The COVID-19 pandemic has caused various restrictions that affect societal behavior and activity changes. One of the behavioral changes is how we interact and how we use shared space. A boarding house is one of the places in the settlement that is quite vulnerable to COVID-19 because the residents are from a wide range of origins and live in the same building, making close interaction in the boarding houses. This problem had an impact on a new design to meet their needs. Therefore, this research aims to determine how design strategy must be accommodated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research paradigm is an emic paradigm, in which the observer experienced directly a condition in a boarding house. The collective data used observation and interviews for content analysis. The output of this research is a design strategy for the students to raise their productivity in their dwellings without any anxiety.