Pierce Allston_Campus of the Future Submission

The goal of the project is to blend the boundaries of classrooms, buildings, campuses, schools, and the surrounding community of Ann Arbor. The Campus of the Future is unique for every individual, serving the needs of everyone & anyone.

The campus of the future will more efficient1. Separate buildings are not necessary for a scholarly campus. The Campus of the future, however, will be built on the premise of efficient learning, planning2 and optimizing the layout of the complex network3 of systems. Programs that once existed in isolation, such as department buildings and discipline quads, are now a part of the whole campus programmatically and physically. There is no one who is unable to learn or attend the University of Michigan, integrating the community of Ann Arbor into the campus, as well as serving anyone, and everyone who wishes to be a part of the rich an illustrious heritage just as the buildings, classrooms, and ‘Diags’ are integrated into the complex whole.

The open university aspect allows students to attend from anywhere, allowing them to call in to their classes, and meet with teachers whichever way they’d like. Like the World’s Fair or Olympics, which is the showcase of the cream of the crop, bringing in people from all corners of the earth, the Campus of the Future aims showcase the possibility of knowledge, but for all ages. Laid out in the most efficient and useful manner, focusing on spaces that serve more than just one need, instead of a classroom that can only hold 20 students. The adjacencies of spaces lead to the adjacencies of learning, of discipline, of students. The Campus of the Future will utilize spaces that change as they need to be, going from an exhibition to a classroom4 in seconds. No need to change buildings5 to go from your lecture to discussion groups but rather morphing and meshing the space you have; aiming to be more flexible and efficient. A complex pattern is situated over the campus, allowing the geometries within to merge with each other, the parts float within the whole.

Architecture’s role is the formalizing of these rooms6 of learning, while also leaving room for adaptability and future expansion. Through architectural juxtaposition, students can mold their very own experience as much or as little as they please, integrating the program and spatial layouts with the variety and every changing curriculum. The Campus of the Future allows for adaptability, efficiency and expansion of the University of Michigan to allow participants to explore the world the possibilities that lie ahead, by attracting all disciplines, and utilizing only the most advanced methods of learning to ensure that the next 200 years will be just as memorable than the last.

1 Efficiency: The streamlined process of getting from course to course.

2 Planning: The overarching conception of how spaces go/will go together.

3 Network: Interconnected strings of being, usually connected with like-minded nodes.

4 Classrooms: An overarching space where similar work gets taught/done.

5 Building: A series of classrooms that are directly, or indirectly associated. Buildings are function for an ever-changing user base.

6 Rooms: Spaces that have no defined program that can shift between program type.

Campus of the Future Proposal 

Superimposed onto Current Campus

campudofthefuture_buildings_donnelly_shane

Shane P. Donnelly

April 17, 2016

Design Ecologies

Campus of the Future on the Building Scale

Climate change’s devastating effects will leave no place untouched from its destruction including Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. The campus faces a crisis of adaptability and the university needs to consider creating buildings that can be flexible, able to withstand the coming disasters. The University needs to consider extreme droughts, and an inevitable water crisis. Water seems limitless within Michigan, a state surrounded on three sides by the largest freshwater lakes in the world, and who’s interior is dotted by rivers and smaller lakes. Yet, these seemingly limitless quantities of water will dry up if not treated as finite resource. With rising temperatures and changing climate patterns, the great lakes state may be left without any consumable fresh water, as lakes and rivers begin to dry up and shrink from increased evaporation and a shift in climate patterns from current precipitation levels to that more equivalent to a desert.

Future buildings on campus must be built using certain guidelines to help defend the campus against such disasters. New structures need to save water on site, buildings capturing water lands on their footprints and store it in case of water emergencies. Hardscape surfaces should be softened, parking lots become green lots, and rubber and tar roofs replaced with vegetation. Not only does this retain water on-site, but stored water can be directed towards local reservoirs to replenish them if there is a drought. The added benefit of adding greenery into once hardscaped surfaces and spaces is a decrease in heat island effect, where black tar, asphalt, and rubberized surfaces trap heat making a building act like an oven in that vicinity. With extreme climate change comes extreme weather, where powerful storms will pass through southeast Michigan.

