Section E
Identity
4 Connections
Like urban settlements, university campuses are a network of links between spaces, people and organisations. An education building functions in the same way on a smaller scale. It shares a social character as a community, where ideas, knowledge and opinions are conveyed and shared on multiple axes. Optimal university space affords community space inside and out. The nature of public space has been eroded by parked or moving cars, pushing buildings too far apart, and limiting convivial safe spaces for collective gathering and events to give public spaces focus and meaning. Universities should find purposeful uses and treatments to create vibrant social spaces between buildings.
Learning streets
The journey through a campus often starts beyond its boundaries; the wider context is part of peoples’ experience. Identifying and reinforcing these connections supports the needs of an institution, and its members, and promotes interaction and integration with the surrounding community.
Create a neutral mixing ground for inter-departmental contact in the external landscape, with opportunities for academic and social engagement within an outdoor, often natural, setting. Through the separation of vehicles from people, and prioritisation of pedestrian movement, the landscape caters to human pace and experience.
The Barn, Make Architects
Suggested prompts
How well is the campus connected to surrounding communities? Can it be walked through? Can public realm and amenities be enjoyed by all?
Are ground floor activities visible from the public realm?
Are there areas designated for public use and outreach?
Can areas be used to accommodate commercial activity – business incubation, life sciences, digital technology?
Are public spaces perceived to be safe during both the day and night?
Are there people and activities at all hours of the day associated with a mix of halls of residence and education uses?
Does lighting provide safety at night as well as good ambience?
Could pedestrian modelling help optimise interventions?
5 Appeal
Campuses that are rich in appeal are full of stimuli, often including distinctive landscapes, trees, water, and visual and heritage assets. These campuses provide nodes between buildings and routes to meet, socialise, and host a broad range of activities and uses.
Internal and external spaces should be considered as spatial platforms to facilitate a broad range of activities and uses at different times during the day, week, month and year. Post-pandemic, students have expressed a greater need for social contact on the campus. Spaces with a broad range of appeal foster community and social cohesion.
Streets, paths, waiting areas and landings should be seen as spaces for meetings, both in interior and outdoor landscapes that are dynamic. These spaces should garner interactions and experiences through the provision of places to stop, sit, talk and watch, and through the creation of memories associated with the changing seasonal character, captured in views or outdoor activities. This concept of biophilia recognises how planting engenders calm and positive feelings through familiarity and people’s connection with nature.
Nottingham University Campus. Photo © Polly Tootal.
Diagram adapted from Space and learning: lessons in architecture 3 by Herman Hertzberger.
Suggested prompts
Does the campus have unique, recognisable and stimulating features?
Are there easily identifiable sustainable design credentials?
Do the results of building projects make them more appealing to students and express the fact that the university cares?
Does the campus have a green landscape/network to provide a calming environment?
Does the campus have rich provision of spaces for people to meet and socialise?
Do routes and streets provide opportunities to meet?
Does the campus appear clean and well maintained?
Does it make a good first impression, particularly for prospective parents?
Do spaces have features that invite users to spend time there?
Are all user groups able to experience traffic safely in public spaces?
Can you use a bike or walk through the campus with confidence you won't be hit by a vehicle?
Are the negative impacts of construction projects being mitigated?
Are biophilia and interaction with nature being incorporated?
Is a diverse range of indoor and landscaped spaces provided for different users and groups?
6 Belonging
Architect Herman Hertzberger defines a learning environment: ‘…where wide-ranging activities can take place simultaneously and where groups and individuals can work independently, calls for the greatest number of places screened from one another in such a way that everyone can stay focused on their work, but at the same time offers a sufficiently clear view of others as to arouse each other’s curiosity and give each other ideas and encouragement.’
Herman Hertzberger, Space and Learning: Lessons in Architecture 3.
Universities want their campuses to be inclusive, diverse and equitable learning, teaching and working environments for their communities of students, staff and visitors. In the UDF/AUDE research carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic, students highlighted the need to feel part of a community, with access to green space which would enable them to meet and socialise. They recognised the greater need to create opportunities for students to work alone or in a group and, to support this, provide multi-purpose space which students can deploy for a variety of activites, work modes and moods. Working alone or in a group requires a degree of containment, but not to the detriment of a sense of connection across the whole space. The best spaces strike a balance between conditions for concentrating and connecting.
Teaching and Learning Building, University of Nottingham, Make Architects. The building carefully balances conditions for concentrating and connecteding. Photo © Martine Hamilton Knight.
The Barn, University of Nottingham Sutton Bonington Campus, Make. A former carpark transformed into a series of green spaces.
Universities need to provide spaces with two distinct conditions: spaces for concentration and spaces for belonging. This can be resolved by creating more and less open spaces of different sizes for independent and interactive working.
Creating a sense of place in a landscape, rooted in site-specific qualities, can be further enriched by incorporating elements of cultural significance, sustainability, wellness, inclusivity, symbolism and community engagement. These elements can be used to strengthen the appeal and character of an institution.
Universities should reappraise their masterplans to ensure that their external spaces work at the optimum to support students' pedagogic, social and personal experience. For example, at the University of Nottingham's Sutton Bonington Campus, Make Architects transformed under-exploited spaces in a former car park into a sequence of green settings incorporating workspaces that are fully wifi enabled.
Encouraging people to spend time outdoors strengthens bonds with the place and awareness of its unique environment. Desirable places to meet and dwell can be developed as zones of seating and shelter, to prolong the occupation of the external landscape and encourage socialising.
