"I know nothing about Charlie Munger's UCSB plan, but it appears that he already funded a dorm with this design at U Michigan. The building seems to be rated 8.8/10 by residents, and that appears to be the highest rating of any campus apartments.
https://www.veryapt.com/Apartments-L7646-ann-arbor-central-c..." [0]
Having spent all of 20 minutes inside one of these apartments, they're not at all comparable. It'd be more akin to the popular "urban 1 bedroom" apartments I see in various places (including Seattle, where I am) that feature windowless bedrooms.
This new building is a kafkaesque study in cramming sardines into 5'x5' boxes.
Certainly not "this" design. Graduate residence building at Michigan vs. undergrad at UCSB. Bedrooms at Michigan twice the size as the UCSB ones. Individual bathrooms vs. shared ones.
Munger also sponsored (in part) the Lawyer's Club residences that are adjacent to the law school at Michigan. The facilities there, while quite overpriced relative to the (already obscenely priced) local real estate market, are really pretty good as far as graduate dormitories go. But the rooms are also about 3x larger than the proposed UCSB rooms, and have windows.
This new building is a kafkaesque study in cramming sardines into 5'x5' boxes.