Campus og studiemiljø - Bygningsstyrelsen

eal time planning mit
universe of rooms and nooks that facilitate
both learning and social interaction. In that
way, they combine a home atmosphere with
academic life. The university’s emphasis on
residence halls built by famous architects
should thus be seen as a strengthening of the
academic environment.
‘Simmons Hall’ is the most recent residence
hall designed by Steven Holl and is the most
expensive residence hall in the USA to date.
The building further elaborates on work by
the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto’s canonised
MIT college ‘Baker House’. The residence
house also accommodates a host family with
a member of the teaching staff, and offers
accommodation for guest researchers.
‘Learning by doing’ is MIT’s academic motto.
The teaching is of an experimental nature
and students and researchers consistently
work in a multidisciplinary manner and
often construct and test ideas in one of the
many workshops or laboratories.
Despite their dreary appearance, the long
corridors and the ‘catwalk’ at MIT form the
basis of MIT’s special entrepreneurial culture.
In the corridors, people from different
academic areas meet and share their knowledge
despite the fact that no special effort
has been made to create informal meeting
places. This multidisciplinary exchange is
supported by the fact that several subjects
are located in the same corridor as opposed
to a structure where the subjects are based in
separate buildings.
trends and future strategy
MIT is the only university in this survey that
does not have a master plan but focuses on
‘Real-time planning’. It is a less structured
planning tool aimed at short-term action,
and it has to make allowance for a complex
and changing world.
Throughout the most recent decade, MIT has
used ‘real-time planning’ to focus on building
new unique and iconic buildings for
research and accommodation and has also
made various individual attempts at revitalising
the outdoor spaces on campus.
MIT’s next development phase ‘Evolving
Campus’ aims to ensure that the university
Campus Case: mit
remains a leader within knowledge, innovation,
research and education and at the same
time becomes a neighbourhood that can
provide for many diverse needs.
As the global classroom has become the
norm at MIT, the university now wishes to
give higher priority to the local campus and
immediate neighbourhood in order to continue
attracting international researchers,
students and investors.
Future projects should therefore contribute
to a positive development of the surrounding
neighbourhoods, especially a run-down
industrial area between the university and
the city. The area is already partially developed,
as over the years MIT has purchased
large tracts of land it now wishes to develop.
The chapter is an edited summary of the working
paper ‘The campus area of the future’ by the Danish
University and Property Agency and Juul|Frost
Arkitekter.
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