1. Since its conception in the Ancient Greek and Islamic worlds’ havens for sharing
knowledge the university based itself upon democratic principles such as openness and
search for justice. The world’s oldest university ensembles followed a pattern of centering
around a main courtyard, with gathering and scholarly conversation being welcomed
this way by a gesture of form.5
Lucien Kroll is considered a pioneer of participatory
design, one that aspires to direct engagement of the users’.The student residence
conceived by architect Lucien Kroll in 1970 is considered to embody a self-building
democratic community through simple materiality and structural arrangement of its
components. Although not developed further the project introduced notions of user-
directed flexibility to the campus.6
Built in increments the architecture was created
according to the needs of individuals personally and as a collective: accommodating
possibilities for private affaires and congregation in the student residence. The variety of
spaces granted the users with a choice of behaviour that best suits them personally while
taking part in the academic community.7
In these examples as in many others public space beyond the university campus was
made by student protesters into a protagonist of the events. Hosting the demonstration of
disagreement with injustices imposed upon the wider public, cities were the extensions
of the campus spaces where the disagreements were first voiced. The hopeful unrest so
prolific in the past century is however an unsustainable effort and ways to bring change
that can be implemented in an everyday context are sought after. Whether a university
community is influencing the wider public for the better even through mere presence is a
question that perhaps can be addressed through campus architecture, seeing as physical
environment sets a tone to human activity. The physical presence of a university has an
impact on the nature of the establishment and the activity on campus. Although the goals
and standards of higher education institutions are universal, universities found in a variety
of contexts get defined by them to certain degrees. The country, city, and placement of
the campus affect it on a multitude of levels; starting with the image of the university.
The designs of campuses, structures and their interrelation often not only answer the
requirements but speak of an institution’s values in material and physical form.4
Contrasting campus locations: University of Winnipeg situated downtown and the University of Manitoba on the outskirts
Campus facilities that are designated for common use such as the traditional
courtyard or the library are the focal points of social exchanges and happenings.
Conceived in the 20th century, the Student centre, a staple of contemporary campuses,
became an integral part of university life as a host of diverse social and academic
functions.8
Many of the Canadian Universities’ student centres were built in the 1960’s
when the demand for higher education grew throughout the country and new colleges
were projected to meet the need. Simon Fraser University masterplan demonstrated a
new concept for the way an academic institution functions. According to the architects,
the built form was an attempt to predict and dictate an integrated approach to learning.
Faculties and classes were held in vicinity making exchange of knowledge more available
and emphasizing the value of such interaction.9
Clarity and flexibility are central
requirements of built environment intended for academic activity, meeting diverse and
rapidly changing needs, new models of education, while maintaining values of truth and
The novel model of an integrated university that emerged in the 1960’s in places such as
Simon Fraser and Scarborough11
spoke of integration of communities within the university.12
Further novelty would be connecting the world of university to a broader context: the society
outside of campus grounds. Several universities in Canada distinguishably moved away from
the centuries old, traditional layout of a centralized campus to a state of integration into
surrounding urban conditions. The expansion of the University of Quebec in Montreal is
one such example13
, with the neighbouring Loyola campus of Concordia following suit as a
vertical, high-rise campus in an adjacent downtown area.14
A re-design initiative encouraged by president Meric Gertler at the University of Toronto
aims to extend the city an invitation to campus. The Landscape of Landmark Quality
Innovative Design Competition, launched last year, addresses the underused commons at the
heart of Toronto’s downtown campus with the goal of fostering familiarity and connection
The universities in the city of Winnipeg are contrasted in their location, as one
deliberately remained in the downtown core while the other was ever present in the
outskirts. Despite being located at the edge of the city, the University of Manitoba is at
the heart of the province. In the Prairies an historically Agrarian campus such as the
University of Manitoba or that of Saskatchewan resonates not only with the city it is
nestled in but with the wider province and population. Agricultural lands within the
campus are an essential part of its history as an agriculture college and its Manitoban
context. The university holds both practical and conceptual connections to far corners of
it for learning, research, and community enhancement. The projected regeneration of the
campus includes an exemplary sustainable community near the campus, which would
communicate the vision of healthier lifestyle valued by the University to the local public.
Connectivity within the campus and of the campus is a key solution to relating university
to the surrounding contexts of place and society. Quality public spaces used by students
and faculty and available to the public provide a positive athmosphere and uphold a
PART OF THE CITY
PART OF THE PROVINCE
University is perceived as a middle-ground, a transitory process of learning and
evaluating the grand scheme of social, political and other workings before venturing into
their great chaos. It constitutes an essential lens for examining politics, commerce, law,
scientific research and many other contemporary societal constructs and for keeping
them at par with innovation and improvement. While officially aiming to qualify future
professionals, university education inspires not only learning for the sake of preserving
traditions of knowledge, but also questioning, search for better alternatives for existing
conditions, and action. Academic efforts are often recognized as essential drivers of social
change.1
For decades university students around the world have been demonstrating
awareness of wrongs and a rigour to correct them.2
The late sixties in Europe saw the
famous student unrest spill on the streets of Paris bringing student discourse into action
beyond the Quartier Latin of the Parisian Universities. In Prague it was the university
students who faced the armour of communism on the streets of the capital out of the will to
save their homeland from foreign destruction. Students in China were the driving force of
the iconic 1989 Tiananmen Square protest.3
Quebec Maple Spring protesters and May‘68 demonstrations in Paris
Democratic values in universities: Palladio’s courtyard, 1760 (above) and Lucien Kroll’s
participatory design of Meme student residence, 1970
Simon Fraser University campus in 1967
University of Manitoba campus regeneration rendering
Reflective Overview of Campus Architecture in Canada
Instructor: Professor Lisa Landrum, Faculty of Architecture
Student: Daniela VeismanUNIVERSITY AND SOCIETY IN THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE
Public Space as the Connector of Community and Campus
The image of university, site of higher education and innovative research and solution
proposal, remains as pertinent as ever. In the contemporary setting of rapidly transforming
and interconnecting professional fields the ideal of an academia walled off within a campus
bestowing ‘higher education’ is obsolete, as faculty and students tend to reach out for greater
societal involvement in practice. City grounds became the new ‘courtyard’ of universities,
as academic discourse and research crucially consists of concerns of the public as a whole.
Students who would reshape it are part of the “general society”, and the university is a
symbolic embodiment of the population’s network of perpetual learners striving towards
improving individually and collectively. Creation of relevant public spaces at universities,
ones that would enable and maintain a connection between campus and surrounding
context, would help move on from the ephemeral advocation for better societies on behalf of
student activism to a more reliable, institutional manifestation of the aspiration, which would
speak of long-term public inclusion in the process.
academic freedom.
positive image of the institution.10
between surrounding communities and the campus.15