THE OPENNESS OF CAMPUS ARCHITECTURE FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF SPATIAL CONNECTION CENTERED ON MULTIPURPOSE COMMON SPACE

Study on openness of university campus by buildings (3)

Abstract

 The purpose of this study is, focusing on the room arrangement centered on a common space used for multiple purposes (hereafter “multipurpose common space”) of buildings in a university campus (hereafter “campus architecture”), to reveal the openness of the campus architecture.

 First, the characteristics of the multipurpose common space were considered. To begin with, the intended uses were categorized into educational ones such as learning commons that had been developed in response to the diversification of learning styles in recent years and non-educational ones such as lounges on an extension of traffic lines like entrances and corridors. Then, the scales of multipurpose common spaces concerned with the <flexibility of spaces> were categorized according to the area and presence or absence of open ceiling. Then, the characteristics of multipurpose common spaces as traffic lines were categorized according to the presences or absences of the partitions in entrances and corridors and the passing traffic lines. Also, the connections between the multipurpose common spaces were organized from planar and cross-sectional perspectives.

 Secondly, rooms which lead to multipurpose common spaces were considered. They can be categorized into “common space for a specific use” such as library and hall, “space for education and study” such as classroom and laboratory, and “external space” such as terrace and piloti. Also, the permeability of boundaries in a room such as walls and glass surfaces concerned with <visualization of activities> was considered.

 Thirdly, the multipurpose common spaces and rooms which lead there considered above were grasped integrally, and the combinations were organized as “multipurpose common space continuums”. This indicates spatial characteristics concerned with the <induction of interactions>. They can be organized as the one which has a single multipurpose common space (pattern A), the “basic model” where the multipurpose common space is connected with another room or an external space (pattern B-1~E), and the “hierarchized model” where the multipurpose common spaces are connected with each other (pattern H~I-2).

 Fourthly, the composition of campus architecture with a multipurpose common space was considered. To begin with, as open elements facing the buildings in a university campus, squares, campus malls, and front gates were considered. Then, the ways multipurpose common spaces emerge on the elevation surface of a building were organized according to whether they are a part or a whole of the elevation surface. A composition of campus architecture was derived from the characteristics and the combinations of multipurpose common spaces and their continuums. They can be organized as the buildings which have the same kind of multipurpose common spaces and several “basic models”, the ones where a single “hierarchized model” emerges on the whole elevation surface and leads to a place like a square in the campus, and the composite ones which combined them.

 Fifthly, the characteristics of a campus with several buildings which have multipurpose common spaces were also considered.

 As mentioned above, the characteristics of the openness as a continuum of a multipurpose common space, a room inside a building, an external space like a terrace around the building, and a space like a square in a university campus were revealed.