Learning Resources

Abstract: King’s College, Cambridge required new postgraduate housing to support its growth plans. The design team collaborated closely with college stakeholders, including the prospective residents, to research all aspects of the proposals—brief, spaces, structure, and services—early in the process. That research provided a comparison of environmental methods that ranged from a regulatory baseline to a certified Passivhaus approach. The holistic “fabric-first” standard delivers highly efficient, low-energy buildings with high-quality construction and occupant comfort. The metrics fed into a cost-benefit analysis of capital cost vis-a-vis energy reduction to determine the long-term value of each approach.

Abstract: Historic separations that defined higher education are dissolving: research is more interdisciplinary, online and on-campus learning are converging, wet and dry labs are blending, teaching and research overlap, and academia forges relationships with corporate partners. Institutions, by improving how they connect what they offer, how they are organized, and how they operate, can build value and agility to better assist their people on campus. Real-world examples in this white paper from Knoll and brightspot strategy discuss how campus spaces support student success, including how to fully use the campus; creating spaces that sustain diverse and flexible ways of working; thinking phygitally; and creating environments where today’s purpose-driven and entrepreneurial students (Gen Z) will thrive as they prepare to enter the workforce.

Abstract: The sustainability movement in higher education has made considerable headway in the areas of research, campus operations, and community outreach, but has been less successful in bringing about curricular reform. To promote greater thinking about sustainability in the undergraduate curriculum, this essay explores three main questions: What are the implications of sustainability for higher education? What are some noteworthy examples of institutions incorporating sustainability into the curriculum? And, what can we learn from their experiences? The author advocates implementation of a "third order" learning model, emphasizing deep learning, a participative process which takes the form of continual exploration through practice.

Abstract: The path to a healthy, just, and sustainable future for all current and future generations of humans and other biological species will require a transformative change in thinking values and action by all individuals and institutions in the next two decades. The institutions within higher education bear a moral responsibility to increase the awareness, knowledge, skills, and values needed to change the collective mind-set. Because it prepares most of society’s professionals and leaders, higher education plays a critical but often-overlooked role in making this vision a reality. This article explores how higher education would model sustainability as a fully integrated community intricately connecting learning, research, operations, purchasing investments, and work with local and regional communities. The envisioned framework for higher education will result in the interdisciplinary, systemic learning and practice needed to provide the educational experience for graduates to lead society on a sustainable path. It provides several examples of colleges and universities that have made some of these changes with an emphasis on curriculum connected to other college and university functions. It also suggests a new role for college and university planners in this transformation and provides other sources of information on the changes that are happening in higher education.

Abstract: Green buildings offer many compelling advantages over their conventional counterparts—increased educational performance, lower energy costs, and lower environmental impact, to name a few—so green buildings should be easier to develop. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Several strategies are important to avoid a protracted process. Develop a set of clear environmental performance goals (buildings as pedagogical tools, climate-neutral operations, maximized human performance), use Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) as a gauge of performance, and use the project to reform the campus building process. All of these steps need to involve a range of participants—students, faculty, administration, and facilities staff—to achieve the best results.

Abstract: This article discusses significant changes in a management model within a university with an extensive, distributed campus system and multiple community college partnerships. These changes created stronger linkages between branch campus faculty and their disciplinary counterparts on the main university campus. They were based on a model analogous to a faculty member holding a joint appointment between colleges of a university and include collaborative decision making, hiring decisions, and evaluation by faculty and administrators of the branch and main campuses. Also included in the article is a description of the working relationship between the university and one of its significant community college partners.

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to emphasize the concept of utopia, which universities have used throughout history in developing their “spaces of knowledge.” This concept should continue to be an objective in the 21st century as universities look for paradigms in the architectural layout of their institutions. The implicit principle of this article is that good architecture is a necessary component in achieving educational excellence.

Abstract: The quality of campus life in large universities has declined over the years as faculty have given up responsibility for student life outside the classroom and institutions have become ever more bureaucratized. To solve this problem, universities should establish systems of small, decentralized academic communities modeled ultimately on the residential colleges of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In the United States, Harvard and Yale Universities first adopted this residential college model in the 1930s, and it is now spreading to many institutions, public and private, large and small.