Buildings will need to be resilient to these storms that include strong winds, hail, and torrential rain with flash flooding. As part of the guidelines, buildings will need to be make changes to their designs to cope with disastrous storms. Mechanical systems can no longer be placed underground as they may be subject to flood damage, nor be placed on the roof of buildings as they are exposed to the strong winds that may occur. Thus, these vital life systems should be protected and built deep inside the building to isolate them from damage. Buildings need to be raised to allow flood water to pass underneath them, allowing for minimal damage to property and structure. Windows and transparencies need to withstand storm winds and debris that may hit them, due to the winds. Shields that can be lowered over the windows, or storm-proofed glass must be used to save the interiors of the campuses buildings from any damage or bodily harm. The University of Michigan has thrived for two centuries, producing some of the greatest achievements known in modern times, now the campus needs to protect itself for the next two centuries to keep this tradition of excellence moving forward.   

Architecture & Spectacle — The Future Circular Collider of CERN

Current technological advancements are leaving behind a physical imprint that has the opportunity to carry with it evidence of humanity’s great achievements. The progression of technology is currently increasing exponentially, as seen in the progressive discoveries CERN has made over the past sixty years. There is now an opportunity for the next leaps in human knowledge to be materialized through an architecture that is long lasting.

Stonehenge — Amesbury, Salisbury 3100/2500 BC

Often times we forget to remember how cultures and religions coexist. It is not that we forget to acknowledge the ambitions of different philosophies. But when it comes to plenitude, there emerges a responsibility to share this abundance of knowledge with the world. In order to survive, one must rely upon individual  strength and wit and be able to pool the resources necessary to ensure their livelihood. However, when looking beyond survival towards the prospects of a thriving life one finds that dependency and meaningful collaboration are key factors to abundance and strength. Although many may argue for competitive global markets, but I am solely interested in the conversation regarding global collaboration in order to build a stronger world culture.

Currently, one of these important discussions, regarding the topic of collaboration, emerges at CERN located in Geneva, Switzerland. At CERN there is a common interest always at play, one in which many scientists from different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds are brought alongside each other in hopes to discover something together in a cumulative effort. This ambition is common among the scientist because their sole interest is to reveal the unknown questions of the universe, whether they contradict or vitalize our previous understanding of nature. This movement is not led by romantic ruminations of the possible worlds or dimensions yet to be discovered, rather these scientists are driven by a consistent model of discoveries made over the past sixty years, always projecting upward. To some extent this pragmatic mentality to continue the vast search through the universe makes sense, yet we have reached a necessary paradigm shift, one in which the scientific method can no longer function independent of world pedagogy. At this point in time it is critical to work together, collaborating at a level that projects a universal image of discovery and innovation.

It is clear to those who work at CERN that the work they are doing to is an invaluable contribution to a universal discovery of knowledge. Unfortunately, most of the world continues to look inward at individual interests and how others could any small way disrupt this personal right to happiness and livelihood. The new Future Circular Collider is  currently in its preliminary stages of design, and will continue to be so for several years. This new project is the testing ground for three very important topics: the first is projecting an image of collaboration to the world that generates global interest and support. Second, the new FCC should always feel like a collaboration in search of knowledge for the world. Lastly, there needs to be a new campus, one that is physically dense, so that physical proximity can influence real collaboration.

