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.