3. People like people: Create interaction through openness
For decades, traditional thinking in campus (and corporate) design has focused on departmental silos, on putting different academic and learning disciplines on different floors or wings of a building. The principle seemed sound: Allow each group their own space to function properly and focus on their own departmental teachings and needs. But in recent years we’ve seen a breaking down of those silos in corporate and educational campuses across America.
4. People like people
Interaction and the opportunity to collaborate bring enhanced learning opportunities and a more cohesive student experience. At Dunwoody, our engineering students mix with architecture and design students, often working purposefully on joint projects and enhancing their learning experience through shared use of the environment around them. Structurally, that has meant designing mixed-use, flexible learning spaces that serve all students. Philosophically, we’re breaking down the silos too.
5. Double duty: From classroom to after-school special events
When colleges are gathering places for the greater community, everyone benefits. To that end, when redesigning a campus or a component of a college, it’s imperative to design spaces that encourage community interaction and engagement. Multi-function, open-event spaces that can bring students and faculty together with alumni or representatives of the local industries they’re training to enter should be a priority in the modern campus.
6. Build change readiness into your DNA
Whether you’re undergoing a complete campus redesign or doing due diligence research for future change, the key factor to planning, preparing for, and managing campus renovation or redesign is simple. It’s all about a comprehensively change-ready culture throughout the institution; an open readiness to explore new opportunities, to try and test out new ideas and technologies in the real world, and to learn from it as we go along. After all, isn’t that why we’re in higher education?
Richard Wagner is president of Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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