Speculative design for the new FCC campus

DongfangXie_Abstract_V3

An University for Refugee

The campus will be a high density complex, and its purpose is to solve the most fundamental
issues for survival and education. The functions will include food support, library, housing,
community service, medicine, commercial, classroom and student center. And the education
content will mainly about the language learning, culture communication, and working skill
training. The school encourages local volunteers and other universities all over the world working
together to centralize all the advanced society/education resources to solve the refugee problem.
Also, with the help of the information technology, the university allows students study various
majors through Internet and digital devices.
The housing part is a high density collective habitation which is able to contain 15,000 males and
females in total. The types of apartment will meet the demanding of singles, families, and
disabled people. The whole campus building will touch the ground with commercial space, food
support, and medicine center. In the medicine center, the psychotherapy department will be the
biggest part which will work with volunteers together and provide psychological therapy and
consultation. As a place for socialization, dining hall or restaurant will be a public space services
both students and citizens. To enhance the connection with the city, the campus should be tied
closely with the city transportation network. Student center will establish a cooperation with the
local government so that the most of the immigration problems( like identity ) can be directly
solved. The diverse public spaces are valued, for they play a very important role in bridging the
culture gaps and avoiding the isolation. Due to the multiple religion backgrounds of the students,
the design of all the public spaces and facilities will respect all the different customs as possible
as it could. And Considering the it might be a long term problem, the campus will also provide
the preschool education for the second generation of students.
Except the living issues, another urgent problem is about education. For the most part of the
refugees only have or under primary-school education level, the campus will provide language
class and all kinds of entry-level knowledge training. The positions for teaching and
administration will open to volunteers and proficient people, and it also encourages students
with the quality joining in the faculty and participating in the campus management. No matter
what nationality that students are, or what religion background they have, both men and women
will be treated equally and permitted to use all the resources in the campus. As for the classes, to
make sure the students can fully engage in the city and have a job to support themselves after
they graduate, skill training and career introduction will be the focus of the education. However,
other topics like painting, literature, music, opera, engineering, computing, mathematics, etc,
which are highly proficient and extremely multiple will be more likely to look for collaboration
with other universities in the world through Internet. In these subjects, the virtual/augmented
reality devices and human computer interaction system will be largely used in the teaching
process.

Dongfang Xie
UMID: 39593350
04/10/2017

Huan Ni_ Campus of the Future_v2

Radical Pedagogies

Innovation, instability and Emergence

Huan (Sophie) Ni

Campus of the Future

“In ancient Greece, a paid-agogus or pedagogue was a leader of the young. But for an aspiring ‘radical’ pedagogue, educating involves more than leading, and learning involves more than being led. A radical pedagogy involves stepping away from orthodox practices 9 and revisiting the real – and surreal – fundamentals of what and whom an education is for, and who delivers it”, in the book Radical Pedagogies: Architectural Education and the British Tradition, Daisy Fround & Harriet Harriss suggests there are many trajectories that may continue to achieve the academic, social and practical complexity separating architecture from building.

What architecture was and how will it look like in the future.

[the] ‘…globalised architect must become more than just an artful vision - ary, but also master of the art of the political nudge willing to act in multiple mediums and the simultaneous scales of the chaotic new world disorder’

Architecture education contains teaching, administration and research. Whilst educators are always asking how to make architectural education better, today’s educators and students are facing a more critical problem: ‘better’ does not address the initial challenges. Thus, we need to do not only just accept and compliance the established and existing system. In the book, the author mentions ‘to teach, to live.’ It means architecture schools need to constantly and continuously experiment, practice, adapt, reinvent, critique and contribute. It should celebrate with intellectually restless environments created by schools of architecture to reinvent the discipline.

Learning, studying and teaching are not limited in one’s own major, all majors in one building should be collaborated with others. Campus is a whole, a building is also a whole. If we are certain and crave in how architecture schools teach, we should accept that complete coherence at the outset of any new initiative is no guarantee of intellectual progression. Thus, in Taubman college, architecture, art and sculpture may be merged, intertwined with each other to form a new type of pedagogies. The duration of education means invention, creation of forms and continuous elaboration of the absolutely new. Architecture education is not an exception. Students in the same building should not be separated by majors. They can start to share the same classrooms, to more easily take other major’s classes, to communicate more with students and educators in other majors in Taubman college.

“Rather than waiting for the sky to fall, schools have an opportunity to embrace other forces of transformation”, the building already bring students in architecture, art, sculpture to one place, why spate them from the disciplines.  

(Sophie) Xiaofei Wu_ Future Campus_v2

Inclusivity, Flexibility, Adaptability

Students not only study in campus but also live in campus. At present, students keep traveling between where they live and where they study. Since highly mix-used building isn’t a new topic for contemporary architecture, how it would be like if a building were flexible and adjustable for both studying and living, including apartment, gym and library?

