Public Policy for Student Housing and Spatial Organization: Typo-Morphological Convergence in PNAES Projects, Portugal

The National Plan for Student Accommodation in Higher Education (PNAES, 2018–2026), funded by the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), aims to increase student housing capacity in Portugal through new construction, rehabilitation, and the adaptation of existing buildings. This article examines the relationship between the constraints of the PNAES and the spatial organization of five newly built projects developed under this plan. The methodology is based on a comparative typo-morphological analysis of spatial organization, focused on the identification of recurring patterns and dominant typologies. The results reveal a clear typo-morphological convergence, characterized by compact prismatic volumes, predominantly rectangular floor plans, central corridor systems, and modular repetition of accommodation units. The findings indicate that the constraints of the PNAES appear to be associated with processes of spatial standardization in student housing design. The study highlights the impact of public policy frameworks and public developers, suggesting that they not only regulate quantitative outcomes such as capacity and efficiency, but may also influence the typo-morphological logic of architectural production in contemporary student housing. Future research should expand the dataset to validate the results and further explore the relationship between typo-morphological configurations and levels of privacy and social interaction in student housing.