University Design

This paper explores some a novel approaches to harnessing the Internet-of-Things (IoT) as a teaching and research vehicle in education. For teaching we argue that the Internet-of-Things provides a highly motivating topic to capture students’ imaginations, and a perfect platform for teaching computer science. In addition, we explain the potential for entire campuses or buildings to be constructed from Internet-of-Things technologies and the potential for this infrastructure to act as a teaching platform. This proposition is perfectly captured by the axiom “The college building (or campus) is the lab”. This philosophy is part of a wider movement that started in the EU, called Living Labs. In achieving these aims, our work seeks to combine a number of concepts; first we utilise the Internetof- Things, second we incorporate Living Labs ideas, third we harness the iCampus vision, forth we use the ‘Smart Box’ concept and finally we implement the Pervasive-interactive-Programming (PiP) paradigm. We contend this approach can be used in various mixes to produce highly motivating and effective educational environments. We illustrate this work by describing the application of these ideas to a real-world venture, the Harlow UTC (in the UK). The main focus of this paper concerns the use of PiP, together with the Internet-of- Things, to teach elementary programming skills. In in support of this we present results of an evaluation of PiP with 18 participants (students and staff) of varied age and gender. The main conclusions of these evaluations were that PiP enabled students and staff, with diverse backgrounds, to quickly master the programming skills involved. The paper concludes by describing our future plans for this work.

With the marketization of UK higher education, this paper develops a framework from services marketing that can assist universities in understanding what market orientation means and how students would value their offerings. Our study shows that the core service in a university experience is a learning experience that is cocreated and that the value is emergent, unstructured, interactive, uncertain, with a hedonic dimension. Our paper modifies the gap model of service quality to show that an ideological gap exists that may also impede the quality of the university experience. We propose that a one-sided expectation by students leads to student consumerism and disengagement. Paradoxically, we show that a true student-orientated marketing puts the university ideology at the center of marketing efforts and that marketing may well be an effective tool to communicate such ideologies.

This thesis aims at studying the typology and design of a university campus in depth by also documenting personal learnings through the design of a new campus of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Delhi. This thesis is not only an individual attempt of leaning and understanding a new typology, but also to create a set of guidelines and an established direction for any reader, designing a university campus. The proposition of this thesis is explore and understand the architectural typology of a university campus by proposing a design for an upcoming campus of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University at Sector 3-Rohini, Delhi. The image of the university's architecture and building forms should convey long term stability while encouraging an atmosphere for creative thinking. The majority of campus buildings should work essentially as groupings or compositions rather than as individual buildings both functionally and aesthetically. The architectural style of new buildings may vary to reflect current technology and program accommodation. Any such innovations, however, must maintain a harmonious, aesthetic connection with existing campus structures. In undertaking the requisite planning and design tasks, several considerations are paramount to the guidance of the design concepts, including, a consistent use of the principles of design order, such as building orientation, scale, massing and proportion. There should be an appropriate response to the campus context through respect for the protection of views, setbacks-and development patterns described in the Master Plan. It should also accommodate a meaningful commitment to design strategies which embrace sustainability.

Rock art and the new Origins Centre Rock Art Gallery at the University of the Witwatersrand share a fundamental characteristic: intention. They are examples of artefacts that record what was meaningful to their makers at the time and guided the purposeful process of making. While there is no precise record of the intention guiding the ancient rock artists, this essay reveals the intention behind the new and unique gallery that is home to the largest rock art collection in the world by exploring the hidden meaning, thinking and events that led to its
creation. It traces Mashabane Rose and Associates’ design rationale within a much longer story of artistic expression and cultural documentation, thereby contextualising their new contribution to Johannesburg’s urban identity on the university’s public edge along Enoch Sontonga Avenue.

This essay shows the connection between past events and ideas, and present-day responses and uses the notion of connection as a tool to describe the historical narrative and the design. An aspect of the design that the gallery space incubates so well (and which this essay endeavours to transmit) is that it invites deeper thinking and further questioning: to try to creatively engage with diffcult questions about origins, identity and how we want to be in the world now, and in future.

Today’s society looks to universities for solutions to broad-based issues that require cross-disciplinary expertise. Yet, the organizational structure of our institutions remains locked in academic and administrative silos that have little genuine ability to communicate or to recognize the interdependence of knowledge. Why does the capacity to communicate between disciplines and units remain limited? How do formalizations of our experience create barriers? What kind of reflection would it take to subject our mental models of knowledge and learning to critical inquiry? This discussion highlights one of the most entrenched ‘group identity myths’ that underlie the structure of modern academic institutions, the ‘triviality of integration’ thesis.

Project name: Design of East-West University Campus, Jahurul Islam Avenue, Aftabnagar, Dhaka.  3D Design and Floor Plans.

Client: East-West University

Architectural Consultant: Bashirul Haq Associates
Chief Architect: Architect Bashirul Haq
Architectural Design Team: Architect Bashirul Haq
Architect Munna
Architect Ashiquer Rahman
Architect Subrata Sikder
Architect Rashed Bhuyan

Status: Built. Completed (2016).