In Dom-Ino House, Le Corbusier firstly shows the example of “free plan” defined by the floor, column, and stairs. Forty years later, in S, M, L, XL, Rem Koolhaas argues that the complexity generated by superimposition and combination of functions brings architecture opportunities to build new relations and interactions through reprograming. Adding to Le Corbusier’s “free plan”, Koolhaas are proposing a “free section,” in which interactions happen in all available space defined by the overall structure, horizontally but also vertically.

For future campus, the school building is not only of inclusivity to mix different programs, but also of flexibility and adaptability for the future changes and different needs coming from the users. On the basis of Corbusier’s “free plan” and koolhaas’s “free section”, I am proposing a “free space” that is of inclusivity but also flexibility and adaptability simultaneously, which allows horizontal and vertical interactions as well. 

Dealing with the conflict between permanence of architecture and the instability of demand, it is important to identify the permanent part and temporary part within a building. The less permanent part, the more temporary part, the more flexible and adaptable the building is. As Koolhaas mentioned, within a building, available space is defined by the overall structure. For “frees space,” the “overall structure” is the only permanent part while the left “available space” is for temporary occupying and open to change. Besides the overall structure, all the programs are temporary, which allows changing in their size, location, and form according to demand and time. It finally entails architects to reconsider the adjacency among these temporary programs and the relationship between programs and the “overall structure.”

However, what would be the “overall structure” for the compacted building? On one hand, the “overall structure” is no longer limited to the structure against gravity but also an infrastructural structure that realizes the connection and interaction between different programs. It leads students and faculty into different programs – learning space, administrating space, living space, sporting space and collaborate space - and allows them to travel between. It also contains the program that maintains the building’s operation – the vertical circulation, the equipment room, the waste and so on. Therefore, the “overall structure” works as service core that supports and maintains the building.

On the other hand, to allow changing in the temporary programs, the “overall structure” organizes these programs within a 3D grid that based on one module. Each program could enclose a certain number of unit spaces according to the needs. The spaces left could be landscape terrace as informal activity space, which could also be include to other program in case of possible changes. Also, the dormitories would be removable units that could install and remove based on the amount of people that live in the building.

DongfangXie_Abstract_V2

The Future Campus for Refugees

As is known to all that Europe has a refugee problem for years. Although there are many official refugee camps which provide food, housing, and medicine care, a large number of unauthorized camps still exist in the central cities and usually around the official camps or transport stations. According to the statistic report from DIE ZEIT in October, 2016, nearly 60% of Syrian refugees only have or under primary-school education level and only 10% of refugees can find a job. Education issue is urgent for refugees.

Building a centralized campus complex for them might be an executable solution. The prior mission of the campus is providing the fundamental accommodation for all students. Thus, besides the regular accessory buildings, the main buildings in the campus will be dormitories and dining halls. And considering it might be a long term problem, the campus should also include the kindergarten, primary school, middle school, and high school for the second generation of refugees. A student center and embassy are definitely necessary, which should be located in one building in the very center of the campus. Meanwhile, a train station in the center area is also needed, not only to transport food and necessities for refugees, but also to build up the connection between the campus and city to guarantee that the students can fully engage into the city activities. Skill training is the essential issue, however the career backgrounds of refugees are complex and diverse, it is unlikely to introduce professional devices and equipment for all kinds of subjects and establish labs and workshops with them. Therefore, sending students to the working places and practice their skills in internships would be an effective strategy, which makes it important to place the training building nearby the train station. Online education system allows volunteers and other universities or institutions participate in the teaching section, which requires the classroom with information devices. There will be three sizes of classrooms in the training building. The large ones function as the digital lecture room which can contain 200 to 300 students at once and hold job consultations, language classes, and local culture introduction. The middle size classrooms are the regular ones, 45 seats will be placed around the walls to leave the middle area empty, so that each room could has a holographic projection which shows the online transmissions. Classes with virtual reality equipment taking place in the small size room will pay more attention to the communication and coordination. No furniture will stand in the room and no device here has a cable, any decoration here would be considered unnecessary. Students here work as a group and get in touch with the companies, in which they can know the job content and get familiar with the operation process. To save more spaces and contain more people, each collective dormitory with a private bathroom is no more than 10 square meters, for the campus has already provided a various of basic public spaces. However, student has a family can apply a studio apartment which type would match the number of family members.

