Dormitories

Dormitories, accommodations for the collective residence of a large or significant group of people united by common interests or work. Residence in dormitories can be either in individual rooms for each person or in common bedrooms, with the main difference between dormitories and communal houses lying in the social structure and lifestyle of these two institutions. The external appearance of dormitories and communal houses may have similar features, but their internal content is profoundly different, and while the organization of dormitories often occurs in capitalist society, the communal house is a characteristic institution of the socialist system. Residents of dormitories, especially when arranged in small rooms, can fully maintain an individualistic lifestyle, assuming minimal obligations toward co-residents. The entire structure of a communal house, however, is based on the collectivization of daily life, strict distribution of duties, and mutual assistance among all residents. Dormitories of permanent and temporary types are distinguished. The former refer to dormitories continuously occupied, albeit by a rotating staff of residents (student dormitories, dormitories at industrial enterprises, etc.). The latter include those occupied for housing from year to year, but for a specific season of the year—dormitories for seasonal workers (at peat extraction sites, at brick, sugar and other factories, for construction workers, etc.)—or those established at production sites, even for significant, unlimited-term works (dormitories at construction sites of various structures: bridges, factories, survey parties, etc.). When constructing permanent-type dormitories, as well as in their subsequent operation, all sanitary-hygienic and sanitary-technical requirements applicable to residential premises must be observed (see Housing). The necessary living space and cubic footage standards for residents are calculated in the usual dimensions for this purpose, i.e., not less than 8 m² of area and 30 m³ of air per person. These requirements must be particularly strictly observed where dormitories are built with small rooms for 1-2 people. The unified standards of the STO give the following living space dimensions. In residential bedrooms: per person—9 m², for 2 people—17 m², for 3 people—24 m², for 4 people—30 m², with a height of 2.8 m. In cases where dormitories, in addition to spaces intended for sleep and rest, also allocate rooms for daytime use, the requirements for cubic footage and area can sometimes be reduced to approximately ²/₃ of those specified, on the assumption that, on one hand, during sleep the life processes in the body decrease, and consequently air contamination proceeds less intensively, and on the other hand, the free daytime space can be well ventilated even through natural ventilation. Temporary-type dormitories are usually built in the form of common bedrooms, and corresponding to the brief time they are used, the sanitary requirements for cubic footage and area per resident can be reduced to the limits of space necessary for placing a bed with sufficient gaps from neighboring beds; this is determined at about 3.5 m², with gaps between headboards of not less than 0.35 m and between beds of not less than 0.75 m. This living space standard is also indicated in the unified STO standards for common bedrooms in temporary barrack-type dormitories and is permitted by mandatory decrees of the NKT USSR for summer seasonal worker dormitories, provided that no more than 34 workers reside in a single common bedroom. In all other cases, the area standard per resident should not be reduced below 5 m² per person. Regardless of this, daytime living rooms are also allocated at a rate of not less than 0.60 m² per resident, but in any case not less than 10 m² of total area. An essential element of any dormitory must be a space for dining—a dining room. Combining this space with a daytime living room is permissible only for small dormitories (according to unified standards for dormitories of not more than 50 people). For larger ones, the dining room must be completely separate and located in a special annex or building; in any case, every dormitory project must provide for this. Preparing food in bedrooms causes air contamination and dampness of the room, and therefore should not be permitted. When organizing dormitories with small bedrooms, an essential element of the building is a corridor connecting these individual cells. Sanitary requirements here must be sufficiently strict, because when properly designed and maintained, the corridor serves as a reserve reservoir of clean air, whereas otherwise it will only serve as a sewer receiving all the contaminated air from residential premises. Therefore, the first and primary requirements for dormitory corridors are the possibility of rapid and thorough ventilation and good natural lighting. The rules for daytime lighting of corridors are standardized by the unified STO standards as follows: lighting of a corridor by a window in its end wall or by a skylight is possible provided that the distance from the most remote point from the window or skylight does not exceed 15 m. When lighting a corridor with windows in the longitudinal wall, any point on the opposite wall should be no more than 10 m from the nearest window. Dormitories must have special facilities for storing outer clothing. Passing through the entire dormitory in dusty, dirty outer clothing and footwear is unsanitary. "Bringing excessive contamination into the dormitory premises is a moment so important from a sanitary point of view that it is necessary to unconditionally demand when constructing dormitories the allocation of a space for a dressing room, which according to STO standards is calculated at 0.40 m² per resident based on the assumption of storing outer