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URA Competition Poster - Campus Arch essay
- 1. Since its conception in the Ancient Greek and Islamic worlds havens for sharing knowledge the university based itself upon democratic principles such as openness and search for justice. The worlds oldest university ensembles followed a pattern of centering around a main courtyard, with gathering and scholarly conversation being welcomed this way by a gesture of form.5 Lucien Kroll is considered a pioneer of participatory design, one that aspires to direct engagement of the users.The student residence conceived by architect Lucien Kroll in 1970 is considered to embody a self-building democratic community through simple materiality and structural arrangement of its components. Although not developed further the project introduced notions of user- directed flexibility to the campus.6 Built in increments the architecture was created according to the needs of individuals personally and as a collective: accommodating possibilities for private affaires and congregation in the student residence. The variety of spaces granted the users with a choice of behaviour that best suits them personally while taking part in the academic community.7 In these examples as in many others public space beyond the university campus was made by student protesters into a protagonist of the events. Hosting the demonstration of disagreement with injustices imposed upon the wider public, cities were the extensions of the campus spaces where the disagreements were first voiced. The hopeful unrest so prolific in the past century is however an unsustainable effort and ways to bring change that can be implemented in an everyday context are sought after. Whether a university community is influencing the wider public for the better even through mere presence is a question that perhaps can be addressed through campus architecture, seeing as physical environment sets a tone to human activity. The physical presence of a university has an impact on the nature of the establishment and the activity on campus. Although the goals and standards of higher education institutions are universal, universities found in a variety of contexts get defined by them to certain degrees. The country, city, and placement of the campus affect it on a multitude of levels; starting with the image of the university. The designs of campuses, structures and their interrelation often not only answer the requirements but speak of an institutions values in material and physical form.4 Contrasting campus locations: University of Winnipeg situated downtown and the University of Manitoba on the outskirts Campus facilities that are designated for common use such as the traditional courtyard or the library are the focal points of social exchanges and happenings. Conceived in the 20th century, the Student centre, a staple of contemporary campuses, became an integral part of university life as a host of diverse social and academic functions.8 Many of the Canadian Universities student centres were built in the 1960s when the demand for higher education grew throughout the country and new colleges were projected to meet the need. Simon Fraser University masterplan demonstrated a new concept for the way an academic institution functions. According to the architects, the built form was an attempt to predict and dictate an integrated approach to learning. Faculties and classes were held in vicinity making exchange of knowledge more available and emphasizing the value of such interaction.9 Clarity and flexibility are central requirements of built environment intended for academic activity, meeting diverse and rapidly changing needs, new models of education, while maintaining values of truth and The novel model of an integrated university that emerged in the 1960s in places such as Simon Fraser and Scarborough11 spoke of integration of communities within the university.12 Further novelty would be connecting the world of university to a broader context: the society outside of campus grounds. Several universities in Canada distinguishably moved away from the centuries old, traditional layout of a centralized campus to a state of integration into surrounding urban conditions. The expansion of the University of Quebec in Montreal is one such example13 , with the neighbouring Loyola campus of Concordia following suit as a vertical, high-rise campus in an adjacent downtown area.14 A re-design initiative encouraged by president Meric Gertler at the University of Toronto aims to extend the city an invitation to campus. The Landscape of Landmark Quality Innovative Design Competition, launched last year, addresses the underused commons at the heart of Torontos downtown campus with the goal of fostering familiarity and connection The universities in the city of Winnipeg are contrasted in their location, as one deliberately remained in the downtown core while the other was ever present in the outskirts. Despite being located at the edge of the city, the University of Manitoba is at the heart of the province. In the Prairies an historically Agrarian campus such as the University of Manitoba or that of Saskatchewan resonates not only with the city it is nestled in but with the wider province and population. Agricultural lands within the campus are an essential part of its history as an agriculture college and its Manitoban context. The university holds both practical and conceptual connections to far corners of it for learning, research, and community enhancement. The projected regeneration of the campus includes an exemplary sustainable community near the campus, which would communicate the vision of healthier lifestyle valued by the University to the local public. Connectivity within the campus and of the campus is a key solution to relating university to the surrounding contexts of place and society. Quality public spaces used by students and faculty and available to the public provide a positive athmosphere and uphold a PART OF THE CITY PART OF THE PROVINCE University is perceived as a middle-ground, a transitory process of learning and evaluating the grand scheme of social, political and other workings before venturing into their great chaos. It constitutes an essential lens for examining politics, commerce, law, scientific research and many other contemporary societal constructs and for keeping them at par with innovation and improvement. While officially aiming to qualify future professionals, university education inspires not only learning for the sake of preserving traditions of knowledge, but also questioning, search for better alternatives for existing conditions, and action. Academic efforts are often recognized as essential drivers of social change.1 For decades university students around the world have been demonstrating awareness of wrongs and a rigour to correct them.2 The late sixties in Europe saw the famous student unrest spill on the streets of Paris bringing student discourse into action beyond the Quartier Latin of the Parisian Universities. In Prague it was the university students who faced the armour of communism on the streets of the capital out of the will to save their homeland from foreign destruction. Students in China were the driving force of the iconic 1989 Tiananmen Square protest.3 Quebec Maple Spring protesters and May68 demonstrations in Paris Democratic values in universities: Palladios courtyard, 1760 (above) and Lucien Krolls participatory design of Meme student residence, 1970 Simon Fraser University campus in 1967 University of Manitoba campus regeneration rendering Reflective Overview of Campus Architecture in Canada Instructor: Professor Lisa Landrum, Faculty of Architecture Student: Daniela VeismanUNIVERSITY AND SOCIETY IN THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE Public Space as the Connector of Community and Campus The image of university, site of higher education and innovative research and solution proposal, remains as pertinent as ever. In the contemporary setting of rapidly transforming and interconnecting professional fields the ideal of an academia walled off within a campus bestowing higher education is obsolete, as faculty and students tend to reach out for greater societal involvement in practice. City grounds became the new courtyard of universities, as academic discourse and research crucially consists of concerns of the public as a whole. Students who would reshape it are part of the general society, and the university is a symbolic embodiment of the populations network of perpetual learners striving towards improving individually and collectively. Creation of relevant public spaces at universities, ones that would enable and maintain a connection between campus and surrounding context, would help move on from the ephemeral advocation for better societies on behalf of student activism to a more reliable, institutional manifestation of the aspiration, which would speak of long-term public inclusion in the process. academic freedom. positive image of the institution.10 between surrounding communities and the campus.15