Shane P. Donnelly

March 29, 2017

Design Ecologies

Campus of the Future

This year the University of Michigan celebrates its bicentennial as one of the world’s leading university’s in all spheres of education, research, and ideas. The question is what will the next two hundred years have in store for this global institution, what will the campus of that future look like, how can it be designed and planned for the coming generations. As we continue along a path of global connectivity and a one world system brought about via the interchanging of ideas, technologies, and communication; the University of Michigan campus needs to reflect these forces that are altering the world around us. Buildings on campus must learn to integrate into this interconnected global web and be in conversation with one another. These ideologies should be seen in the way the university organizes its future buildings and spaces. Buildings need to allow positive gatherings of people. Programs should not be divided but instead speak with one another, forming a dialogue and interconnectedness like the way people are now.  Conversational promoting seating areas, comfortable spaces, lots of natural light, and the encouragement of nature from the outdoors in, all are ways to promote a better-connected campus. With interconnected programs, it allows mix used activities to occur and buildings to have a more 24/7 usage of their spaces. This in turn encourages conversation and people to gather, exchange ideas and thoughts, like how social media brings different peoples, ideas, and conceptions together, so can mixed use buildings. Programs that could be folded into academic and residential buildings on campus are places of food, drink, and entertainment. For example, why not have a music and libations bar inside of a dormitory, where the bar is open not only to students but the public as well. Strangers should not be perceived as a threat, but instead welcomed. It is not dissimilar to people who meet online, but instead going back to a more traditional method of in person. Students can meet people who may be locals or from another dormitory, and thus grow in their relations with others. Mixing program like this in turn creates safer and more comfortable spaces for people to be in, thus enticing more people to use the space. It is safer because people are using the space and surround area of the building always of day, this discourages criminal acts since more people are watching the streets and structures. In fact, just a few people mingling outside can turn an otherwise unsafe and empty street into one more comfortable and easy to walk along late at night, all this through people being in a space or structure due to mixed programing. Another way social interactions can be heightened is through better connections across campus. Whether it is through shortened wait time at intersections, new sidewalks, bike lanes, healthier paths between buildings, and an overall reworking of how people experience buildings and the campus through movement. Mixing transportation together has another added benefit of cutting costs, emissions, and travel times. Faster connections mean more movement, and more movement means more activity in the public sphere to the university. Thus mixing programs and spaces creates a healthier, safe, and livelier university. 

Abhiram Sharma_Campus of the Future_Abstract

The American Campus began in 1817 with Thomas Jefferson creating what he described as an “academic village”. It was in the same year that the University of Michigan was established. An insightful comment that must be mentioned here is by John Davis Pierce, Michigan’s first superintendent of public schools, who is recorded to have said, “that a University did not consist in buildings, but in the number and ability of its Professors, and in its other appointments…” (Hinsdale, 1906) It is worth reminding ourselves that the primary purpose of a university is to serve as a community of teachers and scholars. Seen as an ‘academic village’, it is only as good as its villagers.

In order to boost the spirit of community amongst its inhabitants, a University would benefit by promoting the sense of ownership felt towards its built environment. It is natural human instinct to customize the space inhabited. It can be seen in the subtle act of turning a chair before sitting on it, even when the chair is perfectly placed. And it is also evidenced in the more elaborate arrangements of furniture, food, and festivals, which one brings with them into the space they occupy. However monkish its subjects, they are a diverse group spanning people of different age-groups, races, nationalities, and most importantly—fields of study. The people must be given the ability to customize their surroundings, and develop a sense of community and belonging.

