Closed Land Open Campus




Concept
Closed Land Open Campus aims at rethinking the model of a higher-education institution for the future. Viewing the campus designs through history, we can observe a trend toward greater division of space and more system complexity. This phenomenon corresponds to the fracturing of knowledge in our world, which renders us incapable of resolving the contradictions among or bridging the fault lines between social, political, scientific, cultural, technological and economic domains when dealing with the crisis we are facing nowadays.

Inspired by Latour’s “parliament of things,” the project intends to create an open plan university that people in different fields of knowledge can contact, conflict with, and negotiate with one other. By employing augmented reality technology, professors, researchers, and students can create virtual layers and information walls on top of the free plan space. These temporary and dynamic layers can maintain the autonomy of groups but at the same time maximize the flexibility and ways of interaction. It is a democratic realm that dismisses any permanent divisions and walls between fields of knowledge and people, and therefore provides a possible collective future.

Spatial Strategy
The virtually augmented open plan will not only provide enhanced experiences for students but also will respond to the restraints of the site: the lack of materials and the waste of sea transportation. The new proposed academic building will house flexible sharing spaces, including multi-purpose areas, exhibition areas, auditoriums, study rooms, classrooms, and a portion of a laboratory. This space will be able to be significantly reconfigured from day to night, and therefore the campus space will be utilized in a more efficient and economical way.

Architectural System
A lightweight metal frame canopy, warped by perforated textiles and louvers to filter the sunlight, is proposed to cover the open plan space. Within that space, areas will be configured to accommodate different teaching and research needs. It will be modularized by different sizes of group activities in circular form, overlapped or tangentially connected to each other, thus creating a latent system which helps define activities but does not limit them.
Location
Venice Italy

Category
Education, Conceptual

Status
Competition, 2016