Campus
Design
Good Design Builds Identity Warren Price, senior associate with Urban Strategies Inc, Toronto explains why campus design and architecture is crucial How important would you say is good campus design and architecture for an institution? Although academic priorities are always paramount, ensuring physical resources and academic objectives are aligned is essential for any institution. All institutions strive for the best possible facilities to support teaching, research and outreach. Increasingly, social spaces and the campus setting are also seen as the places in which to learn and support the academic community. These places are becoming “selling points” which attract and retain both students and faculty. Good campus design helps promote the identity of an institution, builds community and provides amenities.
What have been the prevailing norms for campus designs?
Warren Price Senior Associate, Urban Strategies
In western culture, the courtyard or quadrangle has been the prevailing model for university campus design. This model has been reinterpreted in countless ways in a wide variety of settings. It provides a focus for community and suggests a social space that is somewhat set apart from the surrounding context.
What are the challenges of improving the design of an existing institution?
Many of the most respected universities and colleges have existed for decades and have continually reinvented both the institution and its physical setting or campus. Most simply put, the challenge is to retain what is valuable and necessary, and to change what is no longer relevant. Often the setting and image of the campus must endure while adding new facilities, modes of transportation and servicing.
What is your advice for creating a wholesome campus? The creation of a campus’ open space and circulation framework is key. This framework can be built incrementally over time, resulting in an enduring and rich setting and identity. Within this framework campus building sites should be identified, which can developed or redeveloped as facility needs evolve.
How do you design a smaller campus within an urban setting? The advantage of an urban setting is the diversity and level of amenity cities can provide. The institution can focus on the creation of academic spaces and “borrow” other spaces, housing and amenities from the surrounding city. The challenge for an institution in an urban setting is to create an identity and academic community that is distinct from, yet connected to, its host city. communication styles. The computer commons or lounge has replaced the library. The seminar room has replaced the large lecture hall,” Price points out. Many institutions are also choosing to
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Edu Tech January 2010
not disturb the contours of land, or natural vegetation by keeping their design environment friendly. Innovative alternatives like setting up an amphitheatre in a natural depression at NIIT Univer-
sity, or creating a lake in a valley at the Infosys campus are becoming popular. At Carnegie Mellon University, “each floor of the new nine-storey Gates Centre and four-storey Hillman Centre is uniquely shaped to conform to the site’s demanding geology, steep terrain and built environment and to optimise office views,” says Kenneth Walters, Senior Media Relations Director. Additionally, a college needs to be commercially viable in the long-term for which a master plan becomes significant. Observes Ravi John of Sobha, “The master plan is the backbone of any campus. In most cases, an independent advisory body is first formed to survey and come up with a plan acknowledging all aspects — environment, functional requirement, statutory requirement, fire safety, urban scapes, etc., and most importantly, the vision and mission for the development.”
Hurdles Along The Way As Ravi John confesses, “The challenge in creating any new campus is formulating and finalising a project brief and fulfilling changes to the original inputs, at a later stage. With respect to modifying a campus, the main challenge is to fuse the modern systems, building services and technology without losing the essence and the sentiments of the older structures.” Many campuses also face intangible problems. “Most academic institutions are “politically dynamic” places. They favour debate and promote discourse. Decision-making in such an environment can be challenging,” points out Price. “Getting architects, civil contractors, project management consultants to sit together to resolve problems of delay and quality,” cites Professor Sriram, executive director of Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai, as the problems they faced while building the campus. In addition, since they opted to be a green campus they had to use significant amounts of recycled materials, sourced exclusively from green-certified sources preferably from adjoining areas which was another challenge towards its timely completion. GEC2 had to contend with shortage of skilled craftsmen for fine