Many university founders desired to create an ideal community that was a place apart, secluded from city distraction but still open to the larger community, enabling their students and faculty to devote unlimited time and attention for classical or divinity learning, personal growth, and free intellectual inquiry
many times towns developed around universities
Furthermore, increased technology use within today’s multitasking society is likely to hijack a student’s attentional resource placing her/him at risk of underachieving academic learning goals and undermining success at a university (
From personal experience, this is true. Very, very true.
Although university culture places demands on students’ cognitive abilities, campus natural open spaces have not been systematically examined for their potential in replenishing cognitive functioning for attentional fatigued students
My suspicion is that there really isn't one
The college experience is a stimulating and demanding time in a student’s life where a multitude of curricular and extra-curricular situations require frequent and heavy use of direct, focused attention and concentration
And extreme amounts of stress, many times to the point of getting in the way of learning
Learning is a lifelong and year-round pursuit
Truer words have never been said
the entire campus, including its open spaces, must be perceived as a holistic learning space that provides a holistic learning experience
With the modern university environment, I find this to be, for lack of a better word, rubbish
natural landscape of a university campus is an attentional learning resource for its students
While having a well landscaped campus is always a nice thing to have, I'm not sure I agree that it is essential to a good learning environment
enrollments are expected to rise
the real challenge will be expanding the educational program while maintaining quality of education
financial challenges
the expenses of books alone at universities is significant
American higher education institutions face unique twenty-first century changes and challenges in providing good, holistic learning spaces for the diverse and evolving needs of today’s college student
while adapting to new generations is always something that needs to happen, I'm personally not so sure the twenty-first century digital age is entirely conducive to learning
By including these features in a common interest community, a developer can deter unwanted potential residents—generally poor people and people of color—from buying homes in that development
An example that comes to mind is skate parks. I have never seen a skate park in an affluent area, and I feel this may be by design, although whether it is a result of differences of interests in the communities, or wanting to keep the skateboarders out of affluent areas I do not know
prioritize the flow of pedestrians and traffic through a physical space, with a focus on civil engineering, rather than prioritizing equal access to a physical space for all, with a focus on civil rights
While the general focus does seem to be on pedestrian traffic, there does seem to be a bias as to what communities are prioritized
Yet the bench may have been created this way to prevent people—often homeless people—from lying down and taking naps.
Buildings also sometimes install small spikes in the ground behind doors to prevent the homeless from sleeping there
We often experience our physical environment without giving its features much thought
I agree with this, people take many things like this for granted
Throughout history, people have used varied methods to exclude undesirable individuals from places where they were not wanted
A perfect example is the internment camps
If someone wanted to walk or bike to another area, then, it might have to be along the shoulder of a busy road or on the road itself.
Driving with bikers on a busy road is equally unpleasant for both the biker and driver
In the case of the cafeteria, the architectural constraint is that it is physically difficult to reach or see the junk food, and thus it is harder to access.
Similar techniques are advised in weight loss programs, such as moving something to another room to lessen the temptation and increase the required effort to obtain it
can be, and is, used to exclude
While I feel this can in certain scenarios be found true, the majority of the time modern architecture is not designed with such motives
However, a number of social scientists and planning scholars have argued
People have a tendency to over-analyze everything and find meaning where none was intended
ne-way street
I feel that one way streets are often the result of poor long term planning that results in too little space for a proper road
And cities were constructed in ways—including by erecting physical barriers—that made it very difficult for people from one side of town to access the other side
Reminds me of the Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany