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.