Building Type Basics for College and University Facilities

CHAPTER 2

SUSTAINABILITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND UNIVERSITIES

David Nelson, Foster + Partners

If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.

-Chinese proverb

Higher education has never been more important than it is today, and its global nature is of paramount significance. If we are to solve many of the difficult political, scientific, financial, and medical issues that we currently face, we need to approach higher education from a broader platform that addresses the complexity of our time. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for isolated individuals in any field to achieve the kind of breakthroughs that are needed. The complexity of our time demands increased specialization into the constituent components of any problem, such as the cure for disease, a sustainable economic structure, or the resolution of political conflict or indifference. At the same time, this focused work must be seen as part of a broader pattern, and cross-disciplinary activity needs to be orchestrated to encourage solutions. This interrelated complexity is ably demonstrated by the challenges related to our ongoing survival on this planet. Therefore, the need for a widespread, highly educated population who can comprehend the challenges ahead has never been more pressing.

Our aesthetic culture has always made significant advances during periods of plenty. Our exploitation and ultimate dependency on oil and carbon fuels has created easier, more comfortable ways of living for those lucky enough to have been born in the West. This also has had a major impact on the subject matter of higher education, where it would seem that a greater emphasis is now placed on the arts and away from the academically more challenging field of the sciences. But as the fossil fuel energy source behind that abundance diminishes, without a refocus in education toward science and technology, we run the risk of failing to manage the planet's resources, on which we are wholly dependent.

This current situation calls to mind the first impetus for establishing universities in the Middle Ages-to provide the necessary broad skills to manage the emerging economies and cities of that time. We need the same sort of focus today to manage our planet and its resources, whether through a focus on real, significant issues such as governance, the creation of energy from new sources, or the integration of that supply from many unrelated sources; to the equally if not more complex issues concerning waste, recycling, and the ability to do more with less. This includes considering where our food comes from and what is required to produce it, to how water is retained, circulated, used, and recycled: all are complex subsystems for sustainability. The integration of all these issues will require great ingenuity in terms of solutions and systems for implementation, and that ingenuity needs to be fed by highly focused research. Creating the right conditions and facilities for such expectations becomes a prime activity when planning and designing what colleges and universities need to become. All of this is occurring at a significant time, when the advancement of computer technology has gone into overdrive, allowing for new challenges as well as new possibilities for what the future might be.

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Growth underpins all of our economic, financial, and industrial endeavors, and, following the recent economic downturn in Europe and the United States, that growth is likely to remain at low levels for some time. Higher education becomes increasingly critical at this point, where meaningful economic growth is needed to replace the devalued speculative excesses of recent years. Consequently, the direct connection between higher education, innovation, and invention needs to drive the future of economic development much more directly than in the past.

SUSTAINABILITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND UNIVERSITIES CASE STUDY 1 TEST CASE Bryant Park, New York, New York Architect: Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates Landscape Architect: Hanna/Olin Ltd. Client: Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (BPRC) A model for environmental, social, and economic sustain­ability, Bryant Park was revitalized in the 1990s with the ­support of local businesses. The park now provides New Yorkers with a vibrant, well-maintained public space for leisure, work, and entertainment. Its large lawn, gardens, and established trees, as well as quality concessions for food and drink, are a foil for thousands of patrons who use the park throughout each day (see Figure 2.1). Investment by the BPRC has changed the park's previous use and reputation as a ­neglected, crime-ridden urban space to a dynamic, accessible, and safe meeting place. The park also acts as a large-scale green roof: it sits above two levels of book stacks housing volumes of the New York Public Library adjacent.

Figure 2.1 Bryant Park with laptops.

© Alamy.

If we were searching for an example of how the newfound mobility given to us with computers then Bryant Park could be considered in some way a precedent (see Figure 2.2). Bryant Park has a higher concentration of wireless connectivity than many other locations in the city. In the summer months, you can see many people working on their laptops, reinforced with beverages from the pavilion café. At least one university, the City University of New York (CUNY), has one of its facilities located around the park. The New York Public Library is about to create a new public library within its internal boundaries. This mixture of potentially publicly accessible internal and external space could suggest an interesting prototype for how a more diffused university typology may evolve.

Figure 2.2 Bryant Park offers higher concentration of wireless technology than many other areas of New York City.

© Alamy.

Date: 1986-1991 Park area: 39,000 sq m Estimated number of visitors (annually): 4.2 million The park serves an estimated 187,600 office workers within a two-block radius. This is set to increase with proposed building developments (see Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3 Bryant Park is used by both students and area residents.

© Alamy.

It is clear that economic growth is now highly dependent on technology-based innovation. The model for this remains innovation hot spots in the United States such as Stanford/Silicon Valley (see Figure 2.4) and Harvard/MIT/Route 128, which emerged with the Cold War and its military and technology races. These university-centric areas continue to make a disproportionately large contribution in terms of both patents filed and scientific papers cited as well as economically through the start-up companies they generate. MIT has estimated that the 28,500 companies founded by its alumni globally employ 3.3 million people and generate world sales of U.S.­$2 trillion. If considered as an economy, MIT alumni firms would be the world's ­eleventh largest economy.

Figure 2.4 Silicon Valley.

Charles O'Rear/Corbis.

New locations based on these precedents are coming into existence. When the Øresund Bridge connecting Copenhagen, Denmark, with Malmö, Sweden, opened in 2000, both sides had much to gain (see Figure 2.5). Sweden benefited from a physical connection to the rest of mainland Europe; residents of Copenhagen had access to less expensive homes that were close to the city; and economic cooperation increased. In addition, Christian Matthiessen, a geographer at the University of Copenhagen, foresaw another benefit-the union of two burgeoning research areas. "Everyone was talking about the transport of goods and business connections," he says, "and we argued that another benefit would be to establish links between researchers."

Figure 2.5 Øresund Bridge.

© Hasse Schroder/Johner/Alamy.

Ten years later, those links seem strong. The bridge encouraged the establishment of the "Øresund Region," a loose confederation of nine universities, 165,000 students, and 12,000 researchers. According to Matthiessen, co-authorship between Copenhagen and the southernmost province of Sweden has since doubled. The collaborations have attracted multinational funds from the European Union, and the ­European Spallation Source-a 1.4 billion (U.S.$2 billion) ­neutron facility-is scheduled to begin construction in Lund, Sweden, in 2013.

SUSTAINABILITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND UNIVERSITIES CASE STUDY 2 TEST CASE Henning Larsen Tegnestue IT University, Øresund, Copenhagen, Denmark The IT University of Copenhagen is one of the first construction projects completed as a result of the impact of the Øresund bridge. The café, restaurant, and library are an integral part of the city that surrounds them. With its atrium, which is 20 m wide, 60 m long, and 25 m high and linked with plazas to the north and south, it draws the adjacent city space into its heart (see Figure 2.6). The IT education offers a high degree of interactivity between students and researchers. The goal therefore is to create a...