> I doubt the patrons feel stuck in a temperature storage facility.

They also aren't living in a windowless box. They still likely get natural light in their cubicles.

IMHO it's a terrible layout but not for the lack of windows in bedrooms. The pod shared space is basically useless. Why do students on a meal plan need a full kitchen? What are they going to do with a single big table? Why use 1/2 of each pods exterior wall for windowless bedrooms?

The common space should be the entire exterior wall. It should be a living room instead of a kitchen/table combo.

The proportions are off too, IMHO. The pod living spaces are too small and the great rooms too big.

>tradeoffs (fewer rooms, multiple students per room and/or higher cost) they would require

You can increase the house plan from 22 windowed rooms (counting the double room twice) to 32 without changing the shape of the building by moving 4 of the dorm blocks to the other side of the multipurpose room and not having one of the washrooms face outside. That would also reduce the distance from the dorm rooms to the multipurpose room/staircase. Design's just bad.

Unrelated to the windows, it's also weird that the bathrooms from adjacent dorm blocks aren't back-to-back so that they could easily share plumbing.