Analyzing Furniture Mediation of Everyday Practices in High-Density Student Dormitories

Abstract

This study focuses on high-density student dormitories as a shared living environment and examines how dormitory furniture mediates students’ everyday practices in recurrent ways, participating in the formation of spatial order and adaptive practices under conditions of limited space. Adopting a human–furniture–environment perspective, the study draws on semi-structured interviews as the primary data source, supplemented by on-site spatial observations and photographic documentation for contextual validation. Through thematic analysis, four modes of furniture mediation are identified: furniture as spatial constraint, as bodily guide, as boundary mediator, and as trigger condition. The findings reveal that furniture mediates the formation of everyday practices through a chained process of “spatial redistribution–behavioral adjustment–relational reconfiguration,” highlighting an ongoing tension between spatial efficiency and individual agency. The study reconceptualizes dormitory furniture from passive facilities to active elements in the generation of practice, thereby extending practice-oriented interpretations of high-density shared living environments.