Page 17 - College Planning & Management, May 2018

RRobust interest in collaborative learning and teaching is driving the design of campus interiors in various ways today. Such interiors are, among other things, being geared to meet current curricu- lum methods and goals, to enhance school spirit and a sense of community, enable libraries to em- brace their evolving roles, and create new kinds of spots for shared work and study. Further, campus interiors can help break down barriers or silos and encourage collaboration between students, between students and faculty, and across disciplines. Examples include commons for different arts or engineering disciplines; or open, non-programmed and technologically well-appointed spaces for all students, such as in student unions, university centers, or lecture hall buildings, equipped with moveable furniture, whiteboards, or walls to readily facilitate collaborative interactions.
Where Learning Happens
Interaction inside and outside classrooms was among the key drivers of Foster+Partners’ interior design of Edward P. Evans Hall at Yale University’s School of Management. Opened in 2014, Ev-
ans Hall includes a commons area open to a central exterior courtyard; creates classrooms within double-height drums; provides a strategically located, and popular, café, and is intended to enable convenient, seemingly natural or flowing opportunities for encounters, collaboration, and socializing. Those shared activities, in turn, enhance school spirit, explains Yale’s A.J. Artemel, director of com- munications at the School of Architecture. As the university puts it, “The transparency of the overall design combined with social spaces positioned at significant hubs strengthens the sense of communi- ty.” Artemel adds that the diverse spaces at Evans Hall “give a range of possibilities” for collaboration, in part because different types of spaces lend themselves to different kinds of team dynamics.
The Evolving Library
Libraries, as their traditional role has evolved, have led the collaborative charge on campuses for some time. Kent State University’s Main Library is a case in point, as the Ohio-based univer- sity’s Space Planning Manager Charmaine Iwanski explains. The shorthand characterization of the transformation of the library would be fewer stacks and more shared spaces, with Iwanski
by SCOTT BERMAN
SPACES
FOR
LEARNING
The evolution of academic spaces on campus continues to transform interiors into areas that are interactive, tech-enabled, and adaptable to a variety of uses for collaborative engagement.
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