancient Rome’s complex building forms with various room types, including indoor bathing rooms
– Anasazi civilization in North America’s early room structures
– Advanced room configurations seen in Maya structures as early as several hundred AD
**Types of Rooms**:
– Work rooms (kitchens, pantries, root cellars)
– Home offices or studies
– Toilet and bathroom rooms
– Separate kitchen and toilet areas in wealthier homes (17th-19th centuries)
– Restrooms with toilets and handwashing facilities
**Social Rooms**:
– Great halls for socializing and public gatherings
– Sitting rooms, living rooms, parlors for social visits and entertainment
– Special rooms for entertainment (libraries, home theaters, music rooms)
– Drawing rooms for private conversations
– Gender-based rooms like man caves or cabinets
**Sleeping Rooms**:
– Bedrooms for sleeping, with master bedrooms possibly having en suite bathrooms
– Guest rooms for overnight visitors, nurseries for babies
– Playrooms for children’s toys
– Bedrooms with dressing rooms or closets
– Box rooms in the UK used as single bedrooms or storage areas
**Student Accommodation and Housing**:
– Importance of communal kitchens in student housing
– Microbiological survey findings on communal kitchen hygiene
– Impacts of studentification on accommodation and neighborhoods
– Geographical aspects of student accommodation
– Recommendations for student housing planning
In a building or ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is typically large enough for several people to move about. The size, fixtures, furnishings, and sometimes placement of the room within the building or ship (or sometimes a train) support the activity to be conducted in it.
