The Connection Between the University Campus and the City as a Privileged Place for Experiments

Ionita, C., 2011, The Connection Between the University Campus and the City as a Privileged Place for Experiments, in: Dabija, A.-M., ‘Urban space – Architectural space –Interior space’, Editura Universitara “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest

  • Author : Ionita, C.
  • Year : 2011
  • English Title : The Connection Between the University Campus and the City as a Privileged Place for Experiments
  • Published in Book : Urban space – Architectural space –Interior space
  • Pages : 95-107
  • Abstract in English : In the particular case of the university campus, due to its capacity to foster socialization, the architecture and the public space are privileged instruments of shaping the urban space and social life. Furthermore the contact area between the campus and the city, as the ideal field for architectural and urban experiments, affirms this capacity. ... imagine a large number of students, some eight thousand plus lecturers, administrators, caretakers, etc. …, that are arranged methodically on the construction site. Around this formation, ordered momentarily, we draw several areas … In the following composition, each student occupies a different place, although the overall form of the group of students is the same… From this, we can deduce that each area should be identical to the others and identical to the overall space it belongs to… This description of an isotropic structure coordinated by the flux, the movement and the communication between its countless parts is employed by the architect EnricMiralles in El Croquis 72[II] as a storyboard that emphasizes the dynamic character of the Valencia University campus. Following Miralles approach in considering the flux and the communication as the defining assets of the area situated at the border between campus and city the diploma project called “Urban connection – Polytechnic University of Bucharest” will be presented here as the result of a global approach of geometrically dissolved morphogenesis. This project vindicates also the application of the concept of the fold in order to generate an architecture characterized by weak and inaccurate geometries, that emphasizes the residual spaces and the interstices and therefore negotiates a new space between the homogeneity given by the order (the grid of the structured campus) and the heterogeneity (the academic environment, the city and its recent urban transformation).