Campus og studiemiljø - Bygningsstyrelsen

“ på campus finder
man fremragende
arkitektur samt by- og
landskabsdesign. det er
her, den amerikanske
storbys fremtid og
ideal realiseres / on
campus, brilliant urban
and landscape design
and architecture can be
found. this is where the
future and the ideal of
the american city are
realised
en typisk forskel mellem den amerikanske
og det europæiske campus er, at det
amerikanske er vokset gradvist i store og
mellemstore by-lignende bygningsstrukturer,
mens vi i europa oftest har bygget store
undervisningsanlæg på én gang. Her ses
universitat autònoma de Barcelona og
princeton universitet i samme skala. / one
typical difference between the american
and the european campus is that the
american has grown step by step in large
and medium-sized urban-like building
structures, whilst in europe, we have more
often built large teaching complexes in
one go. Here, universitat autònoma de
Barcelona and princeton university shown
on the same scale.
tre perspektiver: internationalt / tHree perspeCtives: international
American college system. Living together
and socialising while taking responsibility
and learning thus form the undergrad curriculum.
The on-campus housing forms the special
character and the 24 hour-liveliness of the
American campus – a quality that the European
campus will never be able to achieve
on university locations.
the european campus – innovation
starts with trace tracking
Harvard may be brilliant and attractive.
However, even though it is more difficult
to spot, the European ‘campus’ exists, is
alive and is worth further development! It
is a space intertwined with the surrounding
city, neighbourhoods and their culture
and infrastructure. In university cities like
Tübingen or Florence, the entire city takes
on a ‘light’ university lifestyle and in Munich
and Barcelona, the university shapes
residential neighbourhoods, a bar scene
and cultural activities, and creates an active
street life.
Unfortunately, public opinion did not recognise
this ‘secret’ until it was endangered.
The University of Frankfurt planned to
create the ‘Harvard of Europe’ by moving
from its embedded location to three remote
campus areas. When one visits these newly
built places on a Saturday it is notable:
closed gates, empty, guarded. This is not
a campus but an empty hull, lacking the
proper history and background. Now that
the students have moved away from the
old locations, action groups have formed to
‘save’ the university character of the neighbourhoods.
Harvard as a place does not work in Europe.
It rather endangers the variety, the cultural
qualities and the special charm of the European
university campus.
To further develop this European campus
we recommend three main points of action:
1. Description of the local particularities
of the university and its surrounding city,
promotion of its (often times hidden) qualities,
thus creating an image.
2. Analysis of all the various locations
belonging to the university, as well as nonuniversity
locations that clearly contribute
to the university experience, optimising
their infrastructure and improvement of
their appearance/functionality.
3. The ‘zip’ strategy: intertwining city and
university with public spaces, transportation,
bicycle paths, continuous signs and
landmarks as well as through shared institutions,
culture and activities.
Above all, it is important to agree on the
general rule: The space of a university is
its campus. This space by far exceeds the
sum of the locations of the university and
is only functional as a whole. Where, as is
the case with most European universities,
university and city are complexly intertwined
it becomes challenging to describe
the campus. The European university is not
an island in the city; its space overlaps large
city neighbourhoods. Campus development
thus becomes a matter of collaboration
between university and city developers
and planners. This collaboration between
university and city planners is urgent and
essential and mutually beneficial for the development
of both the European university
and the European city!
NOTES
1 This definition of ‘campus’ as ‘space’ is based on
the relational understanding of space described by
Prof. Martina Löw. She understands space as the relational
order of social goods and people in a certain
place. This perception of space connects the structuring,
static and ordering function of space with its
genesis and permanent change (Löw 2001).
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