This proposal presents a solution for the use of campus infrastructure to serve as a second layer of personalization and information. With the help of projection technologies, the University could adapt its building facades to provide torrents of information, and personalized content by virtue of having a wide canvas that lights up in the evenings. Allowing users the freedom to control the content gives them agency in influencing the dynamic look of the campus.

The University’s buildings have much to make up for. Even if one were to look back a hundred years ago, one would find a similar sentiment echoed in the Michigan Alumnus, from 1921, which reads:

It must be acknowledged that whatever Michigan may boast in the university world, architectural distinction has not been her strongest point. We have many useful buildings and a few that are beautiful as well, but we need more that are both. The two requirements are by no means antagonistic. … Michigan has a marvelous opportunity to change, almost overnight, its whole architectural setting. (Mayer, 2015)

It is time to take the University a step further. To give it a setting it rightfully deserves. The American University must live up to the quality described by Le Corbusier, of being akin to a temporary paradise, a world in itself. (Le Corbusier, 1964)


Works Cited

Hinsdale, B. A. (1906). History of the University of Michigan, with biographical sketches of regents and members of the University Senate from 1837 to 1906. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Le Corbusier. (1964). When the Cathedrals Were White. McGraw-Hill.

Mayer, F. W. (2015). A Setting for Excellence. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

DongfangXie_Abstract

Reformations in architecture area have always followed the breakthroughs in technology. Future technologies like controllable nuclear fusion, room temperature superconductor, graphene, quantum computer, and so on, which are so potential to change the society structure and so close to the present. To illustrate the university in the future, technologies bond with education and architecture would be the prior factors to be considered.

Unlike the education in middle school or primary school, managing and supervising students are not the business for university. During the recent years, the progress in Internet has made online education come true. In the most cases, learning is a process which mainly involves the perception of vision and auditory. With a terminal display - a computer, a paid, or a cellphone - almost anyone can reach the education resources from the best universities, in which the teaching activities can be actually unsoldered from a certain classroom. The boom of virtual reality industry also gives us a hope that the online education can include much more subjects in. Maybe the naked-eye augmented reality will come true in couple of years. When quantum computer fully participates in Digital Evolution, the high quality rendering of virtual scene full with details would be a regular civilian technology and looks no different from the reality. Therefore, for the most faculties in the future, like literature, economy, or information, classroom will be no longer necessary, lecture room and physical library may disappear. A bedroom, a living room, even a subway carriage with the equipment can be a space to learn or teach. The capacity of class will be incredibly increased while the cost of education will be reduced, which finally leads the campus achieve the top of accessibility.

As a result, the size of the campus will be shrunk a lot and a single building will be able to contain a dozen faculties. The public space where people have discussions will be declined as well. For the STEM faculties, laboratories will occupy the most area of the building. Meanwhile, with the help of remote-controlled robots, there would be no people working in the labs except mechanicians. Maybe only the faculties which are involved in the national security or state secrets will still hold the traditional way in teaching, learning, and research. The most students and teachers don’t need to stay and live in the campus for all the time, unless there is a special occasion requires people to meet in person. Perhaps they can also enroll in different universities at the same time but still study in one subject. The boundary of university will be blurred. The mobility of people who study or work in the university will be more flexible than ever, and cooperation will be the most important relationship between the universities. Thus, the transportation center will be combined tightly with the colleges, not only for exchanging people, but also for transporting lab devices and materials.

However, some big public buildings like “Big House” might be maintained as the places to celebrate some specific traditional activities which are deeply rooted in the culture of the campus. 

Yameng(Nancy) Zhang_Abstract

Over the border

Paraisopolis is one of the most developed informal settlements in the city of Sao Paulo. As named by "Fevela" in Brazil, the place is originally dominated by a group of people who self-constructed their homes in this area, and right now is developed with proper basic infrastructure, such as school, church, hospitals and a sense of community. However, Paraisopolis as a Fevela is still isolated with the outside community, due to many reasons, including the low income group is next to high income communities. There is obvious physical divisions on the border.The existing condition of the site is surrounded by highways and fences which create physical boundaries in Paraisopolis. Without any branching and connecting to outside land in the south border, the isolation almost represent its situation in the city.