clothing in individual wardrobes." The provision of special drying rooms for outer clothing should be implemented in all dormitories intended to serve workers in wet industries (peat extraction). "One of the substantially important questions of each dormitory is the question of laundry washing. This should not be permitted in the premises of the dormitory itself. The most correct solution is to provide dormitory residents with the possibility of washing in communal laundries or through self-service or by handing in laundry for washing. A palliative solution is the organization of a laundry at the dormitory on the basis of self-service; this is inevitable for temporary dormitories. But even in the case of ensuring residents with laundry service in a communal laundry, in those dormitories where residence with children of parents can be expected, it is advisable to provide a small space for washing children's laundry." Among the service premises of dormitories, washrooms, toilets, rooms for cleaning clothing and footwear, and a storage room for residents' excess belongings should be provided. The main sanitary requirements for all these premises, except the last, should be—sufficient illumination by direct daylight, good ventilation, and the possibility of good ventilation. Washrooms and toilets are arranged separately for men and women, at a rate of 1 faucet in a washroom per 7-10 people and 1 toilet per 15-20 residents; the area of these premises is determined at approximately 1 m² per faucet or toilet. For the purpose of instilling hygiene skills and developing physical culture, it is very advisable to arrange showers at dormitories, especially of the permanent type, which according to the unified standards are arranged at a rate of 1 shower per every 30 residents, with cabins of 1.0 x 2.0 m area. The question of whether to arrange facilities for heating food in temporary-type dormitories is debatable. For temporary-type dormitories, it is more correct to refrain from such facilities. In permanent-type dormitories, where residence with children is anticipated, such facilities are needed, even for heating milk for infants, and these rooms can possibly be connected with utility rooms. The possibility of having access to boiling water must be ensured in all dormitories. Temporary dormitories require special attention from sanitary supervision. Built in the form of common bedrooms with calculation of minimal area and cubic footage, these dormitories nevertheless are often overcrowded beyond all norms and with a rotating staff of residents arriving for work from different parts of the Union. For this reason, such dormitories can easily become foci for the development of various kinds of epidemics. Particularly favorable conditions can be created in them for the development of parasitic typhus. Therefore, constant monitoring for the development of parasites and the fight against them both in the dormitory premises themselves and among residents, not admitting newly arriving persons to the dormitory without special sanitary processing, and quarantining in other suspicious cases—such are the measures that must be consistently carried out everywhere where we deal with this type of dormitory. The reduced cubic footage standard requires maintaining thorough cleanliness of both the premises and especially the air and maintaining its quality at the proper level, which is possible only under the condition of continuous renewal of it from outside air. Therefore, regular ventilation, proper operation of ventilation systems, and proper heating should be both a constant concern of the residents themselves and a subject of instruction from the sanitary physician. The temporary nature of this type of dormitory, often with rotating residents, complicates the task of implementing the sanitary minimum in them.

Only by involving the entire population in caring for maintaining the sanitary minimum, maximizing development in this direction, and the initiative of the residents, and by creating public control (sanitary commissions, sanitary authorized persons, etc.) over its implementation, can real results of sanitary well-being be achieved. The limited time that residents can devote in dormitories to cleaning and maintaining cleanliness, and the presence of a number of common-use premises, urgently dictate the necessity of having in each dormitory a sufficient number of permanent cleaners. A special type of dormitory is the so-called peasant houses—dormitories, intended for overnight stays and short-term stays of peasants arriving in cultural-administrative centers to perform various kinds of public assignments. Being one type of short-term stay dormitories, peasant houses must, in their sanitary-technical installations, meet the standards that are applied to short-term stay dormitories. Along with this, a peasant house, intended to serve a specific social group, must reflect in its layout the special requirements of the population group it serves: to help a rural resident unfamiliar with the city to orient himself in the city, to assist him in the quickest and most favorable fulfillment of the tasks before him, to provide an opportunity to supplement his knowledge on both general and special agricultural issues, etc. Hence the necessity of including in the composition of mandatory premises of a peasant house such premises as consultation-information bureaus, a room for an agronomist consultant, a room for a permanent exhibition, a room for general meetings and talks (auditorium). Since the arrival of rural residents in the city often occurs by horse transport, it is necessary when organizing a peasant house to provide appropriate premises for the horses and carriages of persons staying in the house, and for the convenient supervision of the horses, these premises should be easily accessible to their owners.