I agree with the architect's criticism and I don't think I'd want to live in a room without windows without some compensating factor.
It is interesting, though, from the point of view of exploring ways for people to live. One of the main objections to human habitation on Mars is that people will have to live in radiation-hardened bunkers, probably underground. A lot of people consider lack of windows to be an absolute show-stopper. I don't think that's the case, but I do think that in order to go without windows you at least need to pay a lot of careful attention to creating natural light conditions and simulating wide-open spaces. Maybe you'd have to have more floor-space per person than you would otherwise, and maybe you'd need to have a few very large rooms with walls and ceiling painted a flat color that's hard to focus directly on and looks like sky.
It doesn't seem like the designer of this dorm is doing much of that; it seems more like they're just running the "let's take away windows and see what happens" experiment. People are adaptable and some of them won't mind, but still I don't think it's going to be very successful on average.
It is interesting, though, from the point of view of exploring ways for people to live. One of the main objections to human habitation on Mars is that people will have to live in radiation-hardened bunkers, probably underground. A lot of people consider lack of windows to be an absolute show-stopper. I don't think that's the case, but I do think that in order to go without windows you at least need to pay a lot of careful attention to creating natural light conditions and simulating wide-open spaces. Maybe you'd have to have more floor-space per person than you would otherwise, and maybe you'd need to have a few very large rooms with walls and ceiling painted a flat color that's hard to focus directly on and looks like sky.
It doesn't seem like the designer of this dorm is doing much of that; it seems more like they're just running the "let's take away windows and see what happens" experiment. People are adaptable and some of them won't mind, but still I don't think it's going to be very successful on average.