During my research and field trip to Sao Paulo, I identified one potential opportunity that can alter this situation, which is referring to the city’s future planning of Metro line 18 that has two stops in and near Paraisopolis. Therefore, I want to take advantages of metro stations as transit area with moving populations from inside and outside communities use the station everyday. The project is aiming at bridging the area with the outside city.

Current situation of Paraisopolis requires designers to understand this place comprehensively, designing infrastructure in a different and transdisiplinary way, create multifunctional and multi-scalar programs to encourage collaboration,interactions; possibly think about income-generating ways and promote healthy life style. In order to achieve those purposes, the station will serves not only a transportation hub but also a hub that encourages physical health and cultural(mental) activities.  One proposed solution to transform the premeiter of Paraisopolis by creating a loop of recreational path and other space for sports that welcome citizens to use. Functioned together with other elements, an outdoor amphitherater that can hold concert and filming activities during events and festival and serves as casual meeting and seatings during everyday time. Other activity space along the street will have furnitures and small structures can be arranged by users. During the weekend it will turns into a place for street festival and market that celebrate the fever culture, including residents and small group show off their trading products. The architecture itself features a heavy top overhang and open lot in the ground floor designed with a park or garden environment, that enables all of those casual activities happens in certain days. The rest of desired programs may incorporate a series of cultural activities, such as open-air museum, outdoor educational space, a small community vertical farm. Open space on the ground will be designed to encourage outdoor engagement, for example, recreational activities. Inside the station, retail possibilities for restaurants and cafes will become connections between cultural and recreational use of the building. In order to promote the cultural-exchange activities and increase the interaction of two groups, the goal of the project is to promote sustainable living in both Paraisopolis and rest of formal neighborhoods..

ALLISON FORD_Campus of the Future_Abstract

The current paradigm of the university campus is long overdue for an evolutionary pivot. This year marks the bicentennial anniversary of our incredibly prolific and fiercely proud University of Michigan, and as we as students and faculty alike celebrate 200 years of excellence in education together across our many majors and backgrounds, it seems a significant time to not just appreciate, but also to innovate. In past centuries university campuses have followed a certain formulaic map, albeit for perfectly valid reasons, in regards to their design processes and urban surroundings. However, with global and educated populations continuing to rise, and availability of sites and resources growing ever scarcer, perhaps it is time for universities to expand their definition of what it is to be “on campus.” That is not to say that the historic, architectural, and cultural relevancies of the university should be disregarded, nor should these importances be overlooked or minimized in the name of modernity. Thus, if it is the societal implications and the recognizable, historic facades and landscapes we seek to retain, then it is time we turn our sights inward, rather than attempting to spread and build further outward. The question then becomes how can we redesign the contemporary campus such that these spaces and how they are used become conduits through which we may facilitate learning and teaching for students and faculties of a subsequent era? Fortunately, modern technological advancements have made this concept progressively easier to instate, and exponential growth rates imply increasingly more affordable options. This project outlines a number of feasible technological installations that can aid in the University of Michigan’s transition into a true campus of the future, and compares results from other campuses that have already implemented such devices. These technologies, in conjunction with a series of additional design measures I will outline, are analyzed according to their academic applicability, cross-campus universality, interface accessibility, longevity, adaptability, and profitability and cost projections in order to determine their potential applications, benefits, and detriments to the university campus.  The analyses will be conducted primarily on three different scales including rooms, buildings, the campus as a whole, though considerations of a larger scale, which includes surrounding geological, historical, architectural, and sociocultural, will be discussed as well. The significant scalar variation is admittedly unorthodox, however I believe a broad lens is necessary to view the numerous interconnecting complexities that comprise the university campus, and narrowing one’s focus to isolated design strategies will yield limited and incomplete results. It is for this reason I propose that simply updating our technology is not in itself a solution to our ongoing issue of spatial limitations, but that other measures, such as sustainable design, adaptive reuse, interdisciplinary collaboration, multi-use shared spaces, and implementation of existing conditions are also key components to forging a successful and sustainable path into the future of Michigan.

