How is this achievable with the challenge of tight budgets and ever-rising construction costs? Back to the concept of “good design” in which the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole. As an example, in a campus plan, buildings define formal quadrangles which historically were and still are the primary exterior campus gathering and recreation spaces. A building’s form, its facades, entry points and covered outdoor areas can immeasurably impact the quality of that outdoor collective space, can create identity for campus zones or academic regions, and can provide wayfinding within the larger campus context by demarcating important campus viewsheds and sculpting a distinct, but cohesive campus character.
Academic buildings form part of the connective tissue that knits campuses together; a building’s circulation paths can serve the entire campus, not just its own occupants. Anyone who went to college in an extreme environment can relate to maximizing interior routes on extreme weather days. Well-designed circulation routes through campus buildings can also facilitate chance meetings and unplanned conversations between students and faculty, potentially sparking new insights and innovative collaborations. Architecture can encourage these moments, which shape a campus’ social culture, by inviting building occupants into attractive breakout moments along their natural circulation paths—spaces which encourage an extra moment of respite, communication and community-building. Dispersing coffee shops, cafes, and seasonal pop-up venues throughout academic buildings becomes especially critical on commuter campuses, fulfilling the inherent need for resting and gathering space outside of home and work, the notion of “third spaces.”
