ABSTRACT
The technology infrastructure of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century campus cannot keep step with the twenty-first-century learning climate, necessitating changes in approach to the physical environment. The paradigm of the scientist-genius, toiling for years in monastic isolation in pursuit of a breakthrough discovery, has little place in the twenty-first-century world of research universities. Notwithstanding the repeated references to tightened budgets, shrinking public spending and reduced endowments, one of the most high-profile phenomena of the twenty-first-century higher education landscape is large-scale, large-budget expansion projects. The decision to adopt an adaptive reuse methodology can be laden with ethical and practical complexities. Science precincts are common targets of revitalizing master plans. The metaphor of interaction finds its way into many of the afore-profiled trends, from interdisciplinary research and innovation buildings to joint ventures and urbanity. Starchitecture is, on occasion, dogged by accusations of large maintenance bills and structural flaws.