sdonnelly_campusofthefuture

Shane P. Donnelly

March 13, 2017

Design Ecologies

Campus of the Future

This year the University of Michigan celebrates its bicentennial as one of the world’s leading university’s in all spheres of education, research, and ideas. The question is what will the next two hundred years have in store for this global institution, what will the campus of that future look like, how can it be designed and planned for the coming generations. As we continue along a path of global connectivity and a one world system brought about via the interchanging of ideas, technologies, and communication; the University of Michigan campus needs to reflect these forces that are altering the world around us. Buildings on campus must learn to integrate into this interconnected global web and be in conversation with one another. This can be achieved in several ways which include the built environment, connected technologies, and design that inhibits social and ideological interactions.  Within the built environment, buildings can reflect interconnectedness through the ways in which typologies are mixed. By placing mixed use structures, classrooms within dormitories next to a bar on top of a theatre, you create conditions where a building is never left empty or unused at any given time throughout the day. This allows for continuous activity and thus increases the interactions and connectivity of people, encouraging conversation and exchanges of ideas. This type of construction also enhances safety as it promotes twenty-four hour usages of the space and the policing of it via the presence of people. The twenty-first century has been dominated by hand held devices, the freedom of information via the internet, leaps in technological innovation, and thus the most interconnected and globally communitive generation yet. Buildings need to embrace a similar globalized and interconnected network. One way buildings can share information to better the campus is through knowing the environmental conditions in each space. By knowing when one building needs more energy as compared to another, that first building, if it is not being as heavily used, can shut down systems to divert the extra energy needed for that second building. This allows for a cohesive and responsive systems network where the campus can manage energy in a sustainable and connected way. This also can expand into social interactions, where internet connectivity can be increased or decreased dependent on the number of people in a certain location. This will boost that large group of people’s ability to become more connected to the world. Not only should the built environment increase the way people connect online, but also in person. Buildings need to allow positive gatherings of people. Seating areas, comfortable spaces, lots of natural light, and the encouragement of nature from the outdoors in. Another way social interactions can be heightened is through better connections across campus. Whether it is through shortened wait time at intersections, new sidewalks, bike lanes, healthier paths between buildings, and an overall reworking of how people experience buildings and the campus through movement. 

(Sophie)Xiaofei Wu_Compacted Building for Future Campus

Students not only study in campus but also live in campus. At present, the buildings on campus are either for studying or for living. Students keep traveling between where they live and where they live. But, how it would be like if a building is for both studying and living? How it would be like if the building for school is combined with apartment, gym and library?

In Marseilles Unite Habitation, Le Corbusier firstly combined living with different service functions, adding shops and public facilities to the apartment building. With shops, restaurant, pharmacy, barber, and laundry, the building itself is like a small city, where people could meets their basic needs without going outside. Here, Le Corbusier shows the example of multi-functional living apartment. Forty years later, in S, M, L, XL, Rem Koolhaas argues that the complexity generated by superimposition and combination of functions brings architecture opportunities to build new relations and interactions through reprograming. “… what matters is the structure of the building and the position of the vertical communication shaft. Overall structure on one hand, and position of stairwell and elevator shaft on the other, define the available space.” Interactions happen in all available space defined by the overall structure. Adding to Le Corbusier’s “free plan”, Koolhaas are proposing a “free section,” in which interactions happen horizontally but also vertically.

For future campus, buildings are no longer occupied by one single function. Teaching, living, learning and exercising, multiple programs will be compacted into one building on the basis of Corbusier’s free plan and koolhaas’s free section, which brings the interaction between living and studying, and providing a new lifestyle for students.

As Koolhaas mentioned, within a building, “available space” is defined by the “overall structure”. To compact multiple programs into one single building, it entails architects to reconsider the adjacency among these programs and the relationship between programs and the “overall structure.” Here are two points. On the one hand, the “overall structure” is no longer limited to the structure against gravity but also an infrastructural structure that realizes the connection and interaction between different programs. On the other hand, this compactness has to allow flexibilities that enable the building to resist to the change of students’ and faculty’s needs according to different time. It has to adapt to these changes.