University Planning and Architecture: The Search for Perfection

by Jonathan Coulson, Paul Roberts, Isabelle Taylor

The environment of a university - what we term a campus - is a place with special resonance. They have long been the setting for some of history's most exciting experiments in the design of the built environment. Christopher Wren at Cambridge, Le Corbusier at Harvard, and Norman Foster at the Free University the calibre of practitioners who have shaped the physical realm of academia is superlative.Pioneering architecture and innovative planning make for vivid assertions of academic excellence, while the physical estate of a university can shape the learning experiences and lasting outlook of its community of students, faculty and staff. However, the mounting list of pressures - economic, social, pedagogical, technological - currently facing higher education institutions is rendering it increasingly challenging to perpetuate the rich legacy of campus design. In this strained context, it is more important than ever that effective use is made of these environments and that future development is guided in a manner that will answer to posterity.This book is the definitive compendium of the prestigious sphere of campus design, envisaged as a tool to help institutional leaders and designers to engage their campus's full potential by revealing the narratives of the world's most successful, time-honoured and memorable university estates. It charts the worldwide evolution of university design from the Middle Ages to the present day, uncovering the key episodes and themes that have conditioned the field, and through a series of case studies profiles universally-acclaimed campuses that, through their planning, architecture and landscaping, have made original, influential and striking contributions to the field. By understanding this history, present and future generations can distil important lessons for the future.The second edition includes revised text, many new images, and new case studies of the Central University of Venezuela and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Tunisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explicitly discussing the history of educational institutions almost all over the world, this book leaves the discretion of what a righteous future of university design entails, upto the reader!
However, case studies should have been dealt with in more detail, sharing more drawings of the same.

[Matt Holbert]

I've read the first section as an ebook at one of the local universities. However, this is not a book that should be read electronically. I'm interested in sharing the purchase price of the hardback with others. I'll read it in a few days and mail it forward to others who commit to sharing the cost. (We can eventually put it in the library of the University system that we build.) Contact me at "theinnclub [at] yahoo.com"

An excerpt:

The concept that the university should be the ideal community in microcosm was as relevant in post-war Britain as it was across the Atlantic.