"The paper examines the relationship between space and learning in university context. The research questions are focused on identifying and characterizing the spatial properties of the university learning settings, which support and facilitate the generation, sharing and acquisition of knowledge. These
interactions rely on a social and informational framework, which is expressed differently in every setting. It aims at identifying urban and architectural settings that host knowledge acquisition and or transmission. It will offer a tool to create or modify a setting that facilitates predetermined experiences and interactions. This
tool also enables the creation of an urban/architecture system, creating a new sense of continuous learning place. It scopes several thematics: scale, learning mode, actors, interaction, environmental characteristics and morphology; aiming at
a succinct and structured characterization of every type of space."

Project name: Design of UAP City-Campus, Indira Road, Dhaka.
Client: University of Asia Pacific (UAP) Foundation.
Architectural Consultant: UAP Design Team
Chief Architect: Professor Architect Shamsul Wares.
Architectural Design Team: Professor Architect Shamsul Wares,
Architect Rashed Bhuyan,
Architect Nawrose Fatemi,
Architect Muhtadin Iqbal.

Completion of Project: Completed (2017)

: Numerous studies were conducted with a cohort of university students to
determine how they may have been influenced by their physical environment and surroundings.
Waxman (2007) found that environmental design may strongly impact college students and their
attachment to the campus. In surveys, national samples of graduate students report that they
often felt little sense of community or connection to one another or to the larger university
(Golde & Dore, 2001). One means to amend this lack for in-campus students could be an
attractive third place to congregate. Such a new graduate student center specifically designed to
meet the interests and preferences of students at one of the southwestern university would
create an attachment to the campus as well as develop and enhance their sense of belonging.
Waxman, Clemons, Banning and McKelfresh (2007) found that socialization, interior
atmosphere and appropriate location are the most important characteristics that students would
consider when choosing a third space to gather. The place attachment theory is used as a
theoretical framework in this study.

YTÜ Foreign Language High School
A new campus project is being carried on in Davutpafla Settlement by Y›ld›z Technical University. This project is composed of the existing building’s restoration, construction of Engineering and Social Faculties buildings, construction of administrative buildings, academy buildings, student dormitories, personal housings, recreational and sport areas, and a techno-park construction. “Foreign Language High School” is one of the pioneer works which is considered and applied according to this project. The building is designed for approximately 2600 students and 166 academic stuffs and includes 144 classrooms, 18 audio visual rooms, lecturer rooms, administration unit, library, multi functional hall, self access rooms, cafeteria and service units. Although the entire project has 18,500 m2 area, for the first stage of construction 2/3 of the project is completed. Organization of spaces to have an important effect on education was considered as an important design criteria. From this point of view the main design criteria is the inner street conception which is affected the main building’s architectural form. The main architectural formation is considered as an inner street forms the entrance axis, education units faces to the street placed on the right sides, academic, administration and the other educational units (library, audio visual rooms, etc.) placed on the other side.

The Canary Islands (Spain) are located in the Atlantic Ocean
more than one thousand kilometres south of the Iberian
Peninsula off the northwest coast of Africa. Their recognition
as an Ultra-Peripheral Region by the European Union
attempts to alleviate some of the disadvantages with respect
to the mainland, such as their remoteness, insularity, external
economic dependency and other factors derived from their
colonial heritage. In contrast, they have long been considered
the Fortunate Islands due to the different kinds of endogenous
resources present, including being a world biodiversity hot
spot and having a mild spring-like climate throughout the year.
However, past and existing development models – which for the
last four decades – have been mainly based on massive sun and
sand tourism and construction activity to the detriment of other
crucial sectors that help promote the long term sustainability of
the islands. The obvious and differential fact that the islands are
a clearly limited, insular system has been ignored time and time
again.
To better understand the current implications for Design (Practice, Research and Education) and Local Development with Crafts and material culture in the Canary Islands, three major events in history should be briefly highlighted:
a) The former inhabitants, aborigines, were mainly shepherds
and farmers, living within a Neolithic culture when the Spanish
conquered the islands at the end of 15th century. They didn’t know about metals but were skilled weavers, tanners and potters.
b) Once having joined the Kingdom of Spain, farming and crafts
for subsistence were combined with a new economic model
based on single-crop cultivation for external trade (consecutively
sugar cane, wine, carmine from cochineal, tomatoes, bananas
were introduced). The Archipelago became a stopping off point
for adventurers, traders and merchants on their way to the ‘New
world’, which brought periods of wealth and prosperity to some
social sectors.

c) As a way of dealing with various farming crises,
therapy-oriented tourism emerged in the late 19th
century as a new opportunity for development. This has
evolved into a massive sun and sand tourism industry
since around the sixties of the 20th century until today,
where the service sector is the main economic driving
force making up 32% of the GDP and construction
nearly 20% of the GDP. The Canary Islands (2 millions
inhabitants) receive about 10 million tourists per year.
However, the current international economic crisis
situates the Canary Islands at the forefront of Spanish
unemployment rates (27% of the working population).
This is mainly due to, among other things, a lack of
diversification of the economy with a huge number
of unskilled jobs and made worse by an average
school dropout rate of around 37% (double that of the
European Union).