TOPIC: STUDENT HOUSING
CONTEXT: SUBURBAN AREAS undergoing urbanization and increases in density
PROBLEM:
There is lack of attention given to new student housing that contributes and promotes the creation of an urban identity in suburban college-towns undergoing growth by means of urbanization and an increase in density; growth usually directly related and attributable to the successes and growth of its primary industry, the flagship university. These large flagship institutions are unable to maintain the nostalgic pastoral image of the academic village, with its host population overgrowing its limited physical boundaries to spill out onto its host city. The host cities are left to deal with the mass of displaced students who seek affordable housing, and this task is left to private developers, whose only goal is profit. The large scale universities have little interest and subsequently little input into what constitutes social housing for undergraduates and graduates outside its campus in a city that is defined by its flagship institution; and these universities ignore its responsibility to promote responsible growth for its students, campus, and city.
PREMISE:
In a rapidly changing society where social norms and ways of living are quickly being turned over and discarded, it is often the young that quickly take on progressive ideas and models of living and social interaction. However, the institutions in which they are nurtured are often a step behind its readily eager and accepting constituents. Universities are in a unique situation in which they can become generators and facilitators of new models of urbanism and urban culture. The remarkable growth and accessibility of secondary education has left universities with new and unexploited power to influence the next generation of young adults with progressive and innovative ideas in academics, culture and society. Universities are in a powerful position to create new models of urban living by presiding carefully over the construction of its built environment, especially in regards to new models of housing to accommodate the mass of displaced students residing outside campus boundaries, in the city.
QUESTIONS:
How does an academic institution address the issue of student housing and the crafting of an identity outside the property lines of campus and instead onto its host city? How does this issue affect the concurrent growth and urban identity of the city?
Can the communal and social values inferred from new models of student living be applied to the general population? Can it be argued that these models of living will become the norm, and that these new models of urbanism executed at this scale will carry over to as students become the movers and shakers of society?
Can these student housing constructs be an archetypical model for adaptation in other similar contexts and situations?
archetype - the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based
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